Aliens: Between Heaven and Hell
by Karerease
Summary: Shawn McNeal a former technical mining engineer of the Belthor Gas, Mineral and Mining Company, turned courier and transport pilot unexpectedly finds himself thrown in the middle of a deadly situation between secrete corporate factions, mercenary forces and the deadly Xenomorph species. Warning: Human/Xenomorph M/M/F sexual situations.
1. Fire and Death

**Author's Note: This is the first fan-fiction story or any story for that matter that I have ever submitted, it has been close to 20+ years since I have written anything, so the story may be a bit rough towards the beginning. But I hope that you do enjoy my little take on the alien's universe.**

 **Disclaimer: I do NOT own aliens or any copy written material to do with aliens.**

You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you?

A perfect organism.

Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.

I admire its purity. A survivor…..unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusional of morality.

Ash: Science office, USCSS Nostromo.

xxxxx

The massive gas giant, Allterus 7, hung in the cold void of space, a massive maelstrom of reds, greens, and blues that blended and swirled together to create a beautiful if not violent collage of colors in the upper atmosphere. Storms raged across its surface, some for countless centuries, lighting danced and streaks across the surface illuminating massive spots in the storms, some bolts dwarfing small moons and planets.

While Allterus 7 was nothing unique as far as gas giants go, it had been chosen by the Belthor Gas, Mineral and Mining Company or BGMMC as most referred to it as, for their foray into the deeper and uncharted depths of space. The Allterus system had been a vital chance to secure the BGMMC's foothold into the new developing sectors of space as more and more expeditionary ships probed deeper and deeper into the uncharted depths to lift the veil of the unknown.

In the minds of the company execs, it was a golden chance to finally rise from the lower ranks and start to build up to be on par with the more predominate mining companies that held so much sway and power over the newer and poorer mining companies.

Darrius station had been the start to that rising ladder, the first rung, in what was supposed to be a very tall ladder of success and profit. Massive bulk mining ships would be sent out to the asteroid fields to locate the mineral rich rocks and bring them back to the station to be pulped down and the valuable minerals extracted. Equally large gas ships would skim just below the upper atmosphere collecting the raw gas from the giant planet, once the tanks were full the ships would return back to the station transfer the raw gasses to be separated, process and then stored for later use or sale.

All in all, it was, at least in the exec's minds, a very well run machine. The reality was an entirely different matter altogether. Darrius station had been cobbled together on what could amount to less than a shoestring budget, many of the stations primary and secondary subsystems had been bought either second hand or from surplus suppliers and had been either refurbished or retrofitted to fit the needs of the station. To the station managers and crew, it was nothing less than a total and complete nightmare to keep the station together and keep the quota of gas and ore running on time.

The BGMMC had issued payout contracts up to five times the normal rate to fill the workforce as quickly as possible, the demand had been met within record time however the work conditions were appalling as everyone had found out as soon as they had stepped onto the station. Injury and fatalities were almost commonplace from the start.

In less than a year after the station when online, the first slew of accidents and deaths started to plague the station. The worse was when an outer bulkhead failed due to metal fatigue, collapsing and depressurizing a section of the station, venting over three dozen personal into space, the bodies were never recovered.

In the ten years since the station went operational, the injuries and fatalities had skyrocketed to the point that the station reputation was that of a death machine, chewing up workers almost faster than could be replaced. The execs of BGMMC would, of course, downplay the incidents deeming them human error. Everyone on the station realized that sooner or later everything would go south, sadly most of them would never even see it happen when it did.

xxxxx

The station that orbited Allterus 7, as large as it was, did not even come across as a speck compared to the massive size of the gas giant as it slowly hovered around the planet. If anyone had even been able to zoom in on the station, they would not have even seen the three figures desperately making their way across a 3-kilometer long catwalk from one of the ore and gas processing towers to another.

One of the three men, Shawn McNeal was gripping the railing as tight as he could as he and the other two men slowly made their way across the massive space catwalk from ore processing tower two to tower three. Moving as fast as they possibly could. The only thing that he could hear was the sound of his laborious breathing inside the space suit and the low hum of the life support system that was recycling the air and water supply within.

The bulk of the space suits and the zero G made moving quickly more than a daunting task. The point man, a foreman at one of the main ore processing towers, who was given the nickname "slam", more for his after-hours antics and wrestling techniques then his management style had taken the lead and was making it his duty to get them to an escape shuttle as fast as possible.

That morning had started off well enough, it wasn't until a few hours into the first shift that the first warning signs happened. The station had its own personally, anyone that had worked there long enough knew the normal creaks, groans and usual noise that came from working in ore and gas refinery.

A massive rumbling followed by multiple explosions in the distance the first telltale signs that something had gone horribly wrong. No one had known how bad it was until the alarms started to blare and the order to evacuate the area had been given. The evacuation had been orderly for the first few minutes until the massive gas pipes that lined the area started to rupture venting out the deadly gas into the area. From there it degraded into total chaos with personal stampeding trying to get to a safe area.

Slam, Thomas, and Shawn had been working near one of the emergency airlocks performing normal maintenance work when all hell had started to break loose. Slam had a good enough head on his shoulders to keep calm when the gas started to erupt into the area he had rushed the three of them into the airlock and sealed it down and prepared for a very impromptu spacewalk. Neither one had any idea exactly how bad the situation was; though they knew the way the gas was pouring in outside the airlock that it was bad enough.

The coms were flooded with emergency calls and cries for help to the operations center. Opts had only replied that they were doing everything they could to get the crew in the affected areas to safety and that everyone needed to evacuate the area.

Once outside they started their ascent up the refinery tower hoping to get to one of the upper airlocks or one of the catwalks that connected to the towers. It wasn't until a massive explosion happened several dozen levels below them that all three of them realized just how dire it was. The mined and refined gas had caught fire and was spreading throughout the station, and worse of all it was a heavy chemical fire that even the vacuum of space would have a difficult time extinguishing.

As best as they could they were able to make their way to one of the long catwalks that lead from their current tower to one of the neighboring towers. Once on the catwalk Shawn turned to look back down at the tower, he felt a pit form in his stomach. Fire plumes were starting to erupt, spewing the liquid chemical fire out into space. Tower two was burning from the inside out as well as was everyone inside the massive metal structure.

"Shawn!" Slam yelled, "We have to fucking go, right now!"

"They're all burning." Shawn stammered, still not sure if what he was seeing was even real or not. He was hoping that it was all a bad dream that he would soon wake up from.

"And there's nothing we can do to help them." Slam replied, "This tower is going to go up, and we need to get the hell out of here, there are shuttles on tower three that we can use to get away from here. This station is about to go up in a fireball and if we don't move our asses we'll go right along with it. Now will you please fucking move."

Shawn mentally shook himself back reality, trying to get a grip on the situation that they were in. It wasn't a matter of if the tower would go up it was a matter of when, and once that happened, the station would be ripped apart by the massive explosion.

The three of them had made it across two kilometers of the catwalk before a wide area message squawked through the coms units on their suits.

"This is Darrius station to all personal, proceed to evacuate immediately, I repeat evacuate immediately. All hands get to the escape shuttles and pods. Any available ships in the vicinity, this is a general mayday, request immediate rescue and retrieval, I repeat this is a general mayday, we request immediate rescue and retrieval. We have massive fires spreading throughout the station, unable to contain, situation catastrophic, I repeat situation catas…" The voice was cut off only to be replaced with static.

Shawn saw a brilliant flash or red from the right of his view, turning his head to look just as a fire plume erupted from the center part of the station where the operations center had been. A few moments later, the mid and upper portion of tower two blew out sending a massive explosion of multi-colored fire and debris into space, sections of the station tumbled, still on fire, spinning out into the void.

Shawn stared at it for a few moments, his eyes darting back and forth from the burning tower to the debris, the most frightening thing about the whole experience, was the dead silence. The one thing that frightened him out about space was the absolute total and complete silence, no matter how chaotic or destructive something was going on in space, it was always silent.

The station started to buckle and twist from the sudden and violent explosion, the catwalk that the 3 men were on, also started to bend, twist and deform as the towers became misaligned. It looked as if the third tower was starting to list to the left.

"Primary stables offline, engaging auxiliary stabilizers" A monotone computer voice came in over the headsets."

"BRACE FOR SHOCK WAVE!" Slam screamed, wrapping his arms around the handrail, the other men followed suit holding on as tight as they could.

Shawn took in a deep breath not even realizing he was holding it until the shockwave hit. He had experienced what were very minor shockwaves in space; normally they would felt like a rough shove that went through one's whole body. This was more like someone had taken a very large section of bulkhead and hit him with it. He grunted, exhaling as the wave hit and passed through him forcing his body into the railing. It felt like his whole body had been turned into mush for that brief moment. Coughing and tasting blood in the back of his throat, he prayed that there were no internal injuries even as a cold chill took his whole body.

As the catwalk shifted with the wave and he could feel something colliding with it from behind violently jolting it. Looking back behind him, Shawn saw that a large section of the catwalk was gone, ripped away by a section of debris; Thomas's lower half was floating just above the mangled walkway. Glancing up, Shawn saw the rest of Thomas's torso slowly floating away, the man's lifeless face and eyes frozen in a mix of agony and terror.

"Oh fuck." Shawn gasped, turning toward Slam, "Thomas is gone."

Slam turned around, looking at the two halves of his former coworker and friend, slowly drifting off in different directions. Slam just stared for a few seconds before turning around. "We've got less than a kilometer left to go, we need to more right now, do not stop for anything. Once we get to the shuttles we make our way to one of the ore or gas ships for pickup."

Both men had only taken a few hundred steps before another a bright flash illuminated the area below them. Looking down, the stark realization came across them both; the large gas mains that ran between the towers were starting to rupture, igniting and burning, thin jets of fire were appearing all over the heavy set pipes as sections started to melt. It would only be mere moments before the mains went up like a roman candle.

"RUN!" Shawn yelled. Both men started to move as fast as they could, even in the zero-G environment, the bulk of the space suits made it difficult to move very fast. At best they could push off and glide using the catwalk as a safety guide to make sure they didn't go and tumble helplessly into space.

Seconds later all hell was let loose, the mains started to expand, then blowing out, section after section erupting like a massive firecracker string, bright flames, and debris was hurled out as the mains could no longer contain the pressure released its contents in a beautiful but deadly and violent chain reaction.

A large section of the main ripped into the catwalk in front of Shawn just missing him by only a few feet, staggering back a few feet, all he could see was a wall of burning, gray metal as it passed. Slam was nowhere to be seen.

"SLAM, DO YOU COPY!?" Shawn screamed into his headset. "SLAM RESPOND NOW!"

The only thing that he could hear was muffled gasps and groans which were replaced with silence shortly after.

"SLAM!" Shawn watched as the section of pipe tumbled out into space, growing smaller and smaller with each passing second. A cold pit formed in his stomach sending a chill down his spine, the stark realization that he was probably going to die in this god awful place hit him with full force.

At first, it didn't even register as he was violently jolted from the catwalk by a large piece of the exploding main. As he tumbled out into the cold deep, the view rotated at first the burning station, the black of space than the massive gas giant then back to the station which grew smaller and smaller with each rotation.

 **Please read and review, comments and constructive criticism are welcomed, all I ask is that you keep it polite and respectful.**


	2. First Contact

**The story may be a bit slow and drawn out at first, trying to work on character development and back story.**

xxxxx

Shawn jerked awake, his body reactively flinging itself forward, the chair's harness kept him from going forward no more than a couple of feet before the straps locked in, holding him in place. His pupils were partly dilated and his breathing was coming in short raspy gasps, for a few seconds, all he could see was the burning station and gas giant rotating in and out of his field of view.

His vision was starting to clear; slowly he came back to his senses as to where he was, safely aboard his own ship, sitting safely in the cockpit of the Ember-Rose. Slowly leaning forward as far as he could, he wrapped his arms around his chest and slowly started to try and take long and deeply measured breaths. It was one of the few methods that he had found that helped with the hyperventilating and anxiety attacks that usually came after one of his nightmares that had been plaguing him after Darrius station went up in flames and left him floating in space; wondering if he was going to die like so many others had that day. Although death never did come, but it had been very close.

After several minutes he was able to get his breathing back under control as he leaned back into the pilot seat. "Fuck me." He murmured rubbing the sides of his shoulders trying to ease the ache that was starting to set in from the tension and stress of the all too often recurring nightmares. It had been well over four years since Darrius station had been destroyed and while the nightmares or in many cases night terrors had eased off, it was something that still haunted him on a regular basis.

He had been only one of a handful of survivors of that disaster, something that had always bothered him. "Survivor's guilt" the councilors had told him, the guilt of being the solo or in this case one of the few members that had survived the disaster. A big part of him had wondered how and why he had survived, while two of his co-workers and friends had died right in front of him, yet he somehow had managed to live. The looks that he and the other survivors had gotten from some of the victims' families made him wish that to some extent, that he hadn't a small part of him wondered if it would have been better if none of them had survived, at least with that, the guilt and terror of the incident wouldn't be in play.

About the only good thing that had come from the Darrius disaster, and it was a very thin silver lining at best, was that BGMMC had settled with the survivors and doled out a huge settlement, even though each survivor has a massive payout more than any of them would ever make in their lifetime, it hadn't been enough to help ease the pain. Many of them, himself include agreed that no amount of credits or professional counseling could ever fix or ease the pain of what had happened to them.

Many of the families of the deceased were still pressing charges against BGMMC, in hopes that the responsible parties would be held accountable. What should had been a simple open and shut case of corporate greed gone rampant at the cost of thousands of lives, had turned into a legal quagmire and the families of the deceased were, as usual, getting the raw end of the deal. He had a gut feeling that the heads of BGMMC would meet their end in a bad way. There were way too many pissed off families and far too many death threats had been thrown at the BGMMC execs for something not to go down and soon.

He personally hoped that the execs would either get vented into space to spend their last few agonizing moments gasping for air that wasn't there regretting their actions or maybe to literally get burned at the steak. One could hope at least.

Trying to push those thoughts out of his mind he needed to concentrate on the more pressing matters at hand, namely, his ship. His eyes drifted across the main console, the Christmas tree, as he affectingly called it now, as most of the lights were continually on, flashing warnings across the board, as it had been for over three weeks now.

This small ship, his ship, a long range fast courier ship that he had bought and fixed up with part of the settlement he had received, had been his home for about two and a half years. His work, for the most part, was getting contracts for either hauling high priority freight, small cargo, secure messages that were too sensitive to broadcast or even personal that needed to be transported somewhere fast. When it came to personal he had a small room that had eight hyper-sleep pods, though he had never used all of them at once, the most he had ever transported at once was a family of six to a midrange system, a run that only had taken a little over a month.

The ship consisted of the bridge, a small medical room, a commons area, crew quarters, his own private bedroom which had its own hypersleep pod, restroom area, and the main engineering section. The ship could easily accommodate up to four personal, he had thought about hiring on one or two people to help out, but for the most part he liked the solitude, it gave him time to think and work out his personal demons, maybe after he made some sort of peace with himself he would hire a crew member or two, but as of now, he preferred to be on his own and not burden anyone else with his personal baggage.

Unfortunately now he was on his own, his ship had been drifting helplessly in space, it had been week three going on week four by his count since that meteorite has collided with the aft section of his ship and had destroyed the primary port side engine, heavy damaging the starboard side engine. The secondary engines were wrecked as well, only the docking and maneuvering thrusters were intact and working.

The aft section of the ship had been opened to space and although the emergency pressure doors had dropped and sealed off the affected sections, almost half the ship was now inaccessible, including the area that held the space suits and repair kits, another case of shit luck kicking in for him.

Reaching out he pressed several buttons on the console killing the warning lights and the cockpit dimmed down, for some odd reason he found that the warning lights helped him drift off to sleep; maybe it was the repetitive flashing that lured him to sleep. He would usually turn them back on when it was time to get some shuteye. Something to remind him that he was still alive, at least for now and that with a bit of luck there was always tomorrow and hopefully the day after that and so on.

His personal room, even though it had been unaffected, had gone unused since the ship was damaged. He hadn't been able to sleep there; mostly it was due to the fear of the bulkheads failing and then being vented out into space. So, for the time being, he had made it a point to strap into the pilot's chair and sleep there.

Unstrapping the harness he leaned forward and flipped several switches on the coms panel of the console, a display panel flashed to life showing the readout of the coms array, as well as the status of one of the emergency beacons that he had launched to help extend the range of his distress signal. So far the short and mid-range coms array and beacon were still functioning normally and in the green. The long range coms array was heavily damaged and was spotty at best.

He had been sending distress messages almost daily, the rest of the time the emergency beacon would ping a distress call that would repeat every few minutes. Grabbing a headset that was laying off to the side of the console, he taped the side of the headset, placed it on his head and spoke into the mic.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the courier ship Ember-Rose. My ship has been struck by a meteorite, engines are nonfunctional, I am currently adrift, request help, I repeat this is a general mayday, this is courier ship Ember-Rose, I am currently adrift, requesting immediate help." Shawn paused for a few minutes, before speaking into the headset again. "Is there anyone out there at all, anyone at all?" After a few sullen moments, his finger tapped off the receiver to the mic, leaning back into the chair he waited a few minutes to see if there might be a response. "Yea, I didn't think so." He muttered to himself.

It had been more than bad luck that he found himself in some of the secondary shipping lanes from a returning courier run, lanes that were now rarely used anymore, mostly one or two ships might use them every few years, and those that did were usually going to the outer rim areas. The only other ships that might use them were smugglers, pirates, and slavers, and none of those presented a very good prospect at a safe rescue, and to top that off any weapons that he might have had to fend off a boarding party were probably floating in space now or in the section of the ship that was sealed off.

Getting up he walked to the back area to where the commons area was at, he needed some coffee badly now and something to eat.

xxxxx

Unbeknownst to the stranded pilot, his distress signal had not gone unheard, off in the distance, a sleek and deadly looking streamlined silhouette adjusted its course, the maneuvering thrusters firing off in small rapid successions until the course had been adjusted to intercept.

If anyone had been close by to look at it, they would have been hard pressed to see anything, the ship blended into the blackness of space so well that only the silhouette when it blotting out the stars were the only indicator that anything was there.

Closing in on the damaged courier ship, several of the maneuvering jets from the forward part of the ship fired causing it to slowly decelerate.

xxxxx

Sitting at a small table in the commons area, Shawn slowly sipped on a cup of coffee with a plate of bland and for the most part, tasteless food from one of the MREs that he had on board, steamed in front of him. Music piped through the ship's speaker systems filled the area, mostly from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The artist that created them now long since passed away, their songs were still being listened to, even these many centuries later.

Looking down at a datapad, he was going through the stock of supplies that were currently on board. Thankfully he had four to five months' worth of MREs, water, and dry rations, if he carefully rationing everything he could stretch it out for up to six months by his count, maybe seven if he wanted to half starve himself. Something he was really hoping that he wouldn't have to do.

Worst case scenario would be that he would have to fire the maneuvering jets until he hit max velocity with them, which would be a whopping few thousand KPH. Hell, with the vastness of space he might as well as be standing still at that speed he figured, then get the ship directly into the secondary trade lanes, bring the ship's power down to a minimum, keep the distress beacon going and just wait in hypersleep to see if anyone came to his rescue.

It really wasn't a gamble that he wanted to take, but every day was a day that he was drawing closer and closer to having to take that risk. He was just hoping that if he did have to go into hyper-sleep, that if or when someone did pick him up it would be a friendly ship, needless to say, pirates, smugglers and slavers were NOT in that particular category.

Setting down the data pad, he finished up the MRE and continued to nurse the coffee. Putting the cup down, he cupped his head in his hands and let out a soft moan, the situation was more than a little aggravating when it came down to the truth of the matter it terrified him to the core and each day seemed to push him further and further along to desperation.

At least he had a very large collection of music and vids to use as a distraction to help calm him down and take his mind off of the current situation. A low repetitive beeping sound, something that he had barely heard over the music now caught his attention, turning he could tell that it was coming from the cockpit. Tilting his head slightly, he listened to it for a few a moments, it hadn't been there before and it didn't sound like the normal warning indicators that he had come to know so well.

Getting up he walked back to the cockpit and looked down at the panel. A green glow from one of the display readouts that hadn't been on before was flashing a message.

 **Remote Handshake Please Confirm.**

Shawn slowly looked up and out of the window, there were no stars as there had been a short time ago, all there was in front of him was a black wall of metal. His heart nearly leaped into his throat, at the very least is had skipped a beat or two.

 **Remote Handshake Please Confirm.**

The message continued to repeat itself. Looking down at the console, he noticed something on the sensor array display, the display was clear of any readings. Nothing was on it at all, a ship this close should have been showing up as a massive blip on the sensor grid, but nothing was there, nothing at all.

A sense of unease started to creep through him there something about the ship was giving him pause and starting to make him uncomfortable. It wasn't necessarily the fact that the ship wasn't showing up on his sensors, the USCM had been using stealth ships for some time now, though nothing on a scale as massive as what he was seeing, fighters, bombers drop ships and small specialized frigate sized vessels, or at least as far as public record went with it.

Using the maneuvering thrusters, he backed the shuttle up and reoriented to try and get a better look at the massive ship. It was smaller than one the USCM prized battleships or carriers, he had seen those and they were small cities unto themselves. His guess was that it was more attune to a heavy cruiser of some sort, though the design he had never seen, and from he saw it was loaded to bear with weapons, he could see a several pairs of massive particle cannon turrets on both the dorsal and ventral section of the ships, as well as numerous rail guns; energy pulse cannons and heavy beam lasers turrets ran along the starboard and no doubt the port section of the ship also. There were also what looked like missile tubes and turrets scattered along the hull of the ship. And while it wasn't a battleship, it looked like it could give one a serious fight and have a chance of either inflicting some hefty damage or even winning.

Shawn closed his eyes for a few moments, pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, mulling over whatever few options he had.

One: He could stay adrift in space and hope that someone picked him up.

Two: Go into hyper-sleep and hope for the same as the first option which was to wait and get picked up.

Or finally.

Three: Take a chance and see what would pan out with this new and deadly arrival.

 **Remote Handshake Please Confirm _._**

 ****The message still continued to flash on the display conceal, he was starting to find it more than odd that no one had made direct contact over the coms yet. It was always possible that the crew was in hyper-sleep and that the ship was completely on automated mode, possibly some androids assisting with the basic maintenance and maintaining the ship systems.

"Fuck it." He sighed, cupping his hands over his face for a second before confirming the remote handshake request, at this point, he figured that almost anything would be better than floating helplessly out in space…again, almost.

" **Confirmed, Remote Handshake Accepted. Please Stand By For Autopilot Guidance To Ventral Docking Umbilical**." A monotone computer voice piped up over the coms.

Shawn grabbed onto one of the chairs to keep from falling over as the ship suddenly lurched and rocked as the maneuvering and guidance thrusters fired on their own. Within a few minutes, the Ember-Rose had aligned itself underneath the massive ship and slowly moved up until making contact. From inside Shawn could feel the ship shake to a halt and hear the echo from inside of the cabin as the metal clamps secured the ship into place.

 **"Initiating Pressurization, Please Stand By."** The same monotone computer voice announced over the coms. Within a minute the same voice piped up again. " **Pressurization complete, access granted.** " A heavy metal clicking sound could be heard where the upper hatch was positioned at.

Making his way back, Shawn punched in the release code for the ship's hatch and pulled a handle, the heavy metal pressure lid slowly released sliding down on the hydraulic arm letting out a slow mechanical hissing sound.

Climbing up the ladder, moments later he found himself inside a large airlock. Walking up the to the pressure door, he hit a large green activation button that was just right to it, a short siren blared in the room and the door opened up with a slight hiss.

Looking around he found himself inside a large thirty or so foot tall, what looked like to him, storage area, possibly a transfer area for supplies coming and going from ship to ship during supply runs and cargo transfers. Only a few runner lights around the base of the room and a couple up top on the center area of the ceiling gave off any illumination giving the area a very gloomy atmosphere.

Staying next to the door of the air lock, Shawn sat down and waited for someone to show up so he could both thank them and or see what he had just gotten himself into. For a second he thought he could hear something scraping against metal in the distance.

xxxxx

Slowly black shapes moved like living liquid and smoke in the shadows, keeping away from the lights unless their presence be known to their new guest. Observing him only to see what his next move would be, which would determine their next course of action; for the moment they had time and patience on their side and for now, they would wait, observe and then act.

If the human that had just come on board proved to be friendly and not hostile then they would reveal themselves to him and make contact and perhaps they could help one another. But until then they would wait, observe and then act when the time was proper.

xxxxx

Over two hours had passed since the Ember-Rose had been docked, over two hours since Shawn had entered the ship…..and nothing. No one had come down to talk or investigate, not even a maintenance or medical android had been sent.

He had either been sitting or pacing the whole time, one thing that he couldn't get rid of was the consent feeling of being watched, it had been there almost as soon as he had stepped out of the airlock. A few times he could have sworn that he saw something moving in the room, just around the ceiling area where the lights were dimmest, around the pipes and exhaust vents that connected with the walls and ceiling, just a small twitch or jerk of something and then it was gone, or the small sound of scraping metal. At this point, the back hairs on his neck were damn near standing on end and his nerves were getting shot. Nothing about this vessel seemed quite right from the start and now he was starting to wonder if he wouldn't be better off taking his chances on board his own ship.

Trying to shake off the nervous feeling, he figured it was time to find someone, maybe at the very least he could find the crew in hyper-sleep, at least then he would know that someone was on board, even if they were in cold sleep. Slowly he started walking down the hall, constantly glancing about trying to see if there was anything odd, or at least odder than what it already was.

The corridors were a dark gunmetal gray color composed mostly of four-foot by four-foot Plexi-steel panels bolted into the inner frame. Small vents along the base of the corridors and along the ceiling every twenty-five feet or so, large vent covers which had heavy grating plates installed cropped up along the ceiling every fifty to seventy-five feet.

Heavy gauge pipes ran along the ceiling along with conduits running alongside, set along the hallway, dimly lit baseboard running lights as well as a few small overhead lights that were nestled next to the pipes, illuminating the area, but only by a little, giving the whole area an overall closed in and claustrophobic feel to it.

Walking down the hallway, Shawn would come across doors, mostly were locked and inaccessible, the few that were unlocked were storage rooms or small crew rooms that didn't look like they had been used in a long time.

He thought that maybe the ships CIC or bridge area would be the best place to start, if anyone was awake or if there was a functioning android the best chances to find them would be there. Medical and engineering would be another possible choice.

After walking around and exploring for about an hour; coming across more of the same, Shawn finally came across an open and functioning legend directory panel; several minutes of searching gave him the info he needed as to where the Bridge or CIC were located.

"Alright, there you are, CIC, level 3, the center part of the ship." He muttered to himself. His scrolled slowly finding the location of a nearby elevator which was just down the hall about twenty or so meters. Off in the distance, the sound of something scraping against metal came from down the hall, along with a low hissing sound that followed immediately after.

Shawn's heart started to pound in his chest; slowly he turned his head toward the direction of the sound; for just a few seconds he thought he could see something in the distance of the dimly lit hallway off in the shadows standing there, something very tall almost human-like, a moment later it seemed to fade into the shadows and was gone.

Not moving a muscle, he continued to stare at the area waiting to see if anything moved, after several minutes of nothing happening he finally took several deep breaths slowly exhaling, trying and calm his nerves, he had hoped that it was just his mind and nerves playing tricks on him and nothing more. _There's nothing there Shawn, just a trick of the light, that's all, just keep telling yourself that…bullshit._

However a tiny voice in the back of his mind was telling him something very different, that there was something on board this ship and it wasn't the crew and that he should just get back to his own damn ship; take his chances in the Ember-Rose, roll the dice and see what happens.

At the moment, as far as he was concerned, neither option was looking very promising. Turning around he started to make his way toward the elevator. _CIC it is you stupid shit_ , he mentally berated himself, picking up his pace and continued down the dimly lit hallway. _Just don't complain when something jumps out of the dark and tries to kill you. Nice big creepy ship out in the fucking middle of nowhere doesn't even show up on sensors and you have to go and accept an invite and just walk right on board and go wandering around. Probably some long dead crew of the damned having their fun with you before they rip you apart and snatch your soul away for all eternity, yea real nice going there Shawn...fuck._

Coming to the elevator, he hit the call button, slightly harder than he had attended to. After several seconds the mechanic sound of the cab could be heard as it came down. He had a sudden vision of the elevator being half full of decomposed bodies or some horrible creature from the depths of hell leaping out to grab him, rip him apart and start eating on his flesh. As the cab stopped, the doors opened up; much to his relieve the elevator was empty, no rotting bodies or horrible monster waiting to jump on him and consume his flesh.

Getting in the elevator cab, he hit the button for the third level, the elevator quickly shot up, and within thirty seconds the cab stopped and the doors opened up. Stepping out of the cab, he found himself in a very similar hallway as to the one that he had just come from. The low-level lighting and the same gunmetal gray walls, pipes and heavy conduits ran down the length of the ceiling. Taking a right he continued down the hallway, half expecting to hear that odd metal scraping sound that he had heard below, but nothing ever came.

A short time later Shawn found himself standing in front of a pair of heavy looking reinforced double doors; just right above it was a plain metal black sign with white lettering that read, "CIC, Combat Information Center". He had half expected the doors to be locked like so many of the ones that were on the lower deck that he had come from, he stopped in front of the massive heavy doors and was surprised when the two heavy doors slowly slid open.

Walking in he was greeted by a rectangular shaped small house-sized room with a ceiling that was, by his guess, close to fifteen feet high lined with pipes and conduits that ran the full length of the room and jutted out of the upper walls into other areas.

Computer terminals lined the outer wall on heavy metal rises with 8 or 9 steps leading up the platform. Several stations stood in the middle of the room, with a large round flat top terminal off to the right. Viewing screens lined out walls, with several massive screens back to back jutted down from the ceiling, a couple just behind the circular flat top terminal.

One of the stations stood out along the back area, an L-shaped terminal that was on a small riser just about 6 inches, a large heavy set chair with half a dozen smaller monitors surrounding it, quite possibly the Captain's station.

All throughout the room, small floor, and wall lights gently illuminated the area in a soft glow as well as several open computer terminals. While it wasn't quite as unnerving as the lower hallway that he had just come from, there was still something very off about the whole thing. Shawn swore that he could feel something in the room with him, watching, he hoped that it was just his nerves and imagination acting up. He still wasn't sure about what the hell if anything he had seen in the hallway on the lower deck, he was really hoping that it had been a trick of the light and shadow, however that small voice in the back of his mind kept nagging at him that it wasn't and there was something on board and it was not the crew.

Shawn hadn't expected the doors to what was pretty much the nerve center of the ship to be unlocked, nor did he expect any of the terminals to be open and running and several were just that, the screens lit up illuminating the surrounding area. The CIC was like the rest of the ship, devoid of life, not even an android was around to help run things and perform maintenance and upkeep.

"Right, this is not any less creepy." He muttered to himself, walking toward one of the lit up terminals, not even noticing the glistening black form just nestled in the pipes right above him a few feet as he walked by.

It had however noticed him

Walking up the steps to the nearest open computer terminal, Shawn was surprised by the physical layout of the system, he had expected some sort of ultra-high tech setup, what he found instead wasn't too dissimilar from the layout of his own ship's console. Several touch screen monitors were embedded in the terminal; a couple of keyboards and clusters of buttons, switches and knobs adorned the panels.

The designers seemed to have been more interested in functionally and durability than the latest and greatest high-tech systems. Most of what he could see would be very easy to fix or replace if a terminal went out or was damaged.

"Alright my dear, let's see what we can find out from you." He said, his fingers scrolling across the screen bringing up several directory menus.

xxxxx

The black form slowly started to dislocate itself from the pipes and conduits, in a slow fluid motion, stretching an arm out as it started to come down, making contact with the floor, its long clawed fingers spread out stabilizing itself as the rest of its body gracefully twisted some as it descended. A very long segmented tail still remained coiled around the pipe; one of the legs outstretched silently coming down touching the floor; a few second later the other one. Finally, its tail slowly uncoiling from the pipe and dropping down but never touching the floor as so not to alert the new arrival of its presence.

Leisurely rising up; with an impossible silence for its size, slowly, with measured steps, walked up the rise of steps toward the unsuspecting visitor.

xxxxx

" **ACTIVATING VOICE COMMAND, PLEASE STATE INQUIRY."** The monotone computer piped up, Shawn had been fortunate enough to come across the voice activation command and figured it would make it easier to navigate the system and get some answers.

"Okay, let's see here, computer, state ship name, class and registry number," Shawn muttered quietly.

" **SHIP NAME: SARATOGA, CLASS: **EXPERIMENTAL** COMBAT SCIENCE SHIP, **REGISTRY** NUMBER: EXCS-001**." The monotone computer voice said from the console.

"Well, this will make things a bit easier." Placing his hands on either side of the screen, he leaned over the console. "State purpose or mission directives for this vessel."

" **MISSION PARAMETERS ARE AS FOLLOWING,** **RETRIEVAL, COLLECTION, AND STUDY OF UNKNOWN ALIEN LIFE FORMS FROM OUTER-RIM AND UNKNOWN SECTORS; ASSIST THREAT LEVELS OF UNKNOWN LIFE FORMS, IF VIABLE FOR STUDY **RETURN** SPECIMENS TO BASE FOR FURTHER STUDY.** "

"Lovely, this just keeps getting better and better, tell me you boys didn't find something you weren't supposed to. What is the assigned crew complements for this vessel?"

" **CURRENT CREW ASSIGNED TO VESSEL IS TWO **HUNDRED, SIXTY** FIVE.**"

"How many of the crew are currently awake and active on this vessel?"

" **NONE.** "

"How many crew members are currently in hypersleep?" The hairs on Shawn's neck started to rise; a feeling of dread was starting to wash right over him and form in the pit of his stomach. He could almost swear that something was looking right at him.

 **"NONE."**

"Are there any crew on board?" He quickly regretted asking that question as soon as the words came out of his mouth, his gut telling him he already knew the answer.

" **NEGATIVE.** "

"Right…to hell with this, I'll take my chances with my own damn ship, should never have come aboard." He said pushing himself away from the console, turning around, he found himself staring right into a glistening, black, eyeless dome.

 _ **Please feel free to review and comment, and thank you for reading.**_


	3. Trust

At first, Shawn's mind couldn't really comprehend just what he was looking at, everything for a few seconds just seemed to seize up in his head and stop working. It wasn't until the black, shining dome tilted slightly that his mind broke out of its shock and the realization, unfortunately, hit home with full fury. He was looking right at an alien.

Reactively he started to back up, but only made it a couple of feet before the back of his legs hit the edge of the terminal he had been using just moments ago preventing him from going back any further. At first, the creature didn't move at all, it just stood there, looking right at him, its massive head slowly tilting side to side. Shawn could almost swear that it was looking right through him and right into his soul.

His eyes darted over the alien's body trying to make out its features, the long domed head was black with slight gradations and seemed to be slightly translucent, he could almost see what looked like a humanism skull with empty eye sockets just underneath. Thin semi-translucent lips covered what looked to be sharp and deadly looking steel teeth. The dome was smooth for up about a third of the way, then began to give away to a rough bony texture with what looked like a slightly ridged crest starting to come out at the sides and end at the back. Semi-transparent ligaments and muscles connected the lower jaw to the head.

A heavy and thick looking rib cage covered the massive torso, giving a large barrel-chested look to it. What looked like four curved tubes jutted out from the back, slightly spreading out to the sides some. A thin waist came down and joined with predominately looking hips, joined by long powerfully looking digitigrade legs.

The arms, somewhat longer than what should have normally been hung slightly outstretched at its side, its hands, palms facing back, slightly spread out from its body, it had two thumbs, one on either side and two pair of what looked like fused fingers with wickedly long claws that looked like they could easily eviscerate a man or anything else with relative ease.

A very long boney segmented tail jutted out with a wickedly curved looking blade at the end that looked to be damn near two feet in length. Even hunched over slightly, he could bet that the creature was close if not topping at around nine feet tall. And the tail, by his guess, was just at long if not longer.

Overall it looked like some nightmarish being that an artist had dredged up from the darkest pit of hell itself and given both form and function. He probably would have been in total awe of it, if in fact, it wasn't standing just a few feet away, looking right at him.

The alien took a step forward, easily closing its distance to him; its face only now mere inches from Shawn's own. The elongated and crested head slightly tilting side to side and then up and down as it almost seemed to be examining him; semi-transient lips would pull back some, exposing the deadly looking teeth and then close. Soft hissing sounds emitted from the creature as it kept looking him over, its warm breath washing over Shawn's face and neck.

All Shawn could do is stand there, transfixed on the eyeless horror, waiting for the alien to do whatever it was going to do to him. His body was trembling so hard from the raw terror; his heart was beating so fast, that he felt like he was going to pass out. Part of him was, in fact, wishing that he would pass out, at least then he wouldn't feel what was going to happen.

The lips of the alien peeled back slowly all the way; the jaw just as slowly opened up, revealing another smaller set of wicked looking teeth inside the mouth. A squarest shaped, pasty white, tubed shaped tongue with the deadly teeth attached slowly came out. Thick saliva coated and hung off of the perverted appendage as it came with just a fraction of an inch of Shawn's face and then stopped. The teeth opened up and then gently closed a few moments later retracting back inside, the jaws and lips closing.

Absolute shock and fear had him in its full grip now, so much so that he never even noticed the doors to the CIC slide open as two more of the creatures entered, nor did he notice one of them approach as the other one that had come in with its companion stood off a few meters to the side of the doors.

" **NO HARM."** A monotone computer voice spoke up seemingly from nowhere. Shawn barely registered the voice as he was still in a state of complete and absolute shock as the massive alien was still looming; looking him over.

The alien turned its head toward its approaching counterpart; gave a slight low hiss and nod, then looked back at Shawn; slowly it started to back up several steps, its head lowering slightly.

" **NO HARM."** The monotone computer voice repeated again.

Shawn turned to look toward where the voice was coming from and found himself looking at another alien, this one was slightly smaller but only by a foot or so, it's domed head was completely smooth, unlike the one that was standing off to the side just a few meters away. Its body seemed to be slightly thinner; it didn't have the large barreled chest that the other one did, the coloring was slightly different too, even in the dim light, there seemed to be slight splotches of brown mixed in with the blacks on the creature's dome. Other than the slight differences, its features were almost exactly the same as the other alien.

The new alien was about seven or eight feet away from where Shawn was standing, even at that distance, it still had a very imposing and terrifying presence. Lowering its head until it looked like it was staring right at the ground; it then slowly lowered itself until it was almost squatting, the long tail coiling around its feet. Its right arm reached out, holding a rectangle object in its hand.

Its thumb moved around on the object it was holding. The same monotone computer voice piped up again. " **NO HARM."**

The realization did on some small level; even though the shock and fear that his mind was swimming in, that it was holding a datapad of some sort and was using it to try and communicate with him.

"Wh…what are you?" Shawn asked weakly, his voice trembling; his mind trying to push through the thick wall of shock, anxiety, and fear, something that at this point was far easier said than done. After all, it wasn't every day that you met an unknown alien species on a derelict starship, out in the middle of literally nowhere.

The creature's elongated head rose up slightly, its thumb gliding across the data pad, several moments later the computer voice from the pad answered. **"WE HAVE NO NAME FOR OURSELVES OTHER THAN WHAT YOUR RACE HAS GIVEN US. HUMANS REFER TO OUR KIND AS XENOMORPHS."**

Its thumb ran across the pad again. " **WE ASK FOR HELP."**

Shawn's mind was reeling from what he had just heard; he still wasn't sure what to make of everything. "Why the hell do you need my help, what use could I possibly be to you?"

" **HUMAN VESSEL REQUIRES HUMAN CREW, UNABLE TO FULLY OPERATE, CAN OPERATE RUDIMENTARY FUNCTIONS ONLY. HELP US."**

The alien looked right up at Shawn; only one word came from the pad this time. " **PLEASE."**

He could only stare blankly for a minute or so before answering. "I…I need to think, I just need..." Shawn's voice trailed off, not even sure what to say or even do. All he wanted to do at this point was crawl into a deep hole, close the ground over him and just forget everything that had happened, this wasn't real it couldn't be and yet standing right before him it was. His whole mind was in a haze.

 **"IF WISH TO LEAVE, YOU MAY, WE WILL NOT HOLD YOUR AGAINST YOUR WILL."** The data pad piped up, slowly standing up the Xenomorph moved off to the side, leaving a clear path to the CIC's double doors. With its head still tilted down, the third alien was still off to the side, never once had it ever moved from its spot since it entered. Quickly walking down the steps, Shawn glanced over at the Xenomorph that was standing a few meters away from the doors; it had been so still that at a glance it could have easily been mistaken for a statue.

As Shawn left the CIC room, a soft hiss escaped the larger alien that had been looking over the human. The smaller alien walked up to its much larger counterpart; raised a hand and gently stroking the larger one's jaw with its hand and fingers.

xxxxx

Shawn had made a straight run right for the Ember-Rose not stopping even once, going as quickly as he could, he was simply trying to process everything that had just happened moments ago, or rather since he had come on board. He was expecting to run into more of the Xenomorphs on his way back but he never did. He was wondering if it was just the three on board, with the way his luck had been going, he seriously doubted it.

Getting back on board his ship, he was serious contemplating leaving and taking his chances in space, even with his ship as badly damaged as it was. There was no guarantee chance of a rescue and he could be adrift for a very long time maybe forever. All the worse possible case scenarios started to fill his head; he quickly found that he was going into a full blown panic and anxiety attack. He could feel his chest start to tighten up, as well as his muscles throughout his body starting to constrict, as if he was being put into a massive vice clamp and restrained, his breathing started to become shallow and raspy and it was getting more and more difficult to breathe.

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" Shawn screamed trying to draw in deep breaths while slamming his fist into the console several times, sharp stabbing pain shot through his fist as he slammed into the console a fourth time, rearing back he curled his fingers looking at them, slowly flexing his fingers to see if the bones were broken. Thankfully they weren't but he was sure that there was some going to be some deep bruising.

Stepping back, he felt his back come into contact with the bulkhead; slowly sliding down until he was sitting on the floor, bringing his knees up to his chest he wrapped his arms around his legs, resting his head on his knees. "Shawn you stupid fucking shit, what the fuck do you just get yourself mixed up in, Christ." He chastised himself, unsure of what to do, or what was happening. He couldn't even hold back the tears that threatened to wrack his body.

All he could do was sit there on the cold floor, hold himself and cry, hot tears running down his face, his breathing slowly started to become normal, and the tightness that was around his chest eased up some. Taking in and letting out several long breaths he tried to get his body to relax.

Just like in CIC he didn't even notice the visitor that had decided to follow him into his ship, as it slowly made its way inside the Ebony-Rose. The long, black, clawed fingers gripped the runs on the cold, metal ladder; slowly a smooth black domed head with slight brown splotches mixed in, emerged from the docking hatch as the Xeno carefully and silently descended. Its head title up slightly the lips curled back; its tubed toothed tongue extended out tasting the air and scents of this smaller new ship that their guest was from.

The Xeno liked the scent of this ship, or at the very least it was far more pleasant than the cold, sterile scent of the larger ship. This small ship had the scent and taste of having been lived in for a long time, the human's scent permeated the air, the smell of cooked food, clothing that had not been washed in some time, the old vinyl coverings of the seats, even the smell and taste of small things such as the dust, or cooking spices that still lingered, even the small amounts of water that still remained in cups that scattered the area.

Satisfied, the tongue retracted back into its mouth and the Xenomorph gingerly continued making its way down the ladder into the hold of the ship. Its long, black tail which had been coiled around the ladder for stability, unwrapped and dropped down to the floor as the Xeno stood up to its full height of eight feet.

The Xenomorph turned and started to walk toward the cockpit of the ship, making it a few dozen meters in, it stopped as it saw the human sitting up against the bulkhead wall, curled up, his body trembling. Slowly, silently it made its way toward him, not ever making even the tiniest of sounds indicating it was there.

A very small part of its mind, seeing the human curled up, sitting there, completely defenseless, thought for just for a fraction of a second, how easy it would be to take him, grab him, pin him to the wall or floor, open up its jaws all the way and have its deadly inner mouth shootout, the taste of warm blood and fresh meat, such defenseless prey he could be.

As soon as that thought came in, the Xenomorph pushed it right out, _NO, we need this human, he has done us no harm, and we shall do no harm to him._ A pang of both guilt and shame came with that thought of doing harm to him. The hunting instincts were powerful in any predator species and the Xenomorphs even more so, and while they were no exception to this rule, they could, however, overrule that instinct with intelligence and reasoning, something that most of the humans that had ever had contact with them never saw.

And that in itself was a very sad truth; most of the humans that knew of the Xenomorphs only saw them as relentless killers and monsters, mindless animals that would attack everything that was not them on sight, never truly seeing the incredibly high level of intelligence or even the sentience that lay beneath. And that ignorance and fear had unfortunately led to a considerable amount of bloodshed on both sides over the many years.

The Xeno pondered a thought, would it even be possible to start over again with both of their races, there would be no way that they could undo the damage that had been done from the past, but would it at least be possible that this small chance encounter might very well be a doorway to at least giving each race a second chance to heal the wounds of the past, try to at least make things right as it were.

It was an idea, a thought that would be held on to, perhaps cultivated and nurtured into something wondrous, but for now, however, a more immediate task was at hand. Trying to calm this human down and hope that his experience back at the CIC with the large one didn't damn their chances for help.

Only a couple of feet from where Shawn was sitting, who was still completely unaware of the Xeno's presents, slowly lowering itself to a squatting position, dropping its head down; as before it's thumb glided across the data pad. " **NO HARM**."

Started, Shawn's jerked his head up when he heard the monotone computer sound; his eyes were watery and very red. Slowly he nodded as he looked at the visitor. "I know, I know." He replied, wiping the tears away with the back of his hand. The emotional fatigue was quickly setting in; all he wanted to do now was just sleep, preferably for a very long time.

He still wasn't sure what to say or even do, but at this point, being straightforward probably seemed like the best course of action. He wasn't sure about staying but considering everything that had happened, leaving really wasn't a viable option. Problem was that there wasn't any sort of middle ground between the two; there wasn't a station close by that he could leave for and dock his ship at for repairs or even a planet that he could try and land on. For now, he was stuck on this ship with these three aliens.

And that was the other situation that plagued him, he had no idea what they were, where they came from, or what their real intentions were, if any, he had never seen or even heard about anything like them. Aside from their nightmarish appearances plus the fact they looked like they could easily rip a person apart with no effort what so ever, they hadn't actually done anything to harm him, despite the big one being right in his face, literally inches away looking him over; it hadn't touched him or done anything violent to him at all. It was in all likelihood checking him out, maybe out of curiosity or to see if he might have posed a threat of some sort.

"Look, I don't know if you can really understand what I'm saying, but here's the thing, I'm just a courier pilot, I operate this small ship. What you are on looks like a military grade heavy cruiser; I don't know what I can do to help you, or even if I can figure out anything on that ship of yours. A vessel that size takes hundreds to operate and maintain properly and I'm just one person, I mean, really, what could I even do? Right now I feel like I am so in over my head right now it's not even funny. Do you understand anything of what I am saying?"

Slowly the Xenomorph raised its head, looking right at him and nodded that it did understand what he was saying. A few seconds later it lowered its head; moments passed by as it was as still as a statue, the creature seemed to contemplating something. Shawn glanced over at it, completely unsure as to what to make of these beings. He did wonder if the way they had been lowering their heads around him, had been their way of letting him know that it was a sign of non-aggression and that they would not attack.

They did seem, or at least this one did seem to be aware of how scared he was and was trying to ease tension some. It helped, a little.

After about a minute it raised its head up some; reaching out slowly and gently, picked up Shawn's hand, at this point he was far too tired to care or resist so he simply let it do what it wanted, though truth be known, he really doubted he could have stopped it. Leaned forward slightly the Xeno placed Shawn's hand on its domed head; surprisingly he found that the alien's head felt like an odd mixture of rubber and warm, soft leather.

An odd sense of calm and peace started to radiate through his being after a few moments. It felt like a warm blanket was being wrapped around his whole body and that warmth started to flow throughout his whole being and almost immediately he began to relax, the tension quickly started to bleed out, leaving only a very heavy, relaxed and tired feeling throughout his body.

There was something else, a deep rumbling sound that was coming from the Xeno, it almost sounded like it was purring. The sound was deep and very powerful and was resonating throughout the small ship. As loud as it was it wasn't unpleasant at all, in fact, it was relaxing, whatever tension had been left inside his body was now completely gone. He felt exhaustion gripping his body and was fighting to keep his eyes open, slowly his eyelids closed, and moments after he found himself drifting off into a warm and relaxing sleep.

xxxxx

 _Darrius station burned. The towers were now all on fire; explosions blew out massive chunks of the doomed station's superstructure, followed by titanic plumes of flame erupting from the towers. Every time the station came into his field of view as he tumbled further and further away from it, it seemed to burn brighter than before; it was a brilliant, violent and silent disaster that was unfolding right in front of him that he now bore witness to._

 _Shawn could only wonder how many of the personal got out alive, or if any made it out at all. Any hopes that he had about making it out alive himself, were now gone. He was going to die out here in the cold depth of space and now it was only a question of how long it would take and how it would end for him. The life support system in his suit could recycle the air for several weeks, as well as reprocess his urine into drinking water to supplement the limited supply built into the system, but even that would eventually run out._

 _The thought about popping his helmet off and letting the void take him crossed his mind; it would be much quicker than dying from asphyxiation or of thirst, which is what faced him in the not so long run. It would be his last resort to a quick death. He did wonder if his body would ever be found, or if his parents and family would simply have to bury an empty ceremonial coffin, never knowing what had happened to him._

 _Raising his hand up to his right shoulder he pressed the button on the end of a small black tube that was about eight inches long. A short-range distress beacon, at this point it was a shot in the dark, but it was better than nothing, the power cell in it would last for about a month, at that point he would be dead, but maybe at least his body would make it home and there would be a small amount of closure for his family._

 _At this point, all he could do is wait and watch._

xxxxx

Slowly Shawn opened his eyes; the dreams or nightmares as they usually were, came for him again, though this time they weren't anywhere as bad as they normally were. While it had been unpleasant, it wasn't the usual debilitating experience where he would have woken up gasping for breath; in a cold sweat, his muscles sore and cramping.

As the fog of sleep slowly started to evaporate from his mind, he realized that he wasn't on his ship anymore; in fact, it looked like he was in one of the smaller bunk rooms that had been on the lower levels that he came across when he first came aboard. While it wasn't completely dark, there was enough low-level light for him to see around. The room from what he saw was very Spartan, there were beds, footlockers, shelves, a few tables and what looked like a wash and restroom at the end. All of a sudden a very long, hot shower was sounding better and better by the second.

His mind snapped back to something else, just how in the hell had he ended up here. Thinking back, he remembered the alien showing up on his ship and the interaction with it, it had taken his hand and placed it on its head, moments later there had been a relaxed even peaceful feeling going right through him, he seemed to even remember it purring. Could something like that even purr?

He had fallen asleep, that much he remembered, or at least right up to the point he had gone to sleep. Had it taken the time and effort to carry him back here instead of leaving him on board the Ember-Rose?

Raising his right hand to wipe the sleep from his eyes and found that it was covered in something soft, looking at it, it seemed like a translucent pinkish color almost flesh looking bandage of some sort, underneath he could make out what looked to be a whitish liquid possibly a gel of sorts.

 _The hell_ , he thought to himself, turning his hand over to look at the other side, slightly flexing his fingers he found that there was no pain, in fact, he couldn't see any sign of bruising or damage to his hand at all from where he had hit the consul. At this point, it should have been swollen and bruised, but nothing was wrong. He could feel a slight warmth coming from the bandage or more precisely the liquid or gel underneath it.

Sitting up to get a better look at the bandage, his heart skipped a beat or two, a few meters away was the massive nine-foot tall Xenomorph that he had first encountered in the CIC and it was looking right at him. _Well, at least this fucker isn't right in my face this time,_ Shawn thought to himself, _oh yea, that would have been some nightmare fuel right there, wake up and have that black dome and those steel teeth right up in my face….again,_ turning his head to look at the Xeno, he still wasn't sure if this wasn't some weird and messed up dream of some sort that he hadn't woken up from yet. And even though it hadn't done anything to hurt him, Shawn was still incredibly wary of the alien. Of course, that toothed tongue that had come out that had only been a hair's width away from his face had not helped alleviate his fears what so ever.

The Xeno tilted its head to the side as it continued to look at Shawn, the fingers of its right hand moved over a rectangle object that it held. " **YOU WERE IN DISTRESS.** " The tell tail monotone voice piped up from the pad.

Pulling off the covers, Shawn slid to the corner of the bed, rubbing his head, "Just some bad dreams, that's all." He replied.

" **MEMORIES**." The Xenomorph countered.

Shawn damn near froze with that statement, how the hell could it have known that. Could it read his mind somehow, crap that would be awkward if that was the case. He had been having another nightmare only to a lesser extent; it had been possible that he had been talking in his sleep. Either way, it wasn't a subject that he really wanted to broke at the moment.

Looking back down at the bandage, he raised it up to get a better look at it again. "What exactly is this? Shawn asked, trying to change the subject.

" **RESIN BANDAGE**." The Xenomorph replied. " **WOUND SELF-INFLICTED, WHY**?"

The statement and simple question afterward caught Shawn completely off guard, he wasn't sure if the Xeno was showing concern or was just simply curious. "I'm not sure that I can tell you anything that would make much sense, other than I was scared, hell I was terrified. I've never seen anything close to your race. So between being marooned in space with little to no chance of being rescued, getting picked up by a ship that doesn't even register on sensors, plus no crew on board, and to top it all off, when I first saw you, you were just inches from my face. I didn't know if I was going to die or what was going to happen. So I hope that you can understand that I was absolutely terrified of what was going to happen. And when it comes down to it, I really can't leave because my ship is so heavily damaged that it can barely fly. So, let's just say I had one mother of a panic and anxiety attack and took my frustrations out on the control console. And well you know the result of that little outburst." Shawn finished stretching his hand out toward the Xeno.

The Xenomorph tilted its head down as if thinking about what the human had just said, its tail slowly coiling around its legs and then uncoiling, the deadly bladed tip sliding back and forth slowly.

"So." Shawn began, his hand still outstretched, "Do I have you to think for bandaging my hand up?"

" **NO**." The Xenomorph answered, " **ONE THAT CARRIED YOU FROM YOUR SHIP TENDED YOUR INJURY**."

Withdrawing his hand, he felt the resin bandage again. "And the stuff underneath?"

" **YOUR PEOPLE REFER TO IT AS ROYAL JELLY."** The Xeno replied, looking right at him.

"So this stuff is used in healing injuries?"

" **CORRECT, AS WELL AS FOOD SOURCE IN EMERGENCIES."** The monotone voice from the pad the Xenomorph was holding answered.

Shawn sat there for several minutes trying to simply take in everything that was happening, as insane as it seemed to be, it was all very real. And somehow, despite what his personal feelings were, in the here and now, he was going to have to find some way to come to terms and cope with it all, something that was far easier said than done.

Standing up, Shawn headed toward the back where the washroom was. "I need to get cleaned up, so if you will excuse me for a bit..." His voice trailing off.

The Xeno's head tilted to the side slightly, following every motion that the human made as he made his way to the back of the room. It wasn't sure why, but it found this human interesting, even as scared as he had been, he had managed to stay somewhat composed and even tried to communicate back, that had been far more than what most of the other humans had ever done in the past.

There was also a bit of guilt for earlier as well, perhaps having gone a bit too far in the way it had revealed itself in what the humans had referred to as the CIC area. Getting that close, studying him, tasting and smelling his scent, sending him so close to being in an almost catatonic state with fright, which had never been an intentional act, it had been one of those things that had just happened. There had never been any ill will or harm that the Xeno had toward this human. Certain other humans, oh most certainly yes, but none of those feeling were directed at this one.

The Xenomorph's clawed fingers twitched involuntarily at the thought what had been done to them by those other humans not so long ago, a low menacing hiss came out as its lips slowly peeled back some and a thin string of drool began to trickle down its chin. The universe usually had a way of balancing the scales out; to quote a human phrase that the Xenos had picked up on, _Karma was a total and complete bitch._ And if those humans were ever to come within claws reach again, there would be blood, preferably theirs and lots of it.

Making his way back to the washroom, Shawn found a shower stall, as well as a towel and some much-needed soap in one of the supply cabinets; quickly removing his clothes, he caught a glimpse of himself in of the mirrors that adorned the wall. He had never really considered himself handsome or even good looking, for the most part, a bit over six feet in height, mid length wavy brown hair and hazelnut colored eyes and a slight stomach paunch that had decreased some since being stranded in space. Small scars, mostly from accidents on Darrius station covered his body, the largest and worse one being on his back.

Stepping into the stall he turned on the shower to full, hot water blasted out, cascading his body. At this very moment, he was in heaven; ever since the accident he had rationed the limited supply of water on the Ember-Rose. Either taking sponge baths or washing off with alcohol when necessary. And now he was blissfully being pelted by hot water, it was small things like a nice hot shower that he could appreciate even more now that he had access to it again, even if it might be only for a little while.

Lathering up, he started to wash away almost a month worth of grime and filth, within a few minutes of hard scrubbing, it was all gone. Turning around, the water pelted his back hitting massive amounts of year's old scar tissue which covered most of his upper and lower back, a reminder of another bad accident years ago when he was still working on Darrius station. Glancing up, even though the steam that was filling the room, he could easily see the massive black alien's form standing off to the side, several meters away intently looking at him.

Shawn shook his head, did this alien really find him so fascinating, just the way that it tilted its head every time it looked at him, it felt like the Xeno was studying him, scrutinizing him and then there was this odd feeling like it was looking right into him somehow. And now big, tall, dark and terrifying was getting a full peep show. He really didn't care, after everything that he had been through over the years, modesty was something that was pretty low on the list of priorities, hell he had taken mass group showers on Darrius station after the long work shifts were over.

After a few more minutes of leisurely letting the heat soak into his skin, he finally killed the stream of water, grabbing the towel he started to dry himself off; he hoped that he could find someplace to clean his clothing at some point. Getting dressed, he regretted leaving the hot shower so soon; maybe he would try to take another one, later on, a nice long hot shower with no Xeno peeping in on him. At least one could hope. Now all he needed now was to get something to eat and some coffee and he would feel like everything was damn near normal or at least as close to normal as a situation like he was in could be.

"I don't suppose there is anything to eat on this ship?" Shawn asked, finishing drying his hair.

Turning around, the Xeno made a beckoning gesture to him and started to walk out of the room into the hallway. Following the massive alien, Shawn hung back about nine or ten feet behind it, he had just noticed that just above and between the shoulder blades there was what looked like a long, slightly down-curved, segmented almost knife looking bone that peaked up toward the end. Not something that he would ever want to get impaled by.

As the alien walked down the hall, its tail swaying lazily back and forth its tail blade scraping across the metal floor creating the odd scraping sound Shawn had heard earlier when he had first entered the ship. Something else that he had just noticed, that even with the large barrel chest, the thin waist, and somewhat pronounced hips, the alien moved with a fluid and even feminine grace that he didn't think was possible for something so large. He did have to admit to himself that despite the nightmarish appearance of these creatures, there was a graceful if not obviously deadly beauty to them.

He just wondered where they came from, and how they had gotten aboard this ship. Where they abducted from some far off planet in the rim or some unexplored sector and managed to escape, and if so, what happened to the crew. He hadn't seen any signs of a fight, no blood, bodies or even damage to the interior of the ship, not even evidence of a single bullet hole anywhere. Of course, he had only seen a small amount of this ship. For all he knew there could be dozens more of these Xenomorphs all over the ship that he hadn't seen and the crew could all be prisoners in some cargo hold or even dead.

Shaking his head, he just needed to concentrate on the facts he knew at hand and not start jumping to uninformed conclusions or wild speculations. That fear of the unknown plus the knee-jerk reaction to shoot first and not ask questions had landed his race in more trouble than it was worth since first venturing out into space from Earth so many centuries ago. And that was something that he did not want to do, especially now, in fact, the very last thing he wanted to do was get on these Xeno's bad side by doing or saying something stupid simply out of fear.

In fact that gun-ho and paranoid attitude had almost landed the human race in a couple of wars with some of the intelligence alien species that the humans had come across in years past, races that had large territories, vast resources, and far more advanced technology. And those would have been wars that the humans would have lost and very quickly, thankfully much calmer and more rational minds were able prevailed in what would have been a devastating loss of life.

A lot of human leaders, political, corporate and even some military had considered it an ego and pride cruising slap in the face to find that they were not, in fact, masters of the whole universe. The fact in point, they were now finding out that their race was very low on the totem pole when it came to galactic affairs and could no longer do whatever they pleased without consequences. Something many of the political and corporate heads could or would just not accept no matter the facts staring them in the face.

From the very limited conversation in the CIC, it was apparent that these aliens had been in contact with humans before, but as far as to what kind of contact or for how long that was still an unknown to him. It was something that he was going to have to bring up before he made his decision on how much to help them. They had stated that they did understand the rudimentary functions on board the ship so at least in theory it would be possible to teach them how to operate the ship if he could figure that part out himself. He did wonder if they have been the ones to bring him on board or if that had been an automated function on the ship itself.

Something else came to mind that he hadn't thought of until just now, whose ships was this and where had it originated from, it didn't look like it belonged to the USCMC or at least it didn't have any of the telltale signs of belonging to the USCMC, possibly a government ship or maybe even a corporate ship of some kind. It wasn't unheard of for the larger corporations to have sub-military grade combat ships for defense for outer rim operations in case something hostel attacked. Though nothing this advanced or heavily armed, and certainly not a stealth ship.

Those were topics he was going to have to bring up at some point. Might as well start making a mental list of what he was going to have to ask about.

Plus there was the matter of the repairs to his ship. Hopefully this cruiser he was now on might have some sort of machine shop or small manufacturing facility that he could use to start making replacement parts. Then at least he could begin the process of making the necessary repairs to the Ember-Rose if he could get the hull breach sealed up and the aft section pressurized, that would go a long way in helping to restore and repair his ship. However the engines were another matter altogether, those would have to be replaced entirely and that would require the use of a dry dock and weeks' worth of work.

All this could wait until later, right now he just wanted to get a hot meal and some fresh coffee, provided anything like that was even on this ship.

After about fifteen minutes of walking through corridors and going up several levels though ladders and junction hatches, Shawn was wondering why they didn't just use the damn elevator, the alien stopped in front of a pair of double doors, turned, leaned forward and walked into the room. Following, Shawn found himself in what looked to be a large mess hall.

The mess hall was a simple large square off white colored room; dimly lit lighting tubes spaced evenly every few feet, small vent covers lined the center and outskirts of the room. Long, steel tables ran the length of the room with metal chairs spaced every few feet. All in all, it felt very cold, sterile and unwelcoming.

Pressed up against the wall furthest from the doors, was a massive, plain white colored food and drink dispensary that ran most of the length of the wall. Large cabinets with small black plastic signs with white lettering indicating what food stuff was stored within adorned the full length of both the bottom and top of the dispensary; several reconstituting stations for the food were placed around the dispensers. The beverage dispenser being located at the far left of the station. Cups, plates, and silverware were located at the front, middle and end for easy access.

Going up to the food dispensary, Shawn flipped through the cabinets looking over the selections of dehydrated; freeze dried foods, MREs, and the usual standard dry mix of foods. Most of it reminded him of the food packs that were stored on his own ship. Grabbing a small mix of meal bowls and an MRE he went over to the reconstituting station and placed the bowls in and let the machine work its magic, which was to simply inject water and heat the food up.

Waiting for what he figured would be the usual tasteless meal to heat up, Shawn grabbed a large cup and filled it with the normal looking freeze dried coffee and creamer and added hot water. After a few minutes, the reconstituting station beeped indicating the food was ready, collecting the bowls, MRE, and coffee; putting them on a tray walked over to one of the long tables and sat down.

The large Xeno walked over to where Shawn was sitting and hunched down a few feet from him, its long tail wrapping around its legs and feet and continued to observe him. Picking up one of the bowls Shawn looked it over.

"Says it's supposed to be beef stew," Shawn said, peeling back the paper lid revealing a gray lumpy mess. "And yet, this looks and smells nothing like beef stew." Picking up a spoon, he dipped into the gray mess; muttered a few prayers under his breath, tasted it and immediately spat it out, pushing the bowl away in complete and total revulsion. "I don't know what the hell that stuff is but that is not beef stew." Shawn took several sips of his coffee, trying to get that god awful rancid taste out of his mouth.

The Xenomorph leaned over bringing its head close to the opened bowl and whipped its head away as quickly as possible, its lips curling back slightly, letting out a hiss of disgust. It was vile, rancid not even food as far as the Xeno was concerned. Could humans even eat this stuff? It smelled and tasted disgusting.

"Yea, right there with you on that one big guy," Shawn said, finding the Xeno's reaction a bit humorous. Opening up the other food packages he found them somewhat better. "State of the art, high-tech warship; you would think that they could supply something better to eat. At least the coffee is somewhat decent." Shawn said taking another sip, closing his eyes.

While Shawn was sipping on his coffee, the Xenomorph slowly raised its hand and reached out and with the back of its index finger touched the side of the human's cheek. Startled more than afraid by the unexpected touch, he opened his eyes to see what the Xeno was doing. For several minutes the massive Xenomorph gently caressed the side of Shawn's face with the back of its hand, its fingers feeling the human's hair, its massive head tilting to the side slightly as if it was once again contemplating something.

Shawn found it was odd that such a massive and deadly looking creature could be so gentle with its touch. The fingers felt slightly warm, even a little damp as it continued to examine his face and hair; surprisingly he was finding the physical contact with the Xenomorph rather pleasant even relaxing. Turning to look at the Xeno, Shawn slowly raised his hand out; the Xeno stopped and looked right at him. Shawn's hand stopped only a few inches from the side of the Xenomorph's head.

After a few seconds, the Xenomorph lowered the side its head into Shawn's hand, letting the human feel the side of its face. His fingers ran across the side and underneath of the alien's jaw feeling the exposed tendons and sinuous mussels. His hand continued up along the domed head, the alien leaned into the touch slightly, the smooth part of its head felt like the same mix of rubber and warm leather, at least until the hard, bony ridges started.

A feeling of calm and peace started to creep through him. It was right then that Shawn made his first realization about them, the aliens were somehow projecting their emotions to him. However, it seemed only to be when physical contact was made. That same similar feeling of calm and warmth that he had felt with the other Xeno onboard the Ember-Rose, he was feeling now with the larger alien.

"Looks like my life just got a whole lot more interesting," Shawn muttered more to himself than to the alien. Hearing the word clearly the Xenomorph gave what sounded like a sympathetic hiss.

 _ **Please feel free to review and comment, and thank you for reading.**_


	4. New Beginnings Pt 1

**A/N: Chapter 4 kind of blew up and got lot bigger than I had originally planned for it to, so it'll be halved and uploaded as pt1 and pt2.  
**

 **So please enjoy.**

xxxxx

Over a week had passed since he had first boarded the Saratoga, over a week since he had his first encounter with the Xenomorphs. Even now there was still this disbelief that was stuck in the back of his mind as if none of it was completely real. He knew that it was just the shock of the situation and that the full realization hadn't yet entirely sunk in. Hopefully, he wouldn't completely freak out when that realization did finally hit home.

It had been a couple of days from coming on board, that he had finally and officially made his decision to stay and help them and while his decision wasn't completely unselfish it was mutually beneficial for both parties. He would help them with figuring out the ship's controls and get them someplace safe if that was indeed what they wanted. And in return, he could use any of the faculties to help repair his own ship.

One of the stipulations was that they all be open and honest with each other, the Xenos didn't seem to have a problem with that, in fact lying almost seemed foreign to them, almost. And Shawn didn't have anything to hide from them, at least nothing that they would have cared about.

One of the topics that he did bring up was where they had come from and it was a subject that he kind of wished that he hadn't after he got his answers. He originally had assumed that they had been abducted from some far off world beyond the known rim. In fact, that hadn't been the case at all, what he found out was that they had been bred and raised at a station, bred for military and scientific experiments, experiments that were designed to fully control them and to be used as weapons of war against anyone who might be considered a threat or an enemy.

Thankfully for them, the scientists, for the most part, had viewed them as mindless and stupid animals and didn't have any idea on just how intelligent the Xenos truly were; it was a deception that the Xenos had continued to play to the fullest. If the scientist and station personnel had known the full extent to just how intelligent and sentient the Xenos truly were, things now would have been very different and none of them would have ever met.

It was also the overconfidence and arrogance of the lead scientist that made their escape possible, originally there had been five of them that had broken free, one had been recaptured and the other had sadly been killed. It had been blind luck that the Saratoga was birthed at the station undergoing routine maintenance and was not out on a mission. The three Xenos had boarded the ship and had ' _convinced_ ' the skeleton crew on board that was performing maintenance to help them and show them the rudimentary functions of the ship. Once the Xenos knew enough they allowed the crew to board a couple of shuttles and leave the Saratoga. Since then they had pretty much been going in a straight line, trying to figure out what to do next.

One of the main problems that faced the Xenos was that the viewing screens were difficult for them to read. The physical controls were easy enough to make out, but the electrical viewing screens were while not impossible, just very difficult to see. To their sense of viewing, the screens appeared as a large glowing mass, if they turned their head at just the right angle they could barely make out what was on the screens. Hence one of the reasons they needed the help of a human or several.

The real kicker was that they wanted to go back and rescue the other Xenos that were still trapped on the station and at the scientist mercy or lack of. But currently they had no real plan and rushing in was only going to get them killed or recaptured. They recognized that it wasn't Shawn's fight and they were not about to ask him to go that far. It wouldn't be fair to expect the human to put his life on the line for them. This was their fight and theirs alone, something they made abundantly clear to him.

At that point Shawn had simply gotten up and walked out of the room without saying a word, it was a lot to take in, and in truth, he didn't know what he could have said after that. Even though he had only known the Xenomorphs for a very short time, the very thought of their race being used as weapons of war and death had left his stomach in knots and made him sick.

Since then he had kept busy which had for the most part been a coping mechanism for himself, dividing his time up between get his ship fixed, wondering the halls of the Saratoga trying to get familiar with the huge layout of the ship and figuring out the CIC controls and system layout. During his wanderings he had come across an android storage bay, complete with fifty maintenance androids and two dozen low-level combat androids.

While he would leave the combat androids alone, he had activated the maintenance androids; they would perform the necessary functions to keep the ship going, the last thing any of them wanted was to have the ship break down. The androids were just a few steps above the basic model; in fact, they reminded Shawn of the very old, antique Seegson working Joes, plan features, an offset monotone voice and emotionless glowing eyes. They would do the job but damn if they just weren't creepy to be around.

Tinkering around with the command controls a bit, he was able to reroute six of the maintenance androids to start in on the repairs to his ship. The first thing that he would have them do is seal up the hull breach. A detailed scan on his ship with the diagnostic data would be all the info the androids would need to start the repairs. And as he had hoped there were several large machine shops as well as some industrial 3D printers to assist in creating parts for repairs and replacement.

It was a start at least.

xxxxx

A high pitched repeated beeping filled the air, followed with an equally annoying bright blue flashing light that matched it in rhythm and intensity. Slowly opening his eyes, Director Matthew Collins focused on the blue flashing light on the commutation stand right next to his bed. Reaching out with a groan, his fingers clumsily tapped on the stand until he found the intended target a small button that seemingly blended in all too well with the gunmetal panel.

"Go ahead." He moaned, still mostly asleep.

A middle aged woman's voice came over the com system. "My apologies for waking you up Director but we have a rather serious situation that just came across my desk."

"What time is it?" The Director asked rubbing his eyes.

"3:21 in the morning sir." The woman replied.

"Jeez Sara, do you ever sleep?" He asked sitting up in his bed.

"Occasionally, I find that sleep cuts into my duties. And as I'm your assistant, I sure you can agree with me that there is indeed no rest for the wicked sir." Sara replied back with an overtone of dry sarcasm.

"You know you should try to actually sleep some like an actual person does. I can't very well have an assistant that gets burned out because said assistant refuses to get some rest when she is supposed to."

"I will consider the suggestion and make every endeavor to try and do so in the future sir."

"I'm sure you will", The Director replied. Sara Reed Hughes had been his assistant since he had taken over as the Director of this not so small and very secret conglomeration that pooled its resources to invest in developing cutting edge technologies that were supposed to propel humankind by leaps and bounds into the future.

This secret conglomeration that had been formed was a fledgling counter balance to the mega corporations such as Weyland-Yutani that held a vast monopoly over technology development, government contracts, space exploration and the like. It was the hope that the smaller business, corporations, groups or individuals that had rich resources that wanted nothing to do with mega corporations like Weyland-Yutani or had a personal vendetta against them, could pool resources together and with time either gain an equal foothold or with luck surpass them.

Some of the projects that had come across his desk had not set well with the forty-nine-year-old Director. However, there was very little that he could do to terminate any of the projects since the backing investors had contributed vast sums of money and were waiting to reap the rewards of their investment.

While he didn't have problems developing the new technologies that might advance the human race decades or even centuries ahead, he did preferred the more conventional technologies, new weapons for troops, vehicles, ships, more efficient and effective sublight and FTL drives, even new cutting-edge methods for medical research that could in the long run save and heal countless lives.

However some of the projects that he found out about whereas Sara might put it, distasteful, and coming from her that meant a lot. Mostly it was the projects that involved developing Bioweapons that had him worried. He found the whole concept of experimenting on living creatures appalling and ethically wrong, he had wanted to scrap those projects right from the start but even as high as his position was of being director of this secret conglomeration, even he had to answer to someone or in this case a lot of someones. Namely the investors, they were the ones that had fronted the money to start the projects, they were the ones that continued to fund the projects and in the end, they had final say so on who and what stayed and didn't.

He could make recommendations; voice his concerns, his opinions, though always he would have to have a justification if a project needed to be terminated and the funds rerouted. It was never easy to tell one of the investors that the sums of money that they had just invested in a project had just gone belly up and would need to be ended.

To that end, he was glad that Sara what his assistant.

Sara was loyal, faithful, dedicated and above all probably one of the most efficient individuals that he had ever met. She also seemed to have a deep wisdom that would constantly surprise him more often than not; he often wondered why she was working as an assistant when she had all the abilities to be far higher in the hierarchy. And every time he would ask her, her answer would always be "I am where I need to be." And that would be it.

He had at one time wondered if she was in fact an android, she had looked in right in the eyes and told him with a resounding "NO, she was in no way shape or form an android." And that had been the end of that conversation.

"So what's the emergency?" Director Collins asked rubbing his hair.

"The experimental ship that was stationed at Eclipse station, the Saratoga, it was stolen. Sara replied flatly.

Director Collins froze at what she had just said. "Stolen?"

"Yes sir, over two months ago," Sara replied.

"And we are just now getting word of it?" The Director asked, completely stunned.

"Yes sir. The report seemed to have been deliberately delayed. I just got it less than an hour ago from one of our alternate channels."

"Doctor Mason." Matthew sneered, "I bet that soulless son of a bitch had something to do with the report being delayed. Probably trying to cover his own damn ass."

"Most likely sir, he does have a pension for being somewhat difficult to deal with."

Matthew rolled his eyes. "My dear has anyone ever told you that you have managed to make it a pure art form out of understating things."

"Often and quite frequently sir, shall I prepare you some coffee or tea and something to eat? I assume that your day is going to be long, quite busy and of course more than a little frustrating."

"Yes please, lots of coffee, very strong and something lite to eat for now."

"Do you want me to contact Eclipse station?" Sara asked.

"No, not yet, I need a few minutes to prepare myself, please transfer the report to my data tablet if you would be so kind."

"Very good sir, transferring data now, I'll have your coffee and food ready shortly."

Some days he really hated his job, and already this was looking like this was going to be one of those days. Getting slowly got out of bed, not looking forward to the confrontation that was about to happen with not only station Commander Snyder, but also Dr. Mason. Commander Snyder, he had a good amount of respect for, however, the theft of the Saratoga was something that should have been reported right away, and that was inexcusable.

Even if, as he was suspecting, that Dr. Mason had managed to delay the report of the ship being taken, the secret agents that were stationed there to keep an eye on things and report back anything that might slip through the cracks should have kept them in the loop as to what was going on immediately. The fact that they hadn't was more than a bit worrisome, just one more thing on his plate that he was going to have to look into.

The Saratoga was not only a very powerful and deadly ship with experimental prototype equipment such as both an upgraded FTL and sublight drives but also a fully functional stealth system which rendered the ship completely invisible to any sensor system that the human race had. Not to mention the sheer amount of advanced weaponry it was equipped with as well as what was stored not only in the standard armories but also the heavy munition and armory bays.

If the ship fell into the wrong hands, such as pirates, raiders or even worse a rival corporation, the results could be beyond disastrous, now he needed to see if any steps had been taken to find and retrieve the ship or destroy it if there was no other option. The investors were going to be livid once word reached back to them, a bridge he would have to cross once he reached it.

Thinking about dealing with Dr. Mason, however, was already starting to leave his stomach in knots. The Doctor was an entirely different beast altogether, one that he absolutely loathed dealing with in any capacity. He swore that the man had no soul or consciousness what so ever, there was never any emotion in his voice and he always stared at everyone with these hard dead eyes. It had been no wonder that he had been put in charge of certain projects.

Despite those traits, the man was an absolute genius when it came to bio-engineering and research; his I.Q. was in that respect was far off the charts. However, when it came to dealing with his fellow researchers, scientist and just people in general, the man failed miserably. He always acted like dealing with anyone was an inconvenience and he couldn't be interrupted with his precious research.

Although he had never said it out loud he did feel sorry for the creatures and specimens that were under the doctor's scrutiny. He had seen videos of the doctor's methods, to say that they were barbaric was an understatement, and the screams that came from the labs still gave him chills.

Picking up the data pad he started to read the report, pacing around the small and meagerly laid out bedroom. He had never had much need for an exorbitant lifestyle, feeling it was far more important to keep to the basics, it helped keep his mind focused on the duties at hand, rather than get distracted.

Reading further down the report, he came across what was probably the most disturbing part of the report. Five Xenomorphs, specimens 01 – 05 escape lab, one captured, one terminated, three had boarded the Saratoga; shortly after that ship had departed station. Onboard crew status unknown, presumed dead.

Lowering the data pad, Director Collins let out a deep sigh, not only had the Saratoga been taken there was also a Xenomorph escape from the labs and three of the creatures had boarded the ship. He wondered if the crew that was on board had deliberately sealed the ship and separated it from the station. Something else he was going to ride Doctor Mason about. This was something that he should have been informed about the first thing, not months later.

A knock on the door brought him out of his train of thought. "Come in Sara." He said, knowing full well who it was.

The bedroom door opened up, a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length black hair, who looked like she could have been in her early forties at most wearing a dark gray button-down shirt and plain black pants walked in carrying a white plastic tray with a small plate of fruit, eggs some rolls as well as a large metal carafe full of hot coffee, and a single mug.

"Thank you, Ms. Hughes." The Director said, looking back at the pad. "I assume that you have read the report."

"I skimmed enough of it." She replied, placing the tray down on a small table, picking up the carafe, carefully pouring the steaming coffee into the mug and handing it to the Director. "I presume that you are coming up with a proper response for Doctor Mason and possibly Commander Snyder as well."

"I'll talk to Snyder first, the man has run a tight ship so far and has been an assist, he's never given myself or the board of trustees and investors any reason to doubt him and for the most part I would rather not tarnish his record or his career if I can help it. But this…" Matthew said holding up the pad, "This is something I can't just ignore. We possibly lost not only a prototype ship but also had a Xeno outbreak, an outbreak where three of the Xenos got on board the ship before it left."

"In regards to Snyder and Mason, may I be frank sir?"

"In the time that I've known you since I took over duties as director, you've never been anything but frank. I would be very disappointed if you decided to change suddenly." Collins answered back.

"In the board's eyes, Snyder is not anywhere as valuable as Doctor Mason and they would use him as a scapegoat if it suited their needs. Snyder is a decent man, but he is only a station commander, someone they can replace with ease at a moment's notice. Mason is a genius, twisted as he might be, a genius nonetheless, but he is also by all indications a sociopath and that makes him twice as dangerous. You and I both know that he is as much of an assist as he is a liability. View this event as an opportunity to reel him in."

Director Collins gazed into space for a few seconds. "If he were to believe that the board of trustees were to find out about this, and made to think that they might cut funding to not only his projects but possibly eject him from the conglomeration as well as disgrace him outright, that might be just enough to anchor and control him, at least a little."

"I shouldn't have to remind you that outright threats have never worked on Doctor Mason, most of the time he just blows them off and simply waits to see if they are ever made good on them. You will have to play this very carefully. Lies within truths are your best strategy for this. Also, a reminder to him that the board would not look lightly on a Xenomorph outbreak in which a number of Xenos got on a ship that was then stolen, a ship that has had billions of credits invested into it. The board expects returns, returns that have interest." Sara said.

"So with a bit of luck, I can get him to believe it, then possibly check and mate."

"Precisely"

Director Collins was silent for a few moments before turning his head to look Sara right in the eyes. "What is your opinion of Mason's research and please do NOT tell me that your opinion is irrelevant because of your position because it's not."

"Very well, personally I find his research amoral, unethical, cruel and border lining evil. And while I'm sure that in the long run, it would benefit the human race greatly, I cannot justify the means that he uses. To passively study an alien race to discover more about one's own self and grow is one thing, however, he is now trying to play god, and if history has taught us anything, is that once someone goes down that path, well that path usually ends badly. We humans as a race have a nasty habit of either forgetting the lessons of history or even worse, we choose to ignore them because we believe that somehow we have grown above it or that the rules no longer apply to us. To the end I firmly believe that Doctor Mason will be his own undoing, however, I'm afraid to say that many will needlessly suffer before that happens."

"And in the end, we are ultimately powerless to stop his research," Collins answered back.

"No, not powerless, we just have to work within the limits that we have been given and think of ways to use those limits to our advantage," Sara replied flatly. "Now sir, I believe that you have some calls to make so I shall leave you to do what you need to do. And please do remember, lies within the truth."

Director Collins nodded as his assistant walked out of the room. Sipping on his coffee, Collins allowed himself a few more minutes to compose and steel his mind. Walking over to the commutations panel he reached out and pressed several buttons. "Put me through to Eclipse station, I need to speak to Commander Snyder."

"Please stand by Director Collins." A young man's voice replied. After several minutes the man's voice came back on the coms unit. "Sir I have Commander Snyder online, transferring him over to your private channel now."

"Director Collins, I've been waiting to hear from you, I had assumed that you would have contacted me earlier after the incident report with the Xenos and Saratoga," Snyder said.

Collins shook his head, he had a good head for reading people, and Snyder was a straight shooter; his voice didn't have any of the usual traits that he had come to know from someone lying. It was already sounding like someone may have fooled the commander right off the bat. _Not good._

"Commander I never received a report, official or otherwise, that is until just under an hour ago. So I would like to hear from you first on just what the hell is going on."

Snyder was silent for several moments. "That sonofabitch," were the only words that came out of the commander's mouth.

"Commander I need you to focus please." Collins said, "As of now from what I understand, there was both a Xeno outbreak from the labs in which three Xenos boarded the Saratoga and then shortly after the ship departed with only a skeleton crew which consisted of mostly maintenance personnel with a few key staff, am I correct."

"Yes, Director that is the short of it for the most part. We lost twenty people during the Xeno's escape, mostly security guards but two of the assistant scientist to Doctor Mason were killed, and not quick and clean either like the guards were, they were ripped apart limb from limb, almost like the Xenos had a vendetta against those two personally."

Director Collins looked back at the datapad, that little tidbit of info hadn't been in the report, things were starting to get messy and complicated. "Commander I need to know what actions have been taken to find and retrieve the Saratoga. "

"We've contacted the mercenary group that we have on retainer, they've been briefed on the situation, however, they were delayed in taking any action due to a prior binding contract. But they are now on way to intercept the Saratoga. Orders are to secure the ship and capture the Xenos if possible but to terminate if no other option is available; Captain Reed is taking a fast transport so he can rendezvous with them and have the command codes on hand just in case there are any lockdowns on the ship that need to be lifted."

"What assets are the mercs bringing?"

"They have deployed a heavy cruiser as well as an assault frigate for heavy fire support that will be assisting them," Snyder answered.

"What about troop capacity?"

"Between both ships they can deploy a full company of troops with the assistance of combat androids for backup as well as combat power suits, though I doubt that it will come to that."

"And what about the homing beacon, is it active?"

"Yes Director it is, as soon as the Saratoga departed, we sent the signal to have the beacon activate, we are still receiving a moderately strong signal from it."

"So then they are still using the sub-light drives and not the FTL drive."

"Correct, though until recently the ship was going in a straight line, within the last week, it's made several course corrections, which means that it's possible that a crew member could still be alive, though what's unusual is that the corrections seem to be random."

Director Collins rubbed his eyes, "Commander I need you to send me all the reports as well as the video feed from the labs for the Xenos a month prior to the escape as well as the escape itself."

"Yes Director, it'll take a while to compile the reports and video feed, but I'll have it sent to you as soon as possible. Also sir, for the record I would like to state that I did log a report in regards to the Xenos escaping as well as the theft of the Saratoga that was to be sent to you immediately. But that being said, I am prepared to accept whatever disciplinary action that you deem fit, this happened on my watch and I am responsible for anything that happens on this station"

"Yes Commander, it is your house and by all right, you are responsible for what goes on there. However, I have my suspicions that our good Doctor may have had a hand in delaying or outright interfering with any reports going out as far as the Xeno outbreak as well as the Saratoga. Now for the record, I would prefer to avoid taking any actions that would black mark you, up until now you record has been outstanding and I would like to keep it that way as I'm sure you are as well. But off the record Commander, I shouldn't have to tell you that this is a total and complete cluster fuck, you should have contacted me directly about what happened, immediately, I don't care what Mason says, you are in charge of the station, NOT HIM. Now that being said, I need you to keep me apprised on what goes on, especially with Mason, I'm about to go toe to toe with him and I need to know if I can fully count on your support."

"You've always had my full support Director; you just say the word and I'll have him thrown into a cell to rot right this very second."

"No, the board of trustees would overturn that decision as soon as they heard about it; in their eyes, he's far too valuable. I need him to hang himself by his own hand. Just keep me informed about what's going on, quietly. Now Commander, if you will, please transfer me over to Doctor Mason's office."

"Yes sir, and good luck."

Taking another sip of his coffee, Director Collins let out a deep sigh, the warm up was over, now it was time for the main event. If Sara was right and Doctor Mason was indeed a sociopath then none of this may work and he would come off not only looking like a fool but a weak one at that. The coms panel beeped for over a minute before a voice with a hard edge answered.

"Yes Director, what exactly is it that you want?"

 _Game time._ He thought to himself. "Doctor Mason, I've just received a very troubling report, a report that should have been brought to my attention months ago and I suspect that you had a direct hand in either delaying it or outright trying to prevent it."

"And what if I did Director? I expect that you'll throw empty and meaningless threats at me that have no real weight. We both know that you have no real power over either myself or my work and that you are nothing more than an over glorified office clerk. I survived your predecessor and the one before him and I can and will survive you and those that come after you."

 _Careful how you approach this Matthew,_ the Director thought to himself, "Doctor, I'm afraid that you misunderstand my intentions on this. You are indeed correct that I myself cannot do anything to your work or to you personally, at least not without direct consent from the board of trustees, investors as well as the silent partners that have invested untold billions of credits into certain projects. Which do include the projects that you are working on" _Mull that little tidbit over you piece of crap._

"Tread lightly on this subject Director, otherwise you may well find yourself in over your head; with no friends to help you. The last Director found that out the hard way." Mason retorted coldly.

"No Doctor, you are the one that needs to as you say, tread lightly, and let this _over glorified office clerk_ explain to you why, since you are obviously too dense to figure it out for yourself. When a specimen gets loose and starts running around causing mayhem, it is the responsibility of said department and security personnel to rectify the situation. When FIVE specimens get loose, kill twenty people, and then just waltz aboard an experimental starship that has been in development for years and has had BILLIONS of credits invested into it, and not thirty minutes later departs the station, then it becomes my problem. IT becomes not only my problem, it becomes the problem of the numerous boards, the investors and every single entity or individual that has donated to this little club of OURS. Note that I say OURS Doctor, not yours; you are not the center of the universe for this conglomeration that has been formed, you are merely a very small piece of a much larger whole. Now I will be viewing the feed of what happened here shortly. Commander Snyder has been kind enough to save and forward me all video feed for the last couple of months right before and including the breakout. So upon viewing the feed and making not only my report but my recommendations to the various boards and investors, let me ask you this. When they read my report as well as view the feed themselves, who, my good Doctor, do you think that they will want to hang? Then commander who was running the station and did everything by the book to stop them, or the Doctor that simply let five Xenomorphs waltz out of their cages to run around freely on a whim and then steal a ship."

"You wouldn't dare." Mason's voice seethed back, rage almost overtaking it from the way it sounded.

"Wouldn't I? Oh believe me I would very much dare, you seem to have forgotten one very important rule here, when it comes right down to it, those that have invested into this conglomeration don't care about your work, they don't care about whatever great discoveries you think that you might be on to, they don't care about the countless thousands of man hours that went into the development of whatever latest and greatest THING you might have come up with. They ONLY care about the returns on their investments; they only care about the profits that it brings them. They only care about getting that nice new mansion on Titan or the moon or getting a dozen of the latest greatest whore bots that can suck their cocks whenever they want to feel important. And when they find out your incompetence lead to billions of credits being lost and them not getting the toys that they want, well let me just say this, accidentally getting spaced might be a very real possibility in your future." Collins paused for a second to catch a breath before starting up again.

"If the order isn't given to have you spaced, then you will more than likely have all funding pulled from your projects, which will then be filtered elsewhere, your assets frozen or transfer to other projects if not outright destroyed, I would even bet that you would be ejected from the conglomeration science division altogether and be both publicly and privately blacklisted for the rest of your natural fucking life. So, Doctor, do I make myself absolutely positively crystal clear?"

For several very long moments there was nothing by silence, Director Collins started to wonder if he had perhaps overplayed his hand a bit too much. Though in truth, most if not all of what he had said, he had wanted to say to Mason since he first met him, it was just the first time he had ever gotten a reason to.

"What is it that you want from me, Director?" Mason's voice was tense and hard, but to his credit, the man had managed to calm down, or at least calmed his voice down. Collins was sure he was just a couple of steps away from blowing up.

"What I want is for you to start playing by the rules, there is a hierarchy, the various boards and investors are at the top of the hierarchy, then myself, followed by Commander Snyder who is in charge of the station, not you. You are below Commander Snyder in the hierarchy, not above him. So from now on you are to start submitting reports daily which will be verified by Commander Snyder, you are to be accommodating to the other personnel that work with you, that includes the staff personnel as well. This is not your castle, so stop acting like it is, you do not make the rules here, you follow them and if that is too much for you to handle, then you can leave."

Once again several very long moments passed before Mason replied. "Very well, Director, I will accommodate your request."

Collins sneered at what Mason had just said, _It wasn't a request you ass._ But it would have to do, that was about the best that he could get out of the situation with Mason and he knew it.

"Now Director, there is the matter as you brought up, of the escaped Xenos and the ship, none of which are really my concern anymore. But I would like to know how your report will reflect on this incident. "

Collins curled his hand into a tight fist. _Not your concern, NOT YOUR CONCERN, you let this happen, it goddamn well is your concern,_ Collins thought to himself, the _bastard is still playing games, fine let him._

"It's not just the matter of the Xenos escaping or the ship, but there is also the matter of the twenty personal which I believe include two of your own assistants being killed."

"Irrelevant," Mason said.

"Excuse me?"

"Their deaths and for that matter, lives, were irrelevant, it didn't concern me then why should it concern me now?"

"Because Doctor, they died under your watch, so it's your mistake, your specimens, which makes it your responsibility. I'm sure even you can see the logic in that. And not just that, but the small fact that when the Xenos went on their rampage, they killed the guards fairly quickly and cleanly, that however cannot be said for how your two assistants died, from what I understand they were torn apart, almost as if the Xenos had a personal vendetta against them. Now would you like to explain that to me or should I take a wild guess?"

"They are mindless, stupid animals, nothing more Director; animals cannot bear a vendetta, a grudge or animosity for that matter, they can only act on instinct and do what is hardwired to their natural programming, nothing more nothing less," Mason stated coldly.

"Be that as it may, you are still going to have to be held accountable for what happened, all of it, and nothing that you say is going to transfer that blame to Commander Snyder. This happened in your department and on your watch. Now that being said, if you play nice and do what I ask of you from here on out, I should be able to convene the boards and investors to be lenient, since you have produced results over the years. But remember this is about the investors making money, not about you and your science projects and as hard of a pill that may be to swallow it is the cold, hard truth. So do we understand each other?" Collins said, his own voice becoming hard and tight with frustration.

"Yes Director, we do, now if there is nothing more I have important work to get back to."

"No Doctor, there is nothing more. Good day. End Transmission!" Collins said, damn near spitting.

Collins sat back down on his bed and rubbed his temples, he knew Doctor Mason wouldn't play nice for long it just wasn't in the man's nature, maybe though he could at least keep the chaos in a slightly controlled state for a while. On top of that, he didn't have any idea about how to report this to the investors or the various boards. He knew one thing, none of them were going to be happy to get this news, especially when it was over two months late. Having a few Xenos lost or killed, they would let that slide, but an experimental heavy cruiser that had cost untold billions, not just in building, and maintaining, but also in researching the technology for it. That was going to be a lot of nails in a very large coffin, he just wasn't sure whose coffin it would be.

xxxxx

Music blared throughout the CIC room piped in from the intercom system, some of it was old classical music from the late era of the twentieth and early twentieth-first century. As gloomy and cold as the ship seemed at times and the CIC area was no exception, it did have some fantastic acoustics, making it sound like a nice sized amphitheater. A nice unexpected find in what was mostly a very Spartan ship, the vessel only seemed to be geared to the basics of its missions and very little else.

Several large metal cases full of engineering; computer technical equipment and tools lay on the floor next to a partly dismantled console. He still hadn't been able to get the conversation with the two Xenos out of his head. They wanted to go back to the station that they had only a short time ago escaped from and try and rescue the others of their kind. He didn't have any idea of what kind of station it was, where it was located, or the defenses both around and within the station. But from what they had told him about it, he guessed that any defenses both in and out would be formidable.

It still sickened him to think of the Xenomorph being caged like wild animals and not only that but to be experimented and tortured on. The two Xenos didn't go into any great detail on what they had gone through and he wasn't going to push the issue; neither one of them seemed like they wanted to discuss what had happened, at least not yet; perhaps never. Traumatic events could and would change a person, Shawn knew that all too well first hand. And to push someone to talk about it before they were ready to could simply add to the trauma.

The whole thing was distracting him more than what he wanted, at this point what he both wanted to and needed to do was focus on breaking the codes to access FTL drive. Even though they had the sub-light drive engaged, and he had made some course corrections, it didn't mean that someone wasn't already looking for them. In fact, he would be damn surprised if whoever owned this ship didn't already have a small fleet actively hunting for them. And he did not want to be around if or when they showed up.

The question that he wondered, could they even be found, his ship the Ember-Rose had fairly good sensors, even slightly tweaked to improve the performance and range. And the Saratoga hadn't even come up as a small blip on the sensor grid. _I guess we'll know soon enough._ A small voice in the back of his mind told him.

Thankfully the music did help focus his mind.

" **ACCESS DENIED."**

" **ACCESS DENIED."**

" **ACCESS DENIED."**

Lowering his head, Shawn let out a pitiful moan, "My dear you are seriously starting to rub me the wrong way, can't you just play nice, for me, please."

 **"ACCESS DENIED."**

"Guess not," Shawn said, frustrated by the lack of progress he haphazardly tossed a large wrench in the air behind him as he slumped down into the chair he was sitting at, a few seconds later the wrench hit the floor with a loud 'clank' and slid a few feet and stopped.

He sat in front of the partly dismantled console in CIC, the bottom and front plates of the console had been removed, allowing him access to the hardware underneath. Half a dozen data cracker pads lay on top of the console all of them spliced into the guts of the console. Each data pad was running a data hacking and cracking program to try and break the access codes that would allow him the necessary access to the high-level functions of the ship.

Functions like the FTL drive, access to the ship's main data core, weapons, armories and even the main science labs which had been a set at a high-level clearance. Most likely due to the work that the crew had been doing in the past on the aliens lifeforms that they had come across. It worried him that there still might be something in the science labs and that if there was, it could still be alive and most likely very angry. But that was something he would have to deal with when the time came.

He had set all six of the data crackers to work in tandem on cracking the codes for the FTL drive first, next would be the ship's weapon system, then the armories, after that he could go onto the other two systems. It wasn't really a matter of if it could be done, it was more of a question of how long would it take.

This was one of the skills that he was now very thankful that he had learned while still on Darrius station, most of the computer equipment that he and the other techs had worked with had been bought second hand, some of it was old military grade computer cores and systems that had been wiped. More often than not, they were forced to crack and hack the hardwired safeties that were installed.

The military in their anal retentiveness had never provided the codes to allow them access to use the cores, even though they had been legally bought from the military in surplus batches and thanks to that hacking the data cores became common practice. It was something quite a few of the techs excelled at. He himself never got as proficient as some of the others, but it was something that had come in very handy in the last few years, that and being able to do hard bypasses on system hardware when it was called for. He had probably learned more about hacking and bypassing systems while on that death trap of a station then he ever wanted to know and now he was putting those skills back into use.

Thankfully the low to mid functions of the ship were completely accessible, whoever had been on board last either didn't have time to fully lock the ship down or was interrupted in the process, Shawn figured the later due to the Xenomorphs.

Looking over the data and code crackers, they units were running as fast as they could, at this point, it was nothing more than a waiting game. Time to get a few answers he figured, going over to one of the open data terminals. This had been on his mind since his conversation with the two Xenos and he wanted to see if there was any info on board the ship's data banks that he could access.

"Computer, active search parameters, display all known information on species known as Xeno or Xenomorph."

Within seconds pages started to appear on the screen starting with the very first known contact, the ill-fated USCSS Nostromo. Shawn started to read over the info, the signal that the ship had received, exploring the derelict alien ship, and the first casualty, Kane. "It gestates inside a living host, ripping through the chest when it is born, surgical removal is possible. Normally incubation time ranges from twenty-four hours to one week depending on the type of Xenomorph. Within twenty-four to forty-eight hours after birth, the Xeno is fully grown." Shawn quietly said reading the info to himself; somewhat in disbelief, in order for one of them to be born someone…something had to die, nature….no the universe was a cruel and screwed up place at times. Which meet that the three Xenos that were on board, had to kill in order to be born. What a way to come into the world and leave it too. He didn't want to even think about the agony that who or whatever went through as the Xeno tore through the chest cavity.

Ellen Ripley was the only survivor from the Nostromo, it continued to go onto the disasters at Sevastopol Station, Hadley's Hope, Fury 161, the Sulaco and Sephora incident as well as many other deadly encounters over the centuries.

The info went into great detail about the physiological needs of the Xenomorph, the hive structure and hierarchies with the queen being at the top, the known kinds of Xenos, the drones, runners, warriors, Praetorians; finally the queen. As well as, that depending on what kind of host the embryo was implanted into also determined the physical aspects of the emerging Xenomorph. In addition, it was possible for the Xenomorphs to exist in virtually any kind of environment, including for extended periods of time, the vacuum of space.

There was also data over how they communicated; theory was that it was a mix of body language, pheromones, vocalization and possibly some sort of telepathy, though that last part had never been scientifically proven and was just theoretical, though it did hold water as far as some of the science communities were concerned, they just hadn't been able to prove it yet.

 _Jeez , it's no wonder they want these guys to be used as weapons. Where did your race come from anyway? _ Shawn thought to himself, nothing anywhere in the known systems that he knew of had ever come close to what the Xenos were. _If they were ever controlled and unleashed on an unsuspecting city or planet the results would be horrific, it just wouldn't just be thousands dead, it would possibly be millions or even billions._

It was also stated that were hostile to anything but their own kind, and would either kill on sight or use any other creatures as hosts or food. Intelligence capacity was that of a low animal at best, with exception to the queen who guided the hive as a whole. It had been theorized through limited observation only that the intelligence of the queen was quite high, possibly surpassing humans. And that the other Xenos were simply extensions and tools of her own will.

Leaning back in the chair, Shawn just stared at the screen, something wasn't right with the info he had just read, if the Xenos were as hostile as what the data and records indicated, then he should have been dead within a few hours of arriving on board the Saratoga and these Xenos were not hostile, in fact, they were highly intelligent, inquisitive, even friendly.

Maybe it was just the fact that both species were just so vastly different from one another and they simply couldn't communicate by normal methods. There was also the possibility that the Xenos didn't know about humans at first and simply viewed them as either prey or as a threat and just killed the outright instead of trying to communicate with the first. Unless they did try to communicate and those involved just couldn't hear or understand them. Unfortunately from that point on things had just deteriorated with each trying to kill the other at first sight.

But yet, the ones on board weren't hostile, at least not to him.

"Computer, change search parameters; display any records of non-hostile encounters with Xenomorphs."

 **"CONFIRMED, SEVENTEEN KNOWN NON-HOSTILE ENCOUNTERS WITH XENOMORPH SPECIES."**

"Display location and timestamp of first known record."

" **PLANET LV 361, DATE 2204, ONE VISUAL RECORD ONLY.** " The computer replied.

"Play record."

The screen flashed, showing what looked like a rock bore tunnel, the floor was covered in brownish red dirt and loose connecting lighting swung back and forth on the ceiling overhead. For several second nothing showed up: then a woman in ragged camo garb carrying what looked like an old and worn M-41A pulse rifle walked by, two Xenos one of the left and one on the right walked with her, the one on the right looked like it was only seven or so feet tall, it had the smooth domed head that he recognized, the other one what much bigger maybe eight feet or slightly taller with a rough ridged head.

Suddenly both Xenos turned around and screamed at something that was off screen, the lady in the image turned around raised the rifle and open fire, the sound of pulse fire continued for about fifteen seconds, reaching underneath the front barrel she cocked back the grenade launcher and fired once, then twice, explosions could be heard off in the distance, with something screaming that didn't sound like either a human or Xeno but something far different. All three stood there defensively for several seconds, the taller Xenomorph reached over and placed its hand on the woman's shoulder and gave her a nod. Turning around the three walked away.

Seconds later the recording stopped, leaving Shawn wondering what he had just seen and what had transpired on that planet.

"Computer began playing all remaining records in chronological order with timestamp and location."

" **CONFIRMED** "

Over the next couple of hours, Shawn sat there either reading over the records that came up or looking at the footage. Most of it was either individual one on one encounters or small groups where both the humans and the Xenomorph seemed to make some sort of friendship or a tight-knit bond of some kind that seemed to go far beyond normal friendship.

There was one encounter that seemed to be very different than the others. Five humans had somehow befriended a small hive which included the queen, the visual records were shaky but viewable. The last segment of video showed the small group of the five humans each with backpacks and shoulder sacks, surrounded by at least by his count, well over two dozen Xenomorphs of all kinds including what looked like a couple of Praetorians, and one which was much larger and more frightening than the others, with a massive elaborate, adorning crest on the head and two pairs of arms. The queen he guessed, frighteningly beautiful and probably just as deadly as she looked.

One of the humans was standing in front of her, talking to her from what it looked like, the massive alien had lowered itself to his level and after a few moments the human reached up and placed his hand upon the queen's crest, she leaned into his touch, seconds later, his hand ran under her jaw. Rising up some, she placed her two smaller arms on the man's shoulder and leaned to touch her forehead to his. The last few seconds showed the group heading off into a very thick forest or jungle.

 **"RECORD ENDS,"** The monotone computer voice said.

Leaning back, he felt emotionally spent. He had just seen confirmed video records and documentation of both races befriending each other and what looked like possibility even living together. Yet, no civilians, at least to his knowledge seemed to even know about the Xenos existence, and none of the info that he knew of were on any of the public data banks or on the netweb. One would think that a race that looked and acted like the Xenos would have made news all throughout human space, yet…nothing.

Perhaps the encounters were so rare and spaced out over the centuries that they were simply forgotten about. But yet, some, at least by his guess, vast; well-funded corporation, not only knew of the Xenos but were doing experiments on them, which meant that there was the very high probability that not only did the military but by default the government or at least some branch knew and most likely was involved.

Why did things suddenly have to get so complicated so quickly?

Something else that he had noticed as he went through the reports was that the encounters were getting more and more frequent. Granted it was over the course of several centuries, but still, the last seven encounters had taken place in just the last fifteen years. There were also dozens of records of possible unconfirmed non-hostile human and Xeno encounters. And many of those had cropped up within that twenty-year time frame.

It almost seemed like some unforeseen force in the galaxy was hell bent on trying to bring both of their races together regardless of the outcome or consequences. Shawn rubbed his temples, he was getting tired and maybe he was just reading way too much into it all. Still, something did seem out of place, he just wasn't sure what it was.

He needed to get out of CIC for a bit, take a long walk and clear his head, his mind was racing in a million different directions at once, or at least it felt like that. Going back to the data hackers and crackers, he quickly glanced over them to see if any progress had been made. So far no headway had been made on getting access to the FTL drive. Pickup up his data tablet he turned off the music to the CIC area, instantly he felt alone and very small.

Turning around Shawn found himself face to chest with an all too familiar sight, the ebony, exoskeleton rib cage of the larger Xeno. Startled more by the sudden appearance of the Xeno out of nowhere than the physical looks, he involuntarily took a step back, letting out a slight gasp. The massive Xeno looked down at him in its usual telltale way, its head tilting to the side a bit.

Closing his eyes, Shawn could only shake his head, he had started to lose count of just how many times this big Xeno just seemed to suddenly appear out of thin air and always right behind him, maybe this was the creatures' way of just having a bit of fun with him or maybe it was trying to teach him something. Either way, it was like this Xeno was becoming his own personal shadow.

'Shadow', a _n appropriate name,_ Shawn thought to himself _or at least a nickname for the most part._ He wondered if he should come up with nicknames for the other two, it would be a lot easier that calling them ' _Hey you_ ' or go by the lab names that they were given while at the station. Specimen zero-one, zero-four and zero-five, those were not names, just cold, soulless lab designations. And he seriously doubted they would like being called that again.

The Xeno hunched down, getting eye level with Shawn, reaching out, slowly; with the back of its fingers brushed the side of his cheek. Shawn figured he could live with these aliens for the rest of his life and still only know a fraction about them. The way they were always touching everything, tactile contact seemed to be of great importance to them. Perhaps it was one of the ways of communicating with others, reassuring one another, or even strengthening and maintaining bonds. In their language, this could be something as simple as saying ' _hello_ ', to someone.

Slowly reaching up, Shawn gently grasped the Xenos' hand and every so slowly turned it over, the Xeno tilted its head looking right at him, he could feel its gaze for a better word becoming more intense and focused.

Leaning his head in, Shawn brought the Xeno's hand back up to the side of his face, closing his eyes he waited to see what would happen. He felt the soft caressing of its fingers and thumbs on the back and side of his head. There was something else, a sound that he hadn't heard before, a deep thrumming, not quite the purring sound that he had heard before, this far more powerful, focused and deep almost primal even.

Opening his eyes, Shawn reached out, gently touching the side of the Xeno's face, his fingers lightly caressing the jaw's tendons and muscles. The Xeno leaned its head into his hand, gladly accepting his touch. He wondered if anyone in that station, in the labs, truly any idea the actual nature of these beings, if any of them had ever witnessed this behavior. A large part of him seriously doubted it.

Just for a split second, Shawn felt something brush his mind, an intense feeling of sorts; though it happened so quickly, he wondered if it could have simply been his imagination, but something was telling him otherwise.

"Shadow," Shawn whispered. The Xeno raised its head and looked right at him, clearly, he had peaked the Xenomorphs interest. "What do you think about Shadow as your name?"

The Xenomorph was dead still for about half a minute, then leaned back, head fully raised and chest puffed out, and nodded in approval, clearly proud of the name that had been chosen.

Shawn smiled, probably the first time he could even remember smiling in a very long time, it felt good to do so. "It seemed to suit you."

The Xeno seemed to give what Shawn thought was a smile, the edges of the lips curled up slightly.

Looking over at the console where he had come across the information, Shawn was wondering if the Xeno or now Shadow, would be interested in hearing about what he had found. He really wasn't sure where to start on that topic but what the hell, it might be nice to hear that other friendships from both races had formed even if they had been few and very far between. It sort of felt like he was now joining the ranks of a very inclusive and secret club that only a few privileged few belonged in.

"I was searching the data core for any info on your race that I could find." Shawn started, "And found a bunch of what is probably considered basic knowledge, first contact, physiological anatomy, hive social structure, how your race is conserved and born, as well as all the unfortunate disasters between both our races." The smile had left Shadow's face.

"I'm not judging your race if that's what you're thinking." Shawn said raising his hand, "I found a bunch of records that shows we're not the first human and Xeno to form, well a friendship. Over the course of the last few centuries, there have been quite a few incidences of humans and Xenos forming a bond and or deep friendship with each other. I would think that it's extraordinary to find out that we're not the only ones." Shawn went on to describe what he had read and viewed in the data records. He had Shadows undivided attention and the Xeno seemed to be hanging on each and every word, especially when he went into telling about the five humans and the small hive.

"And that's about it, at least for all the confirmed records that I found so far, though there could be more," Shawn said, finishing up.

Shadow sat there for the better part of a minute and seemed to just try and take in everything That Shawn had just said. Then looked right at Shawn and reached up with both hands and cupped Shawn's face, _this was new_ , leaning in and gently touched its forehead to Shawn's own. He could swear that he felt gratitude and even a sense of relief coming from the alien. Even though there were no words spoken the message had been completely and totally clear to him.

 _Thank you._

Moments later, Shadow released Shawn's head, stood back up and quickly walked out the doors of CIC. Shawn smiled a bit. "You're welcome." He said quietly.

Rubbing his forehead, he decided to get out of CIC as well and take that much-needed walk to clear his head.

 ** _Please feel free to review and comment, and thank you for reading._**


	5. New Beginnings Pt 2

**2nd part of Chapter 4.**

 **Please enjoy.**

XXXXX

Walking out of his office Doctor Mason glared ahead his eyes hard and focused the conversation with Director Collins still all too fresh in his mind. _Insignificant, unimportant, petty man, fine I'll play your pathetic little game._ He seethed, nothing of what had happened a few months ago he cared about, the Xenos escaping, the loss of life, including two of his own assistances, or the loss their precious little ship, to him it like most of everything was unimportant, all he cared about was his research. So what if a few Xenos had escaped, they had plenty to draw from for research, they were in the process of breeding more; a few losses wouldn't matter at all.

Walking into the Xeno holding area, his eyes focused in on a group of five large round containers, four of the containers were still empty, containers that had until a few months ago held an occupant each. Now only one of the containers housed a Xenomorph in it and it was one of the ones that had tried to escape and failed. Sitting in the middle of the container, its arms folded around itself along with the long serrated whip-like tail, its head lowered down.

Doctor Mason walked up to the container and tapped on it a few times, the Xeno's head slowly raised up, the jaws parted, thick saliva dripped from its mouth and chin at seeing the Doctor standing there staring, looking at it emotionlessly. It gave out a loud, deafening screech; within seconds it was on its feet, screaming, charged into the transparent wall, its claws, tail and teeth trying to break through the enclosure so it could get at the soft, human man thing that was on the other side and tear it from limb from limb, to listen to it scream and beg, to smell the puny thing defecate itself from fear before punching into its skull. Just like the others had before they had died.

Either unimpressed or completely apathetic to the raging creature on the other side, Doctor Mason moved his hand to a control panel on the transparent front; slowly his figure slid toward a small white button, and then pressed it down.

A massive amount of electricity jolted through the container, the Xeno losing all control of its body fell to the floor its body twitching and convulsing violently. Mason stood there, his eyes showing no emotion at all, stared, fixated on the Xeno, his finger still holding down the shock button.

One minute passed by.

Two minutes passed by.

Finally, after the third minute he released the button, the Xeno finally lay motionless on the ground. After a few minutes a whimper escaped from it, slowly it coiled itself into a small ball, the tail wrapping around itself tightly, slight, soft hissing and rasping gasps could be heard coming from it, and finally a long, deafening screech that filled the room, everyone in the room freezing in place, slowly turning to stare. Then it went silent, its body still trembling as it held itself curled up in its small ball.

"Disappointing and useless." Mason scoffed walking away. He slowly paced the room, looking at the rest of the contained Xenomorphs, starting off there had originally been fifteen, minus four now, the numbers had grown by twenty over the last few months, now totaling thirty-one prized Xenomorphs each one in its own large container lined the massive room. He knew that each and every one of them would not hesitate to not only kill him but everyone in the room and on the station, but yet the thought of that happening was brushed away as one would brush away an annoying gnat or fly. It was not only irrelevant it was unimportant.

Doctor Mason stopped in front of one of the containers, looking directly up at one of the newer and younger Xeno inside, it was slightly smaller than most of the others, seven and a half feet tall at most, this one didn't have the smooth dome of a drone instead it had the tell tail ridged head of a warrior. The Xeno stepped back several steps, its head looking down the whole time, its tail coiling around its body. Slowly Mason's hand started to make its way toward the control panel and the white shock button, the Xeno let out a small almost whimpering sound. He stood there for a few minutes simply staring at it with his usual cold, emotionless expression with his finger touching the white button but not pressing it just yet. Finally satisfied that the creature knew its place and who was the Alpha, his hand went back to his side, turning he walked away.

Once he was far enough away, the smaller Xeno squatted down, folded its arms across its chest with its tail coiling around its legs and began to rock back and forth, a low pitched rumbling sound emitted from its chest.

Mason continued to walk around the lab, looking at his specimens as well as the little workers at their stations doing their petty day to day duties. He was about to return to his office when a female voice addressed him. "Doctor Mason sir, if I may, I need a few moments of your time."

The Doctor turned around his eyes hardening on the approaching woman. "What do you want Doctor Elizabeth Brooks, I have very little time or interest with you or whatever you might call research. " He said coldly.

"Very well, I'll make this as quickly as I can. I've come to understand that you have more women that you plan to impregnate with Xenomorph embryos and soon."

"Yes, and….." Mason said his voice remaining cold and emotionless.

"Doctor I shouldn't have to remind you that my team is still working on trying to figure out how to counter the chemical imbalance in the women after they have given birth, if we can't figure it out they will all die, just as all the others have in the past."

"First, they are hosts for the Xenomorph embryos nothing more and second, I don't care if they die; they are expendable subjects nothing more, subjects that will not be missed by anyone."

As many times as she had to deal with Doctor Mason she shouldn't have been surprised by his response, but hearing him speak so callously and so openly made her damn near recoil, she still has a hard time believing how he could simply disregard the sanctity of life so easily.

"Director Collins begs to differ, greatly, which is why he and the various boards brought my team and myself on this project. And while they will give you credit for making the necessary genetic modifications to the Xeno embryos so that it not only matures at a much slower rate but also that it also is birthed as a human would so that the women aren't ripped apart from the inside out, the fact still remains that those women are still dying after giving birth. And they find that unacceptable and to be quite frank so do I. These women are not cattle for you to use and discard at your whim, they're living breathing human beings, but for whatever reason, you don't seem to care about that one damn bit or anything else for that matter. My god, do you have no remorse or conscious at all for those poor women that die here? Or is that all they are to you, incubators for your next batch of specimens to be discarded when they no longer serve a purpose?"

Doctor Mason growled, his eyes cutting right into the young female doctor, stepping forward he was almost seething, Elizabeth seeing an almost psychotic rage in his eyes started to back up. "Listen to me you stupid, little, fucking, unimportant bitch, you are nothing here, you are less than nothing, like your work, you are nothing more than a pathetic joke, a joke that I am forced to both tolerate and endure. Now that being said, what do you want, or did you just come here to waste my time."

Backing up, she found herself pressed back against one of the containment cell and Mason was just inched from her face. Steeling herself, she needed to put the lives of those that would be in danger first and focus; not let Mason get the better of her, far easier said than done right now.

"I need to see if extending the gestation length will help, maybe two months instead of one. Also, I would like for the newborns to remain with the women hosts after birth. From my observations there may be a link of some sort, perhaps the physical presence of the Xeno after birth may help stabilize them." She said flatly her eyes locking with his.

Mason damn near scoffed, it was the closest thing he had ever come to a laugh. "You honestly expect physical contact to help stabilize the chemical imbalance, like I said, nothing more than a joke and truly a pathetic one at that."

"Doctor Mason, we are dealing with for all intent purposes an almost unknown alien lifeform, even for as long as we have known about the Xenomorph species, we realistically know next to nothing about them, we don't know what is going on in the mother's body when gestation is taking place, and this is completely new territory for anyone. We don't know what impact the Xeno's genetic modifications may have done on the host body, as I said there very well could be link, by your own records whenever one of the parent's starts to die, the Xeno of that parent went into a crazed frenzy trying to get out of their cell. That tells me that there is something there that we are not seeing. And if it helps to keep these women alive, then I need to see if it can be pursued."

"The newborns will tear into the hosts the first chance they get or did the fact that these creatures are nothing more than mindless killing machines escape you," Mason asked leaning in until he was only an inch from Brooks' face.

"No sir, I don't believe they will attack." Brooks said, glaring back at the man," Or did you just happen to forget that every time someone attempted to separate a newborn from its host mother, it fought back trying to not only defend itself but also its host as well. That tells me that logically, there is a bond between both the newly born Xenomorph and the host parent, now whether it is by mere instinct or something else we have yet to determine, mostly due to a lack of information. Now as I said, I don't believe the newborns will attach the host parent, but in case I'm wrong I'll have them set up in separate isolation chambers. And yes, I am aware that if anything should happen I'll be the one taking full responsibility. " Doctor Brooks finished.

He stared at her for several very long seconds, before backing off. "Very well, I will entertain your idea, I could honestly care less how many hosts we go through, but you, Collins and the boards seem to give a damn about these worthless lumps of flesh. So make whatever arrangements you deem necessary and do whatever pleases you, I'll see to the modifications of the embroils, but if this interferes with MY own research in any way, I'll have you stripped naked and either placed in one of the Xeno's cells just to see how long it'll take for them to rend the flesh from your bones or I'll simply have you spaced. No one would miss you either way." Mason hissed, with that he turned around and walked away.

Brooks has expected resistance from Mason that was always the case, unless what they wanted was aligned with what he wanted, but those last few moments, there had been a cold, murderers, psychotic rage lurking behind his eyes that she had seen. She was able to maintain her composure for a few precious moments as he left, then everything within her crumbled. Sliding down the glass, she simply sat there, her back pressed against the glass case, tears welling from her eyes, she felt more alone and afraid now than she ever had since being brought into this nightmare. It wasn't just for herself or her team but for the women, the hosts that Doctor Mason had all but given a slow death sentence to. If she had known firsthand what she was walking into she might have said no and just walked away and that would have been that, but hindsight was always a royal bitch; she was in so deep now that she had to see it all the way through to the bitter end no matter what the cost was, even if in the end it was her own life.

She did feel that she was getting close to finding a cure for the chemical imbalance in the host's systems after they had given birth to the Xenos, so close, it was right there in front of her, maybe this would be the key to it. There was a connection, a bond, some link between the host mothers and the Xenos they had given birth to, everything she had seen pointed to that.

At first the life expectancy of the women that had given birth to the Xenomorphs was only a week, but thanks to extending the gestation rate from just a few days to a month as well as a potent cocktail of drugs to help stabilize their vitals they were now looking at a month if not a little over. Maybe extending the gestation to two months plus having the Xenos stay with the mothers would at least help.

There had been two things that she had noticed, the first was what most everyone in the lab already knew, that the Xenos would go into a frantic state whenever its host mother was close to dying. And second, what she and the small staff that worked with the hosts did pick up on that no one else seemed to, was that somehow the hosts were, at least on some level, aware of the Xenos that they had given birth to. Even though all the hosts had been sedated prior to being brought on board the station and continued to be sedated the whole time, even during birth, somehow they were still aware of them.

There were times the drug-induced sleeping women would cry out for the Xenos asking where they were, almost begging for them to come to them. It became a very intense when the hosts started to pass away as if somehow they wanted to say goodbye. If it had just been one host that did this she could have dismissed it as a nightmare that the women might have been having, but it wasn't just one, it had been everyone that she had seen since coming on board. Even the old video feed had shown her the same thing; this had been before she had come on board when the first batches were being birthed.

Maybe the very separation itself was causing the imbalance somehow. As she has said to Mason, this was completely uncharted territory that they were in. And right now the man was trying to play god and didn't care about the cost to others or the long term consequences.

There was also the big question of why was this organization had suddenly become so hell bent on breeding Xenomorphs like this, if it was solely only for research purposes, then a few specimens was all they would really need. Now they had thirty plus and within a couple of months more would be filling up the labs. If she was able to stabilize the imbalance in the host's system, then…then they would have an unlimited way of breeding Xenos. This wasn't about research to further science along this was about building an army with as small of a body count as possible.

If one host could birth five or six Xenos within a year, then how many could hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of hosts produce. Plus with no or very little body count, very few would be the wiser. The other matter was of where were the hosts coming from, they had always been sedated throughout the whole procedure, from start to finish, even when they died, so she had never been able to get any info from the women themselves. Plus there wasn't any record of them either, or at least any that she knew of. And if there was, it was way above her clearance level.

She toyed with the idea of asking Commander Snyder, but she truly feared that word would get back to Mason somehow, he had cronies all over the damn station that kept him informed of everything that was going on. She did wonder if Snyder knew, he had too, he may have been former military and did everything by the book but even he wasn't that blind as to not see the games that Mason was playing around here.

She just wanted to save the lives that were in her care and not have them suffer needlessly, and that was becoming more and more difficult. She wondered if they had volunteered for this knowing the risk or had they been abducted against their will, more and more questions started to flood her mind, questions that right now had no real answers.

With as many Xenos as they now had, there was no way this wasn't going to backfire on them eventually, no one had ever been able to fully control the Xenomorphs, ever. Perhaps it would just be better to find a planet for the Xeno's, drop them off and leave them there in peace and forget the whole damn thing altogether before something blew up in their faces and got everyone killed.

The last question that came through her mind was _where were the eggs coming from_? They didn't have a queen on the station, at least none that she knew of; if they did, no, not even Mason could be that reckless and blind to his own petty ambitions to have a live queen on board, that would be suicide, but then the man didn't care about who lived and who died, probably not even himself. Maybe they had found or cleared out a hive and were getting the eggs from there or maybe one of those god awful looking ships, what did they refer to their race again, engineers?

There was a slight 'thump' right behind her, turning her head, looking up, she found herself staring right at the small warrior Xenomorph that the doctor was just a few moments ago tormenting, she felt so sorry for all of them, despite their looks she had never seen them as monsters, different yes but never really monsters; the way the doctor mercilessly tortured them almost daily, if she were to count the monsters here, the real ones, there would be one and only one.

Raising her hand she slowly placed it on the glass with her fingers spread apart slightly, the Xeno looked down at her hand, after a few seconds raised its hand and placed it right where Doctor Brooks hand was at. It then looked back at her and gave a slight nod.

Brooks felt something, almost like a sense of pity or even concern coming right from the smaller Xeno, it wasn't just a feeling that she was having herself, it felt like it was being projected right onto her. Doctor Brooks' eyes widened in surprise, the stark realization hitting her like a freight train, _they were intelligent_. "Oh my god." She whispered to herself, slowly looking around, she now saw that several of the Xenos were looking directly right at her, very intently, it was as if they were all saying, 'now you know, please keep it to yourself.'

Nodding, she swallowed, not realizing how dry her throat had suddenly become. Seemingly satisfied the other Xenos sat back down, trying not to draw undue attention to themselves or her.

Looking back at the Xeno, she could see that it was smiling slightly, something that in her limited time in the Xeno holding area she had never ever seen. Mostly the aliens looked like wanted to rip everyone apart, snarling, hissing bearing their teeth at the scientists that got close, with the exception of maybe one or two of the lab assistants that seemed to treat them better than the rest of the staff. They were pissed and with good reason, after the treatment they had all received, she really couldn't blame them.

Pulling its hand back, the small warrior went back to the center of the container, laid down and curled up. Doctor Brooks had this god-awful pit in her stomach now and she knew that it wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

It wasn't just the women hosts that she was going to need to try and save any more, it was also all the Xenos in the lab, but just how to get thirty-one, soon, possibly in a couple of months' time, forty-one Xenos out of not only the labs but away from the station and some place safe, if she hadn't been scared before, she was now absolutely terrified and what was worse she didn't have a clue about what to do or how to do it.

xxxxx

Footsteps echoed throughout the empty corridors of the Saratoga, Shawn had walked the halls of the massive ship for a couple of hours trying to clear his head. A lot of what he had seen and read in the logs still was racing through his mind. He had hoped that getting out of CIC for a little while would help, it hadn't.

Whether it was simply random events that were happening at an increased pace that just happened to be coincidental, or if, in fact, there was some grand galactic scheme going on at a level that no one could even begin to fathom. That last thought gripped at his mind and refused to let go, the thought that everyone, despite their species, could be nothing more than playing pieces manipulated in a galaxy-wide game of some sort, it was more than unnerving it downright scary.

Shawn tried to shake the thought from his mind, _no I'm still reading way too much into this stuff again, just stick to what you know and don't make any assumptions you silly nit. The last thing that anyone needs is for me to do is start seeing patterns and stuff that aren't there._ He chastised himself.

Still, the last video that he had seen of the group of five humans with the hive and queen refused to leave his mind. He wanted to know what had happened, how they found each other and what had happened after. Where they all living together in relative peace or had some military or corporation force found them and destroyed it all. Maybe one day, after all this, whatever this was, had passed, he would try and find out. He could have easily spent hours or even days just watching that video over and over.

He soon found himself standing in front of the doors that led into the primary hangar bay. Smiling to himself, this should be a treat, he hadn't been able to make it down to this area since arriving on the ship and he had been wondering what toys were down here.

Pressing the open button, the doors slid open and in a few steps he found himself standing inside the massive, carnivorous hanger bay. The bay was a huge rectangle shaped room, for the most part, a massive pair of double doors for entering and exiting ships were on the lengthy outer wall opposite to where he had entered.

Just to his left along the wall was a holding bay for shuttles, counting there were twenty of the small bays, double stacked, ten on the bottom and ten on top. Hover from what he saw there were eighteen of the twenty shuttles, all a glistening, shiny black. More toward the back and center part of the room there were eight larger bays, double stacked as well, four on top and four on the bottom, and in each one was a gleaming black as night drop ship. And nestled just behind them in wall bays were the matching APCs that each drop ship would hold.

On the wall that had the APCs housed was a small elevator that ran up to a small room with a catwalk that ran the length of all the walls except the wall with the primary bay doors. The room above, from what he might have guessed could have been the control room for the hanger.

Glancing over right, he saw a couple of large doors that were almost as big as the hanger doors, there was only a single sign that was placed between both doors, written on it was, 'Munitions and Ordnance'. "I'll get to you later," Shawn said wagging his finger toward the doors; instead, he quickly walked toward the drop ships.

He suddenly felt like a child at Christmas, though Christmas usually didn't consist of getting high powered assault ships that could rain death destruction down and level multiple city blocks at a time. Maybe this was the exception, it was a pity that he didn't know a thing about how to fly them. At least not right now but there would be time to learn how to fly them later on, at some point later on he would need a small distraction, even if it was just for a little while.

The shuttles he figured that he could easily enough fly those, shuttle as a rule, even as make and models varied were usually pretty basic to fly, the biggest learning curve was getting use to the layout of the flight controls and configuration. The dropships, those were a whole different beast altogether, but damn if he just didn't want to fly one right now.

Walking up to one of the dropships, he reached up, letting his hand glide underneath the smooth, cool metal as he walked underneath the lowest part of the ship. Making a mental note to himself, if he got the chance he was going to try his damnedest to learn how to fly one of these bad boys. Maybe even squeeze off a few rounds from the two massive Gatling cannons fixed just to the left and right of the cockpit.

He continued to explore the bay for about another hour before leaving, looking over the shuttles, APCs as well as the heavy lifters and ammunition pull carts plus whatever other odds and ends were scattered about, which included a large tool bay for maintenance and all the newest goodies and toys that any mechanic could ever want or need.

The hangar bay was going to become his new favorite place to go to when he had the free time, he needed to at some point take a look at the smaller secondary hangar bay that was on the other side of the ship. He figured that there would be more of the same, in just smaller numbers.

After walking around another hour or so, his mind a bit clearer than it had been a few hours earlier, he decided to head back to CIC and check the status of the data hackers/crackers, he doubted that any progress had been made on getting the FTL unlocked, even if no progress had been made, he could at least start looking into more of the data files over the Xenomorphs, see what other info he could gleam.

It was right then that he heard a whimpering hiss that slightly echoed throughout the corridors, stopping he cocked his head trying to hear where it was coming from. For a minute or two he didn't hear anything then it came again, slightly louder this time. He had been around the Xenos long enough now to recognize that the hissing was coming from one of them, but which one he didn't know. Had one of them been injured somehow, as tough as they looked he couldn't really see that happening, but then accidents did happen.

Hearing it again, he started to follow where the sound was coming from. It wasn't long before he turned a corner and saw one of the Xenos lying down curled up next to the bulkhead wall sleeping. Looking at the Xeno, he recognized it, sort of, or more accurately, it was the Xeno that he had seen and spent the least amount of time with.

Shadow and the other drone, didn't seem to have a problem being around him at all, this one he had seen only a handful of times and mostly at a distance. The Xeno seemed to be very standoffish for the most part, Shawn didn't get the feeling that it was afraid of him necessarily, however he did get the impression that it was troubled somehow.

Turing around, Shawn was about to leave the Xeno in peace, when he heard it give a whimpering hiss again; this time a slight cry followed, the Xeno body twitched several times, then it's massive head jerked forward and back, followed by more whimpering. Its legs tucked further into its stomach and its arms folding tighter around its chest and the very long tail wrapping around its body as it seemed to be trying to and hold itself.

Although their species could not have been further apart in so many aspects, one thing was all too clear, the poor Xeno was having a horrible nightmare, something that Shawn himself knew about all too well. The way it was twitching, jerking and whimpering, he was wondering if, in fact, it was having a night terror. He would not have been at all surprised if it was having a dream about being back at the labs and being from what info he had gathered, probably tortured.

Quietly he walked up to the sleeping Xeno and stopped just a couple of feet from it and kneeled down. This one he had never been this close to, and now he was started to see why this Xeno had been standoffish from the start, its whole body was covered with massive amounts of scars and scabbing from what looked like cuts and burns, most of the scar tissue looked like it anywhere from being very old to still fairly fresh. Even the dome which was from what info he had gathered was normally supposed to be smooth, was covered with crisscross slashing marks and a rough looking texture that Shawn recognized as the scabbing over from major large area burns.

"Gods, what in the hell did they do to you?" He whispered softly to himself bringing his hand up to his mouth, that all too familiar aching feeling in the pit of his stomach came back, this was beyond cruelty in every sense of the word. He didn't even want to think about what they had done to this poor creature to put it in such a state. From what he had read, Xenomorphs could take an ungodly amount of pain and damn near shrug it off, what he was seeing was a being that was damn near broke.

Shawn wanted to reach out and touch the Xeno, try in some way to give it some form of comfort, to reassure it that it was alright and nothing was going to harm it here and drive the nightmares away. However waking someone up, from a nightmare or night terror, wasn't always easy, and the person having the bad dreams didn't always react well to being woken up at first and he really did not know how the Xeno would react to being woken up suddenly. And from all the natural weaponry their bodies had, it could kill him in a flash without a second thought. Not a fate that he really was wanting to tempt at the moment, no matter how compassionate the deed might be.

Letting out a deep sigh, for the most part maybe just being close might help, somehow he doubted it, but at least the Xeno wouldn't be alone for the time being. Sitting down on the cold steel floor, closing his eyes, he rested his head in his hands figuring that he might be here for a while, but it wasn't like he had anyplace else to really be.

Over about the course of fifteen to twenty minutes, Shawn could feel himself slowly start to drift off to sleep, the Xenomorph's breathing had become more calm and relaxed, it still whimpered from time to time but not anywhere as bad as what it had been a short time ago. Maybe being within proximity had helped calm it down somehow he wondered to himself.

It was right at that moment that his eyes shot open as a deafening screech filled the area, something black flashed right in front of him, so close that he could feel it just barely graze his hair, followed by something hard hitting metal.

The Xeno was up on all fours, looking right at him, its tail partly embedded into the metal bulkhead. Shawn didn't have time to ever react as it shot away from him, only to find itself in a corner just a few meters away. Screaming it reared up on its hind legs and started to claw at the bulkhead wall leaving deep gouges in the side, it long bladed tail wildly swinging back and forth as if trying to keep some unseen enemy at bay while it tried to make a futile attempt at escape.

After several long moments of clawing at the wall, the Xeno stopped and slowly crumpled into a ball, its long tail wrapping around itself and high pitched screeching erupted from its mouth. Shawn was still frozen in stunned silence, the realization coming fast that the tail blade has come within just a fraction of an inch of taking his face clean off. His eyes glancing over to the spot where the blade had hit, there was a deep gouge in the metal wall. If their tail blades could do that to metal, he didn't have any desire to see or experience what it could do to flesh and bone.

Despite what had almost happened, the raw terror and panic that the Xeno had just displayed hit home with him all too close to his heart. He couldn't count the number of times that he had woken up like that, completely disorientated, screaming, still thinking that he was in that damn spacesuit uncontrollably spinning away, sometimes not even able to breathe.

And now it was just sitting there, curled up in a small ball, its tail and arms wrapping around its chest, seemingly trying to make itself as small as possible, the screeching had subsisted somewhat and now pitiful gasps mixed in with a low sounding wailing took its place.

He needed to play this smart if he went over there the Xeno would more than likely freak out even more and possibly injure or even kill him. His mind flashed back to when he had first met the Xenos, what was it the drone had said to him, both in CIC and on his own ship, ' _No harm'_ , he also remembered how they had their heads down as if was a passive act, letting him know that they were not aggressive and would not hurt him.

Maybe in that way, he could convey to the frightened alien that he wasn't a threat and calm it down some. Getting on his knees he lowered his head and placed his hands on the floor. "No harm." He said echoing what the other Xeno had said when he had first arrived, his eyes focused on the floor. He repeated the words several times, not even sure if they were having any effect. He closed his eyes and waited for the alien to make its move.

He did not have to wait for long.

Shawn heard the sound of light footfalls slowly approaching as claws clipped on the metal floor panels, then warm breath washing over his head and neck. Slowly daring to look up, he found himself looking right into the sacred dome of the Xeno. Slowly lowering his head back down he leaned in a bit more, he was now completely and totally at the Xeno's mercy, he was hoping that he hadn't made what could be a very fatal decision.

Something wet, warm and slimy slid against his right cheek, glancing over, he saw the white, tubbed, toothed tongue was out, the side of it brushing against his cheek, the teeth open fully, slowly started to close and then withdraw. A rush of warm breath covered the side of his face as the Xeno slowly continued to examine him.

A pair of slightly damp fingers slid underneath Shawn's chin as the Xeno gently lifted his head up and once again, he was looking right into the Xeno's scared up dome. He didn't feel any aggression from the Xeno, but there was something that he could feel, a mixture of curiosity, frustration, deep hurt and profound sadness.

It felt like someone had suddenly out of nowhere taken an emotional dagger and plunged it both into his heart and belly; twisted it as hard as they could and then just yanked the damn thing right out. The sheer raw emotional ache that he was feeling just hit straight home much harder than anything he thought possible.

"I'm sorry," Shawn said, painfully overcome by guilt for what his race had done to the Xenos. "Sorry for what they did to you and the others, I wish that there was some way to undo what they did, some way to take the pain away. I know a little about what it's like to be haunted by nightmares, haunted by something that you can't escape, not even in sleep, to wake up and for those few terrifying minutes screaming and crying, wishing that you could stop the demons from coming back night after night, knowing that even those closest to you will never fully understand, to feel completely alone and helpless, even more so with those closest to you." Shawn blinked, not even feeling the tears rolling down his face and drip onto the floor.

"Gods I'm sorry, I'm…" Shawn was cut off as the Xeno wrapped its lengthy arms around him and pulled him into a tight embrace, his face was pressed against the side of the Xeno's dome, its tail coiling around both of them. More than a bit taken back, of all the reactions to expect, this was the one that he had expected the least. Slowly he reached his right arm around and placed it on the Xeno's back returning the embrace. He brought up his left hand and gently placed in on the dome and slowly caressed it. The Xeno seemed to tense up for a few seconds and then relaxed. It was probably the first time a human had ever touched it that wasn't meant to cause it pain.

The Xeno's body started to tremble; a high pitched raspy trilling sound came from it. It sounded like it was crying, or perhaps the Xeno equivalent of it. Shawn continued to gently run his hand down the massive dome, trying to keep it calm and reassure it that nothing was going to happen.

"You're safe now," He whispered, "No one is going to hurt you here, never again." He felt the Xenos embrace tighten even more at his words, there was also something else that he felt just for a fraction of a second, that same odd feeling that he had experienced in CIC with Shadow like something was brushing against his mind. This time he tried to mentally grip onto and remember it, when and if it happened again.

After several minutes a heavy and lengthy sigh escaped the Xeno as its body seemed to finally relax and its breathing started to return to normal, the trilling sound subsiding. Its body slumped slightly, the weight pressing down on Shawn some. He wasn't sure how much time had passed by as he sat with the Xeno half embraced, half draped over him, slowly and gently stroking its domed head, he had started to wonder if it had in fact fallen asleep.

As if almost sensing his thoughts, the Xeno raised its head up slowly looking at Shawn for a few seconds; then it brought its head down and started to nuzzle and nudge Shawn in the chest, seemingly trying to get the human to back up.

Slightly confused by the aliens sudden actions, Shawn backed up until he felt the bulkhead come into contact with his back. Satisfied, the Xeno laid down and partly curled itself around Shawn, laying its head in his lap.

 _Okaaaaay, once again, not what I was expecting from you buddy._ Shawn thought to himself placing his hand on the domed head and started to slowly stroke it. A slight rumble emitted from the Xeno and its body slightly shifted. _Well, I hope that you have some good dreams this time, I'll stay here and keep the nightmares at bay for you._

The Xeno gave what sounded like a soft hiss of thanks. Shawn's mind froze for just a split second, could they actually hear what he was thinking, there had been the nightmare or memory that Shadow seemed to know about, but still, well he was dealing with an alien species, there was no telling what capabilities they might possess, so much for privacy.

Adjusting himself to get a bit more comfortable, Shawn closed his eyes, he wasn't going anywhere for a while from the way things were looking, might as well get a bit of sleep, he was half expecting to see both Shadow and the other drone standing there when he woke up. Relaxing, he felt himself slowly drifting off to sleep.

xxxxx

Black and white, with hues of gray and muted, faded colors, normally only the bright colorful energies of living creatures should be vibrant in his spectrum of vision. But in this world, the cruel, cold and hard world he and the other like him were born into, he could see what he and the other called false energies. They were not the warm living energies of living creatures, these were energies that ran cold and it was all over the place, everywhere.

Blocks, large and small glowed a sick white that was unnatural, the human creatures, sat at these blocks staring into them for long periods of time, then getting up and leaving. The roof or ceiling as he had learned, glowed a sick white, even the containers, he and the others could see streams of the sick white energy coming into it from the bottom.

Sleep for them was never restful, always the sick white energies that were everywhere made it difficult to get even a little rest. Rest and sleep that they all wanted and needed so desperately.

The lights were bright, so bright, and everything was cold, why did they always make everything so bright and cold, always cold, always bright. All he wanted was the warmth and darkness of the hive, to be with his brothers and sisters, and to be with his mother, the queen, to finally hear her voice, to finally give him comfort and direction, guidance. For all of them to feel her love for them, to know they were safe and loved and that everything was alright and that there were no monsters coming to harm and hurt them.

But there were monsters here, and the never ending cold, and the never ending bright, the clear confinement that offered nothing but pain and anguish, and **him** , that horrid, horrid man-thing, that would look at him for hours on end with its cold, dead eyes. Eyes that held no warmth, kindness or remorse for what he was doing to him and his brothers and sisters. He hated that man-thing with every fiber of his body and soul, hated what he had done to him, his brothers and sisters, the screams the begging for mercy, the pleading to make the pain stop, they all hated him and they all feared him. Even the ones that worked with him, feared him and hated him, he could smell it, his brothers and sisters could smell it, the hate for the horrid man-thing, the one that was called Mason.

He just wanted to go home, wherever home was, to run to the mother, his queen, to curl up in her warm and waiting arms, to feel her love, her warmth, to have her wash the pain away and for him and the other to start anew, to feel her nuzzle him and tell him that it was just a nightmare and that he was now safe. To hear her soft and gentle words, ' ** _my dear little one, it will be all right, you have nothing more to fear, you are with us and no more harm shall come to you, we all love you my dear little one_** ,' and to know that it would be and that all of it had just been a bad nightmare that would be washed away.

But it wasn't, nor would it be.

There was no hive, no mother, no queen; no safe place to hide and curl up in. All there ever had been and all there ever would be was the continuous pain, the continuous torment, and **HIM**. The human man-thing that they all feared, that they all loathed and that they all hated, and above all, they all wanted dead, the one that was called Mason.

Everything seemed to shift within a second, he was strapped in, restrained, muzzled, his body violently shook and twitched, and burned, the burning, the never ending burning as it lashed out both within and out of his body. Blue and white streams kept licking at his body from the round metal rods close by. He wanted to scream, to cry out, to beg, but the human man-thing Mason had cruelly gagged him, so he was unable to vocalize his distress.

If human ears could have heard the true meaning behind the deafening screams and screeches, they would have heard his crying and whimpering his cries of agony, his begging of mercy, they were beings that did not understand as to why they were being tortured so, wanting to know what they themselves had done to warrant such treatment. And what they could do to make things right.

 ** _Please let me die, please let me die, please let me die._** Where his only thoughts as the pain continued to wrack and burn his body as he twitched and spasmed, the cold and cruel metal restraints cutting into his black chitin skin, causing small drops of blood to fall and burn on the floor.

 ** _Please….kill me...please_** , where the only thoughts going through his mind, now all he wanted was to be released from the ever present agony, to be with the great mother beyond, to feel her warm and loving embrace and to be held as one of her children and to no longer feel the everlasting pain.

The burning finally stopped, however, the pain his body felt did not. The cold and cruel metal restraints popped open, the gag released and his body slumped to the floor. Too weak, too tired, and too broken to move, he simply lay there, not even curling up, simply staring into nothingness.

 ** _Why…why do you hate us so much? Why do you do this to us? What do you want? Why can't we go home?_** The questions that rang through his mind, the ones that he could never speak in their language, and they could never understand in his, the questions that he would never have answers for.

The horrid man-thing stood outside of the containment tube simply staring in, its cold dead eyes locked onto the helpless black crumpled form, no smile, no sense of regret or even accomplishment, not even hate or anger simply nothing, he was looking into a void that was colder and curlier than that of space itself and it was just behind those cold lifeless eyes.

It all shifted again, the tube, his tube, was in a red lit square metal room, he knew this room all too well, he wanted out, he didn't want to be here, the cold was coming, he was going to be so cold and so alone. He clawed at the transparent side to no avail, already he could tell the pressure was dropping in the room, soon it would be dark and oh so very cold.

The pressure was soon gone, and so was the air, a pair of doors opened up and the void was there as it had been so many times in the past and so was the cold, that awful cold. He curled himself up into a tight ball and waited. No air, no pressure only the cold and the void to keep him company as he waited in the tube which sat in the square, red-lit metal room. He couldn't even hear his brothers and sisters when they brought him down here, he was always alone here, alone, isolated and in silence, with only the ever present cold and void to keep him company.

He glanced up, an observation window with the shutters opened up, with that horrid man-thing staring at him, always staring, always watching him with its cold, dead eyes. He knew that it would stay there the whole time, only leaving to go and sleep, and then it would be back, to look, to watch, to stare. He hated it, he hated the man-thing, the one they called Mason, the one they all wanted dead.

Everything began to shift again, all of it seeming to come together in a mess of sound, imagery, and feelings, cold, fire, cutting, burning, metal biting and cutting into flesh. Screaming, begging, pleading, image after image rapidly flashing one right after another, each image a slice of his life that the man-thing Mason had cut up, violated and destroyed within his soul, all of it now a maelstrom blurring in front of him…

xxxxx

Shawn jerked his head up, not even feeling it slamming into the metal bulkhead wall, gasping, tears streaming down his face. He felt moist, rough textured hands pressing against his cheeks, it took him a few moments to regain his senses, he realized the drone that had fallen asleep in his lap was now straddling him, cupping his face, looking at him, a feeling of concern was radiating from it toward him.

Minutes had passed by before Shawn had even partly composed himself, he mentally felt like he had just been put through a blender and then sprayed all over the place. The Xeno holding his face was looking him over, small high pitched whines came from it, it's thumbs gently stroking his face, wiping the tears away, offering whatever small comfort it could.

Shawn just stared at the drone, still in shock as hot tears uncontrollably ran down his face. After a while he was finally able to speak, though not very well, his voice feeling like it was choking up every time a word came out.

"That was you, wasn't it? Everything I just saw was what they did to you in those labs, all that pain, and suffering the humiliation, everything that you went through." Shawn's voice became distant as the memories raced through his mind, "Wanting to die."

"Shit dude, just…..shit." He didn't even really know what to say after that, maybe there wasn't anything to say, he had just had a royal mental mind screw, experiencing a large chunk of what the Xeno had gone through in those labs and that Doctor, Mason is what they called him. He couldn't forget those eyes and the way he just looked at everything, like none of it mattered, no one, human or Xeno was of any importance, it had only been a memory that Shawn had seen but already that man scared the hell out of him more than anyone else ever had. If there was a Devil in the universe than that man, if anyone could call him that, was it.

Reaching back behind Shawn's head with its hand, the Xeno leaned in close and started to nuzzle the side of Shawn's face, the high pitched whining becoming slightly louder and increased in pitch, it almost felt like it was apologizing to him, for letting him see something that he shouldn't have, or maybe the Xeno was ashamed that he had seen what they had done to it in the labs.

"It's alright buddy, it's alright, I'm good, I'm good." He said wrapping his arm around the Xeno's neck hugging it, the Xeno returning the embrace. What they had done to the Xenomorphs in that lab was not just cruel and inhuman, it was evil in every sense of the word. He didn't care what species they were or what they looked like, it should have been against all better human nature to treat any living creature like that. Not only did he see it, he had felt everything, every cut, burn the shock the coldness of space, the way they had starved them, giving them only enough to survive and nothing more, he felt it all.

How long they stayed like that Shawn didn't even know, nor did he really care. All he wanted to do was just stay in that spot and embrace and be embraced. To try and give and receive comfort, to know that he could hopefully even it was just a little bit, take away some of the pain from this poor, tormented being. Pain that he would now like to return in spades to Doctor Mason, preferably in the most painfully way possible and right up his ass.

The Xeno slowly; gently ran its hands up and down Shawn's back, and in return, he did the same or as well as he could. A deep thrum started to emanate from its chest and resonate throughout the small area. Just like in his ship with the other drone, he instantly started to relax, the tension quickly fading from his body.

"How... how can someone treat other living beings like that, how? It's not right, none of it is. What he did to you, to the others. I truly am sorry for everything that happened to you and the others of your kind." Shawn whispered. "I'm sorry." After that he couldn't really say anymore, he simply didn't have the words for anything else.

Shawn sat there in the Xeno's embrace for a few moments longer before leaning back. The Xeno loosened its grip on him allowing the human to lean back up against the bulkhead wall. Reaching up, he lightly touched the side of the Xeno head, rubbing his fingers along the jawline.

"When this is all over and you and the others have yourself a new home, some place far away, some place quiet, peaceful that no one knows about, the bad things that you and the others went through will become a distant memory, little more than some vague shadow of a bad dream. Or at least I would hope so."

The Xeno cupped Shawn's head in its hands and gently pulled him forward while leaning in, its forehead touching his. Shawn could feel a warmth coming from it, different from what he had felt before, more focused this time; it felt like it was starting to penetrate into his mind, almost like an invisible finger being pushed deep into the center of his brain. In an instant, the warmth seemed to radiate outward in a burst and then was gone.

Holding Shawn's head in its hands the Xeno remained motionless for a while, then let go and leaned back. Shaking his head, Shawn felt a bit lightheaded and dizzy, but nothing out of the ordinary, though the concept of 'ordinary' had pretty much gone out the airlock since he first stepped foot on board this ship and met these beings. Maybe what had just happened was this one's way of saying thank you. If that was the case, it was a very interesting way to say thanks.

"Okay...I think I need to get some sleep now." Shawn said a wave of tiredness suddenly washing over him, his vision for a few seconds became blurry and then returned to normal.

Standing up, the Xeno leaned down and helped Shawn to his feet. Nodding for him to follow, the alien started to walk down the hall. Following, Shawn remained silent for a while as the two of them walked. Everything had been so serious for a while that he figured that he might try to lighten the mood a bit. "You know, I nicknamed the big one Shadow, cause for whatever reason the minute I turn around, _bam,_ right there in my face, without a sound, just like a shadow. I was wounding, how does Ghost sound as a name or nickname for you. You've always been around but never really there, always disappearing whenever I see you."

The Xeno stopped mid stride and looked at Shawn, then slowly nodded giving him a slight smile and continued to walk on.

"So I guessing that would be a yes then," Shawn said, trying to hold back a yawn and failing. Going up several more levels, Ghost turned in front of a pair of double doors and motioned for Shawn to follow him in. Walking in Shawn froze at what he saw, the room he was guessed was a small storage area, maybe thirty feet by thirty feet and about ten or so feet high, only the metal walls, floor and ceiling weren't visible, they were covered in a black, bone like organic substance which looked shiny and wet. He felt like he had just stepped right into the gut of some weird living creature.

The temperature and humidity were slightly higher than what he had felt in the rest of the ship, but not uncomfortably so. Walking around the room, his hand gliding over the boney sticky structure, it was unlike anything that he had ever seen, looking just to his left, curled up right against the wall was Shadow, the large Xenomorph had blended in so well he almost hadn't seen it there.

"Not to sound stupid or anything, but did you and the others do this, this is amazing, I've never seen anything like it," Shawn asked, turning back toward Ghost. "It almost looks like it's alive somehow."

Nodding yes, Ghost walked over to a corner, laid down and gestured for Shawn to come over and lay down as well.

"Guessing you really don't want to go to sleep by yourself this time, not that I can blame you, can't say that I really want to sleep by myself either, not after what I saw," Shawn said, lying down next to Ghost. The Xeno shifted it body coming right up behind Shawn who was finding himself being spooned and embraced by the Xeno, its massive head right above his, the tail curling around forming what looked like a protective circle. By all rights he probably should have felt a bit nervous but he wasn't at all if anything he felt very safe, warm and even protected.

"Let's try to have some pleasant dreams this time. God knows it would be nice right about now and we both need something a bit more enjoyable." Shawn muttered, closing his eyes and finding himself quickly drifting off to sleep.

Ghost let out what sounded like an agreeable hiss, then slightly tightening the embrace around the human and quickly fell into a deep sleep. The human was right, they both needed something other than nightmares, and something a bit more pleasant would be nice. Maybe, just maybe a nice dream about being in a hive with the mother, the queen, and all the horrible things forgotten about, even if it was just for a little while.

xxxxx

Shadow had woken up upon hearing one of his hive mates entering into the sleeping area that they had modified, with the human Shawn in tow no less, needless to say, Shadow was surprised by this but had remained motionless not wanting to interrupt what was going on and see what transpired.

Observing, Shadow smiled inward hearing Shawn complement the small hive structure the three of them had constructed. While Shadow had always had reservations about contacting humans for help, seeing how their race had been treated by the humans in the labs, Shawn had, even though he was at first terrified of them, given them a chance and within a short order of time, even warmed up to them. The human's company was pleasant for all of them, it gave them all hope that not all humans were like those in the labs, cold, cruel and malevolent. Maybe, just maybe more humans were like Shawn was outside of the labs, if so then perhaps there was hope.

Sensing that the two of them were now deep asleep, not only that but to Shadow's surprise, sleeping together as hive mates would do sometimes, it looked like the human had somehow broken through at least some of the barriers that its hive mate had put up, no thanks to that hated man-thing Mason.

Shadow quietly rose up and carefully walked over to where the two of them were laying down, both of them looked so peaceful laying there. Lying down, careful not to wake either one of them, Shadow scooted in, tail coiling around its hive mate, reaching out and using the back part of its fingers, gently caressed Shawn's jaw and cheek.

Shawn stirred slightly, muttering something incoherent that Shadow couldn't understand. Starting to drift off to sleep, Shadow didn't know what the future had in store for any of them, neither Xeno nor human, but whatever it was, from this point out, it was going to be interesting.

 ** _Please feel free to review and comment, and thank you for reading._**


	6. Awakenings

**Something I was curious about since these chapters seem to be getting longer and longer as I write them out. Do the people that read these stores prefer longer drawn out chapters or shorter more broken up chapters?**

 **Please enjoy and thank you for taking the time to read this story.**

 **xxxxx**

CHAPTER 5: Awakenings

Doctor Elizabeth Brooks, or as some of her friends back home use to refer to her as "Liz "or even "Beth", looked through the massive observation window down into the primary hangar area. Datapad firmly clutched in hand, she would glance back and forth every now and then to see if anyone was coming.

She scrolled down the list of ships and types that were currently docked at the station, her first thought was to find something suitable to her needs, which were right now at this moment, questionable at best, a ship that she and all the Xenomorphs could get onto and away from the station quickly. Much to her dismay, the choices were very limited.

The massive transports and freighters that would normally dock to deliver supplies and then either stay to transport back whatever the station deemed necessary or leave right away, was her first choice until a sobering fact hit her. Yes, the freighters and transports were massive and could easily hold all of them, but most of them were automated, and the ones that weren't had android pilots, same difference almost. Plus the ships were slow and even though they were equipped with an FTL drive, it took a while for the drive to charge up, which meant the ship was vulnerable during that time and could be easily disabled by the attack and strike craft that were currently housed here to defend the station in case of an attack.

Shuttles were very fast but could only hold a small number of people, plus the shuttles had what pilots referred to as "short legs" a term that she had come to understand as meaning that they couldn't go that far, plus the lack of supplies was another issue.

The only other options were the dropships, a standard drop ship could hold quite a few people, but not forty plus Xenos, and a few humans as well as the supplies for a long trip, in addition, the standard dropships didn't have an FTL drive.

That only realistically left the heavy dropships, they were large enough for everyone, plus supplies and it had a limited FTL drive. It was also heavily armed and armored, and it had a good enough speed. The only glaring problem that she faced was that she didn't know a damn thing about flying any of the craft, not even the shuttles.

She had been way too busy studying to get her medical degree, once again hindsight was being a royal bitch to her, knowing that she was going to eventually go into space, she should have had better forethought and taken at least a basic flight course, but her mindset had always been, _why bother, when I can just hire a pilot to fly me where I need to go._ She shook her head, _way to go Beth, that's two for two now, care to go for three and strike out. Trying having a bit more forethought here in the near future you dumb shit._

There was no way she could simply go and ask one of the pilots for a quick course in flying a ship, not even a shuttle without drawing some suspension, all the pilots reported directly to the CAG, who in turn reported directly to Commander Snyder.

What she needed was someone from the outside, but even though she did know a couple of freighter pilots there was no way she could commutate with them without word getting back to Snyder, outgoing coms was heavy restricted and monitored, every outgoing message that was sent out was recorded and heavy scrutinized in fear of espionage and spies. Not that she could blame them, the stuff they were doing, was way outside legal limits, which was a gross understatement. And even though her part was to try and save lives, if this place ever got busted, she had no doubt that the rest of her life would be spent in a max security prison being interrogated every day.

Even if she was able to get word to anyone that she knew that could make the journey, any ships that didn't have a friendly IFF signal that wasn't scheduled would either be destroyed on sight or boarded, captured, the crew interrogated, and then if they were lucky, killed, if not, then what waited from them was worse than death.

Closing out of the data pad, she leaned back and just stared down at the ships. She was alone in this, if any word got back to either Commander Snyder or god forbid Doctor Mason, well she had no illusions that he would make good on his threat to kill her, being killed by a Xeno or getting vented into space, at least the Xeno would more than likely be quick with any luck, even if it did eat her afterwards.

She had to face facts, that at least at this moment, there wasn't anything that she could do to get the Xenos free and not only off of the station but some place safe. Even if she was able to cause a distraction, get them free and onto a ship, where would they go and who would fly the ship. She was regretting coming here more and more each minute now. The only real thing she could do was to tough it out, keep an eye open for an opportunely and take it. But for now, maybe she could at least help try and give the Xenos some small about of comfort, somehow.

Turning around she started to head back to the lab and the Xeno pens, maybe she could get some insight there or at least draw some courage somehow. On the way back, she kept her head down most of the time, lost in thought on what to do and how to do it. First, she needed to gain their trust, easier said than done, maybe the small warrior might be a good place to start. It had shown enough trust in her to reveal at least something that Mason and the rest of the Xeno lab team didn't know or even suspect.

Mason and his team had tortured and even violated the Xenos in the lab to no end; now many of them seemed now to take a perverse pleasure in it. Now often taking bets on how long a Xeno could go before it passed out from the pain, or until it just got so totally enraged that it would just throw itself into the container wall trying to break through and free itself. Which at that point they would either gas it to knock it out or activate the shock plate, sometimes even both at the same time.

There was no way in hell she could release the Xenos without them killing every member of Mason's team. It would be a bloodbath, and as much as she despised Mason and was starting to despise his team, she couldn't trade a life for a life, which is exactly what she would be doing. Though there was the bigger picture to consider now. If in fact, this secret group was breeding Xenos for an army, then how many lives would be lost years from now if she did nothing. Thousands, tens even hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions.

It suddenly felt like the weight of the universe was resting on her shoulders and her shoulders alone. What she needed was proof before acting, she needed to know what the hell was going on and why; maybe even with a bit of luck actually get solid info and then go from there. Though it was entirely possible that not even Snyder or Mason would even have an idea about why they were breeding so many Xenos, but if anyone had an idea, it would likely be either one of them, not that any of them would tell her anything. Unless she could make it an issue, a valid issue that she could then bring up to one of them, hopefully, Snyder and get some answers.

Far too many questions were starting to come up and no answers, her walk back to the labs went far too quick and she barely noticed when she got back. Walking into the Xeno holding area, she looked around, Mason was not in his office from what she could tell and he wasn't in holding area either. A break from that man, at least for a little bit.

Walking over to the container that held the small warrior, she knelt down, and opened her date pad and pretended to look as if she was going over some data regarding the Xenos. The small warrior that had been curled up in a ball, unfurled itself and slowly on all fours walked over to where Brooks was and sat down, looking right at her, it's head tilting to the side slightly.

Placing her hand on the outside of the containment unit with her fingers spread apart, Brooks waited to see if the Xeno would do what it had done last time. A few seconds later the Xeno placed it's hand on the containment wall its fingers spread out slightly right where Brook's fingers were at. She turned her head to look around and just like before saw that several of the other Xenos were looking right at her.

"Looks like you've manage to make a new friend." A voice said right behind her.

Brooks whirled around, terrified that Mason had caught her; thankfully it wasn't him. One of the lab techs was standing just a few feet behind her, a massive cart loaded with raw synthetic meat just off to the side.

"Sorry didn't mean to startle you like that, didn't realize that you were that caught up in your work." The tech said turning to the cart, taking a large plate off the cart with several massive slabs of the raw meat.

"No, it's alright, guess I was off in my own little world…ummm."

"Ryan Anderson, I'm one of the lab tech's." Ryan nodded toward the small Xeno, "Normally they don't like any anyone getting too close to them, usually the start to hiss at anyone who gets too close. You're now one of two people that they don't seem to mind getting close to."

"Really? Who is the second person if you don't mind me asking?" Brooks asked surprised.

"You're looking at him." Ryan said, "Everyone else around here these guys are royally pissed off at."

"How did you manage to get in there good graces?" She asked, standing up.

"Well for one, I don't go around torturing them and second I'm about the only one that seems to really give a damn about how they're treated, well that and I help feed them too, or at least I try when Mason isn't looking," Ryan said, walking up to the container unit with the large plate of meat. Setting it down on the floor he pushed a couple of buttons on the panel. A metal tray on the base of the container unit slid out, loading up the tray with the synthetic meat, he pushed another button, the tray slid back into the base and a small hatch in the container floor opened for the tray with the meat to rise up on. "There you go my dear," Ryan said, standing up and walked back to the cart.

The Xeno seemed to nod slightly, and went over to the meat and started to devour it hungrily.

"Does Mason not feed them on a regular schedule?" Brooks asked going over to the cart.

"No, he doesn't. He never really seemed to care about their wellbeing at all. I've been here for over a year, was working on the first batches that Mason helped bring around. Even then he didn't seem to care." Ryan replied, loading up the tray with more meat. "They could starve to death and he wouldn't give a damn about it at all. I think that he takes some sick pleasure in watching them suffer."

Walking over the tray to the next container, Ryan proceeded to load the meat into the containment unit, the Xeno tearing into the food. "I try to keep them fed as best as I can, sometimes I can sneak a double or triple portion for them, help to keep their strength up, at least when Mason's not around."

Returning to the cart Ryan proceeded to load up the tray again. "So, feel like giving a poor lab tech a hand, I'll spot you a coffee or even a nice cup of tea afterwards," Ryan said smiling, holding up the plate of meat. "I mean come on, how could you refuse an offer like that?"

Brooks nodded several times, "Hmmm, well far be it from me to refuse the offer of either coffee or tea, especially from a man holding his meat out for all the world to see." A sly smile forming at the corner of her lips.

"Oh, nicely played there Doc, you know most people are so stiff around here that they usually just said, no thanks maybe later, and walked off. But you actually made a decent comeback. Let me guess….a brother or two?"

"Three brothers and a sister, you?

"Sadly no brothers, two sisters, one was a complete drama queen, the other a hard ass tomboy that ended up joining the marines after high school. Neither one of them could be any further from each other when it came to personality or interests, but my god when they both got in on something together, my parents usually ended up hearing about it. Usually with about half of the neighborhood up in arms on whatever stunt they had pulled." Ryan answered.

"You were the middle child I'm guessing," Brooks asked, the quick fright he had given her a few moments ago was starting to wear off some.

"Unfortunately no, I got the honor of being the youngest child," Ryan replied.

"Ouch."

"Yea, had to play dress up and tea time until I was ten, I'm sure you can guess how well that went over with my friends at that age."

"You poor, poor thing."

"I know, years of painful trauma, can't really ever look at tea sets, doll houses or evening length nightgowns without breaking into tears and curling up into the fetal position for hours on end. My parents banned me from ever going out with them by the time I was twelve. Even to this day they're still embarrassed to be seen with me in public, and as a child well into my teen years I was under the impression that it was my sworn duty as it is with all teens, that we were the ones that were supposed to be embarrassed to be seen with our parents in public." Ryan responded.

"Soooo, what do you say, meat for coffee or tea." Ryan said, jiggling the plate back and forth some. "Or are you just going to let me stand here shaking my meat, letting me make a total fool of myself?"

Brooks held her hands out. "You plate, I'll serve."

"Deal," Ryan said handing her the plate of meat and going over to the next containment unit and opening the serving tray.

"So if you don't mind me asking, how the hell did you end up here?" Brooks said, placing the meat onto the container serving tray.

"Xenobiology was my main study, along with alien language as a second major." Ryan answered, "Did pretty well in both areas, not at the top of my class mind you, but well enough that I thought I could land a decent career with one of the more prominent research institutes. Then one day I get a rather odd offer, and well since you are here you probably know how the rest went."

"Yea, weird interviews, secret meetings, months of waiting to see if you have the job or not and then one day several people show up letting you know that 'you are in' and if you want the job you have twenty-four hours to make the decision and be at a certain spot for pick up, and bring nothing." Brooks replied.

Ryan nodded, "That was pretty much the way it went for me as well. Didn't come here right away, though, wound up working planet side for about four years then got transferred here."

"Same here," She replied back, following Ryan and the cart. "I think that I was planet side for about three years going on four when I got put here."

Ryan stopped the cart in front of what looked to me a much larger containment unit. A hulking Xenomorph was curled up in the center of the unit, lifting its massive crested head; it looked right at the two humans, uncurled itself, walked over and squatted down looking at both them, its head going back and forth between the two.

Brooked backed up, looking wide-eyed at it. "Holly shit, that one's huge, I mean what ten feet tall at least."

Ryan stood just a foot away from the wall of the container, seemingly unafraid of the massive Xenomorph that was only now a few feet away from them. "Yep, about ten and a half give or take an inch, Doctor Elizabeth Brooks I would like to introduce you to one of two of our resident Praetorians. There was another one that was in the process of developing into a Praetorian but that one was one of the three Xenos that escaped. I'm actually surprised that you haven't seen this big guy before."

I don't really get much of a chance to come to the Xeno area, and usually when I do it's to talk to Doctor Ma…"

Ryan held up his hand quickly cutting Brooks off in mid-sentence. "We don't say his name around this one, or any of them if we can help it. Tends to agitate them to no end, and we don't want that. Do we big guy?" Ryan asked, turning his head to look at the Xeno.

The Praetorian blew a massive puff of air onto the clear wall, fogging it up for a few seconds as if it was in complete agreement.

"See, total agreement," Ryan said walking back to the cart loading up the tray with a massive pile of meat and handing it off to Brooks. "Now let's get the rest of these guys fed before 'you know who' comes back."

The two went around continuing to feed the Xenos and talk. Brooks was starting to feel better being able to talk to someone, it was nice to be able to smile or even laugh about something, even if it was just silly banter for the most part.

Coming up to the last container, Ryan handed the tray of meat off to brooks. "So how did you get to be the guy who feeds the Xenos? No one else wanted the job?" Brooks asked.

"Let's just say I got into a serious screaming match with he who shall not be named, over how he was treating the Xenos and was about to take his fucking head off when I had the guards called on me," Ryan said flatly with a serious deadpan look on his face. "Five more seconds and I would have had his ass on the ground and probably would have been ready to kill him. So after a month in the brig, I got to come back, but only to take the readings from the containment unit and to feed them and that would be it. All my other work and duties were transferred to someone else."

"I'm sorry," Brooks said.

"Yea well, my only regret is that I didn't get those five extra seconds. Bastard has made these creatures lives a living hell, no one deserves to be treated like this. They're such extraordinary beings and they are reduced to…this." Ryan said waving his hand toward the containment units. "And despite all the test, readings, experiments, everything that we do, we know almost nothing about them. No idea where they came from, how they evolved, or if they evolved, maybe they were created, and if so what was there propose? Did they come from another galaxy altogether, maybe even another dimension if such a thing exists? A lot of questions and of course no answers, which is pretty much par for the course around here."

Brooks put the empty tray back onto the cart, the last Xeno in the pen area fed for the day. "If it's any consolation, I feel the same way. Not really a big fan of seeing what he does here. I was sent here to try and save the lives of these women hosts, but I'm not sure I can do even that. Even if I do, what then, do those that I did save from dying now get to spend the rest of their years being impregnated over and over giving birth to countless Xenos until they are completely spent? When I became a Doctor I wanted to save lives and ease people suffering, to do what was right. And as cliché, as that may sound, it is what I really wanted to do, not be the one who would ultimately sentence innocent souls to a life of subjection as a breeding factory for an alien species. I feel like no matter what I do, I'm somehow damning someone's life, and there is no escape from it."

Ryan gave a sigh as he started to push the empty cart back to the food storage area. "If we have this conservation then it should be someplace a bit more private, and not in the pens for everyone to hear. You know who may not care one bit, but I don't want to really take that chance. Besides I owe you a coffee or tea and I happen to know a nice spot where we can get it fresh, or as fresh as can be expected."

"Any possibility you might have anything a bit stronger?" Brooks said, smiling weakly.

Ryan nodded. "You know think I may have just the thing."

xxxxx

Broken strands of sunlight beamed down through the thick foliage of the forest, tree branches softly swayed back and forth in the gentle breeze the leaves rustling and falling slowly twirling to the ground. A small stream ran just outside the perimeter of the forest the water dancing and singing over the smooth rocks that jutted up from the water.

Walking through the forest to the edge, Shawn stopped and stood there, his eyes half closed as if he was closing in on a dream-like a state, he took in a deep breath, inhaling the cool, damp air. In all his life he had never been planet bound, or at least never on a planet that didn't have a bio-dome for protection. And none of them had ever had a real forest in them. This was a real forest, with real streams, and real air that wasn't recycled through filters and scrubbers.

Looking up, the sky from what he could see through the thick canapé, was a deep blue with massive puffy white and slightly gray clouds floating lazily overhead. The slight breeze picked up some, Shawn closed his eyes as the breeze danced over his now naked body.

He stood there, waiting, he didn't need to look to know that they were there, he could feel it. Close, so very close, before he knew it, a pair of strong arms gently embraced him, a soft hiss, a hiss that was so soft and seductive, whispered in his ear telling him that he was both wanted and desired. He tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck in a sign of trust, moist and slick translucent lips carefully caressed across the side of his neck up to his the side of his jaw. Smooth steel teeth gently glided across the sensitive skin, leaving only slight white marks that would disappear within seconds.

The Xeno's tongue slowly made its way out, the deadly glistening teeth gently closing and playfully nipping and pulling on Shawn's earlobe. The Xeno found the human to be not only utterly fascinating but enticing as well, the soft pink flesh, so warm to the touch, the softer wavy hair, the steady rhythmic heart beat and that wonderful smell that this human gave off.

Shawn raised his hand and brought it along the side of the Xeno's head, feeling the smooth, slick dome, his fingers running down tracing the jaw lines, tendons, and muscles, the act instilling another soft hiss from his soon to be lover, clawed hands explored his body, taking their time to go over every inch of his exposed naked flesh.

Shawn let out a soft moan, feeling hot breath was over his neck, he didn't know which Xeno this one was, nor did he really care, he could feel all three of them there with him. This was something that he now desired and wanted as well, to give himself over to them, to intimately explore their bodies as well. Slowly he started to open his eyes...

And was instantly brought right back to reality.

Shawn's eyes slowly fluttered open, he was back in the storage area that had been modified by the Xenos, Ghost was still spooning up against him with his arm holding him and the long tail still coiled around in a protective circle.

 _Damn it, five more, ten more minutes would have been nice, hell an hour._ Shawn thought to himself remembering the dream. A dream that had been so real, so erotic, he could still feel the alien's claws slowly gliding and tracing over his skin the warm breath on the nape of his neck, a slight chill ran down his spine just thinking of it.

He hadn't really thought of the Xenos in that way at all since meeting them, there was an attraction that he had felt, it wasn't what he would have called sexual at least he didn't think so, but damn, that dream now had him wondering.

Coming to think of it, he didn't even know if the Xenos had a gender or not, at least not something he would recognize as such, he had never seen any sign of any of them being either male or female, though now part of him was starting to get curious and wonder.

Glancing up, he found that he was looking right into the domes of both Shadow and the other drone that he had yet to come up with a name yet as they were hunkered down looking right at him just a few feet away. If he could have read their body language he could have sworn the both of them had bemused looks to them, the two of them certainly seemed to be smiling.

If they could indeed read his mind and see his dreams… _crap, things might get to a whole new level of awkward now._

"Morning or whatever it might be right now," Shawn said, trying to sit up, only to have Ghost pull him back down and tighten its grip on Shawn's torso, seemingly unwilling to let go. The Xeno's body curling up into a tighter ball.

 _Yep, definitely a whole new level of awkward going on here._ Shawn thought to himself, not that he could really blame Ghost, this might have been the first time the poor Xeno had a good night's sleep. Realizing it now, Shawn himself didn't feel tired at all, a very minor headache that was in the back of his head, but other than that, he was actually feeling better now than he had in a very long time. If this is what it took to feel this good whenever he woke up after sleeping then he wouldn't have any reservations about going to sleep with a Xeno spooning up against his backside holding him.

"Ummmm..." Shawn pointed at Ghost, "Little help here please."

The drone looked right at Shadow. Shawn swore that he could see the smile of both of their faces get bigger or at least what they could manage as smiles. Turning its head back to Ghost and going down on all fours, the drone leaned over to Ghost and softly began to gently nuzzle the side of its head, letting out soft hisses.

After several moments, Ghost finally stirred, its grip loosening around Shawn and softly hissed back at the drone, who continued to nuzzle the side of Ghost's face again for several more moments before withdrawing. Turning its head, it looked down at Shawn and lowering its head started to nuzzle the side of the human's face as well, the thin damp lips brushing across the side of his cheek.

Shawn felt a hot flush warm brush against his face and another chill go straight down his spine at the alien's gentle touch; oh that vivid dream was coming back in full force. "Ok, I'm up, I'm up," Shawn said, sitting up, or at least trying to sit up. The alien had now gone from nuzzling his face, to rubbing its head right against his chest, and damn near pushing him back down onto Ghost's side.

The whole time, Shadow was simply hunched down, more or less sitting, its head tilting back and forth, and with what Shawn could only describe as the world's biggest shit-eating grin plastered across its face. If the big one went into full blown hug mode, then there was no way he was going to be getting up, much less leaving to get a much-needed shower for quite some time.

Thankfully for him that wasn't the case, the drone backed up and hunkered back down next to Shadow. Shawn glanced over to Ghost who was looking right at him and also had a wide grin as well. Shawn could only shake his head and laugh at the whole situation.

His smile quickly faded as he suddenly remembered about what Ghost and the others had gone through before escaping and that there were others like them trapped in that horrible lab. At this point, he could no longer even think about leaving them, and now his decision to stay was firmly cemented, he guessed that it had been since last night when he had seen what Ghost had been put though. Even though they had told him it was not his fight he was feeling like it now was.

"I'm in." Shawn said flatly, "Whatever plan we come up with to free the others from that station, I want you to know, that I'm in all the way."

Shawn could actually feel the shock and surprise come from all three Xenos, it wasn't just the physical looks that seemed to change or what he could almost describe as a look of total surprise. It was the weird fact that he could feel the surprise coming from them. Things were really getting weird, even more so now.

"I know that you said that this wasn't my fight and that you would never ask me to go that far, but you don't have to ask. I'm telling you right now that I'm going to help you free the others of your kind and we are going to find someplace that you and the others can live a nice peaceful life with no one around. And don't even think about trying to talk me out of it, you'll find that I can be one tenacious, stubborn sonofabitch when I have to be." Shawn said.

All three Xenos looked at each other with nothing more than stunned surprise and silence; none of them had ever expected the human to go that far in helping them out in their insane endeavor. They had told him in no uncertain terms that this wasn't his fight and he had no obligation to help any further than trying to teach them how to operate the ship if that was even possible.

Now in an instant out of nowhere that had all changed

He was now willingly going to put his life in danger not only to help free the others but to find a place they could call home. Both Shadow and the unnamed drone were wounding what had changed so quickly. Ghost, knowing the answer gave them a lengthy hiss and whine, the two Xenos turned to look at Ghost, Shadow's jaw opening up all the way for a few seconds and then slowly closed, the big Xeno then turning to look right at Shawn.

Ghost seemed to slink back some, almost afraid. Shawn reached out and gently placed his hand on Ghost's arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze, with that the Xeno seemed to relax some.

Shawn could actually feel disbelief coming not only from Shadow but from the other drone, there was also worry, concern and even fear. At this point, Shawn didn't know what was more messed up, the fact that he had just straight up volunteered for what might be a suicide mission or that he was somehow picking up on the Xenos emotions.

"Look." Shawn said, standing up, "The fact of the matter is that I probably would have helped out regardless of what you said to me when I first came on. Even though you told me that this isn't my fight, more than likely you all saved me from either dying in space or floating around for pretty much forever, so I owe you for that. But for me it's more than that, ever since I came on board and have been around the three of you, I've felt like I've finally started to heal some, there's been this emotional wound that I've carried for the last few years and it's never started to heal, until now."

The unnamed drone rose up, walked over to Shawn and placed its hands on the sides of his head and pressed the front of its dome against his forehead. A few moments later the drone released him and he found himself in its embrace. Reaching his arms around, he returned the embrace, he could still feel concern but also warmth and gratitude as well and there was also an emotional softness about this one as well that he was now picking up on.

How he was able to pick up their emotions so clearly now he had no idea, he figured that maybe it was just prolonged exposure to the aliens and maybe they were projecting what they felt to him somehow, the four of them had all certainly formed a bond over the last week, far quicker than he would have ever expected, but there it was and it only seemed to be growing and strengthening.

"Alese," Shawn said, almost whispering the name. He got a sense of curiosity coming from the drone. "Means beautiful soul in one of the languages from Earth"

The Drone now Alese, tightened its grip on Shawn, a slightly high pitched rumbling sound came from the Xenos' chest, so focused in fact that Shawn could feel the vibrations go right through him. Closing his eyes, he leaned into Alese's chest, simply enjoying the high pitched reverberations coming from the drone.

Standing there for a few more minutes, allowing himself to relax and be held by Alese, Shawn leaned back slowly and reluctantly broke away from the drones hold. "Alright, as much as I would love to stay and cuddle and trust me on this one I would but I need to shower and see how things are going in CIC. Maybe some progress had been made on the unlocking the FTL."

Alese gave a small whine but nodded in understanding. Just as he was walking out the doors and into the hallway, Shawn glanced back toward Ghost, Shadow was down on all fours nuzzling the side of Ghost's head reassuring the drone that everything was alright. Smiling quietly to himself Shawn made his way down the hallway.

Ghost's memories were still all too vividly fresh in his mind, but one thing did stand out that might help, a name that had gotten his attention, something that had been spoken to Mason by one of his assistants. 'Eclipse Station', he had a name, and now a target, it should be fairly easy to trace the ship's trajectory back to its departure point. That station would now have his full and undivided attention, if lucky enough the ship may well have the schematics deep in the data core, and if so, then it would give them ample time to figure out how to free the other Xenos and get out of there before anyone knew what was going on.

At least, in theory, any secret station that was doing illegal research out in the middle of nowhere would no doubt have tight defenses. Getting on the station might be easy enough, getting off the station with a bunch of Xenos in tow that would be the tricky part. And even more than tricky it would be damn near impossible, at least not without a very large and messy diversion to aid them somehow. Maybe there would be something in the munitions bays that they could use once he got it unlocked. If not then they were going to have to come up with not only one hell of a good plan it would have to be an absolutely insane one too.

It would be something they would work on later, right now a hot shower and some food is what he really wanted before heading back up to CIC. Making his way back up to the living area, Shawn stripped his clothes off and took a nice long hot shower. The headache that he had woke up with was now started to get somewhat worse, a dull ache in the center part of his brain that felt like it was starting to radiate outward some.

Lingering in the shower letting the hot water pelt him for a few more minutes, his eyes closed, hoping that the warmth would help subside the increasing headache, it didn't and only seemed to be worsening. He never even noticed the dark red drops hitting the bottom of the shower; quickly being washed away.

Turing the water off and getting out of the shower, he suddenly tasted an all familiar salty; coppery taste in his mouth, glancing in the mirror he saw blood dripping from his nose, grabbing a dry washcloth from a nearby stand, he quickly pressed it to his nose and tilted his head back. After about five minutes the bleeding had stopped. Only to be replaced by a wave of lightheadedness and dizziness.

Leaning against the wall for support, Shawn closed his eyes, trying to avoid seeing the world spin around him. "Oh, what the hell is this?" He whispered to himself, slowly sliding down to the floor. Whispering suddenly seemed to emanate from out of nowhere, fewer words and more sounds than anything else, just as if the words were just out of earshot.

Opening his eyes to look around, the whispering stopped as suddenly as it had started. The lightheadedness and dizziness also stopping as suddenly as it had come on as well. "Okay, that was just weird," Shawn told himself, holding half a blood soaked rag. Reaching up; grabbing on of the sinks for support, he pulled himself up. Giving himself a few more minutes to see if any more sudden attacks would come on. None did.

Throwing the cloth in the sink, he looked into the mirror, his eyes were completely bloodshot as if some of the capillaries had just burst. "Right, CIC first, then medical," Shawn told himself. All he needed to do was check on the progress of the FTL and see how that was doing. Then hotfoot it to medical and have one of the auto doc systems with one of the medical androids check him out and see what the hell was going on.

xxxxx

Ghost had been a nervous wreck after Shawn had left the room; it had taken both Shadow and Alese almost fifteen minutes to calm the Xeno down. They now knew what Shawn had seen and the reason he was so willing to help them out. None of them liked the idea of the human putting himself in harm's way for them, but the stark fact was they did need his help for this, even on board the station. And that place was a death trap.

Shadow had left their sleeping room to go walk around, the Xeno's mind was jumbled with thoughts and feelings, feeling that needed to be sorted out somehow. He found the human quite fascinating, nothing like the ones back in the lab, soft, kind, determined, even resilient, he was even starting to emotionally open up to them. But there was also pain that he kept buried deep down and a lot of it. All three of them could sense that what it was, however, they didn't fully know.

Shadow had seen fragments of a memory during that first night Shawn had slept, space, floating, something burning far off away and sheer naked terror. Whatever had happened still held its grip on the human to this day and tightly.

There was an overwhelming urge to protect their new friend as if he had somehow in the short period of time become a part of their own little hive, but there was more to it than that and they knew what it was, desire. And not just Shadow, Alese was feeling the same as well from what Shadow was picking up on. There was an old human saying that they had heard back in the lab that came to mind, ' _may you live in interesting times_ ,' well these times were certainly becoming interesting. From what they remember it was also a curse as well.

The fact was Shadow wasn't just viewing the human as a friend and neither was Alese either, it had become something far deeper than just a simple friendship for them. Somehow they had gone past that, he just didn't really know when. All he did know was that they were now viewing the human as a member of their hive and possibly something far more. Was it even possible, possible to love a human in that way? Deep down Shadow hoped that it was.

They had all been bred and born in captivity, humans had tortured them for no reason that they could understand and they all hated them for it, wanted to kill them for it, to make them suffer for all the pain and suffering they had brought to their lives. Especially the head Doctor, Mason. But now somehow all that hate and rage they had held onto for so long, now seemed...hollow and meaningless.

A human had somehow managed to dissolve at least some of that hate away and replace it with something else, hope, respect, decency, possibly even love, _interesting times indeed_ , Shadow thought.

Halting, Shadow's lips peeled back and the Xeno's deadly tongue came out to taste the air, a very faint scent was in the air that the Xeno picked up immediately.

Blood!

It was human blood at that. Not a lot, but the smell was in the air just enough to be detected, maybe Shawn had a small accident of some sort and cut himself. Following the trail, Shadow came to the bunk area that Shawn had been staying into sleep and clean himself in until last night. Going in, Shadow didn't detect anything, Shawn's scent was still heavy in the air, but he had already left from the way it looked. The scent of blood was heavier here in this area.

Going back to the shower area, Shadow found the bloody rag in the sink, picking it up with a claw, the Xeno's tongue came out and scent tasted the rag. A cold chill rushed right down Shadows back starting from the nape of the neck and ending at the very tip of the tail blade. Dropping the cloth, Shadow bolted out the bunk room giving a deafening screech of panic.

Giving both Ghost and Alesia a mental alert, that something was wrong with their human. Shadow caught himself with that, since when did they claim that Shawn was theirs. Quickly shaking it off, Shadow found that the blood smelled wrong somehow, something was off about it. It wasn't diseased, infection or sickness but there was just something off about the way that it smelled.

Shadow was heading to the CIC area a quick as possible and informed the other two to make their way to medical just in case Shawn had gone there first.

xxxxx

Shawn sat there in CIC, his eyes tightly closed, holding his head in his hands which felt like it was going to explode at any minute, blood dripped out of his nose and pooled into the ground at his feet. He had come up to CIC in a quick enough order to check in on the status of the FTL drive to see if it had been unlocked. To his surprise and delight, it had been, a resounding "FUCK YEA!" Had filled the air in the CIC room right at that moment.

And then right there as if fate had decided to put the brakes on his little victory and bring everything to a grinding halt, his head had felt like it had been put in a vise, clamped down on and then squeezed to the point his head was going to split right in two. Then right after that, the feeling completely reversed itself, not only that but his nose bleed had started only far worse than before; his body had started to shake and the dizziness had come back in full vengeance. All in all, he felt like he was dying in a really bad and nasty way.

There was no way he was going to be able to make it to Medical like this, even crawling, he would probably pass out before reaching there. Maybe if the pain and bleeding subsided even just for a few minutes he might be able to make it there if he was quick about it.

The sound of the metal doors to CIC sliding open, causing Shawn to glance up for a second, standing in the doorway was Shadow, the Xeno was breathing deeply it's chest rising and falling as if it had just run a full blown marathon. A startled but welcoming hiss filled the room, sweet and beautiful music to Shawn's ears if there was ever such a thing.

Trying to stand up, Shawn took a step forward, his knees buckling so hard that he stood for just a moment before falling sideways, his body impacting on the cold metal floor and rolling down a couple of the steps before coming to a stop.

Shadow bolted forward, clearing the area in what seemed to be just a few steps, coming to a stop, the Xeno kneeled down and grabbed Shawn's head. The human's eyes were fluttering open and close he was trying to focus but was unable to.

"Shadow...h." The only words that came out of the human's mouth before he slipped into unconscious, his body slightly twitching.

Shadow froze at the sudden realization of what was happening to the human, whether it had been unintentional or not, Shawn's life was now in jeopardy, they all needed to now finish what had been started. Carefully picking up Shawn, Shadow bolted out of the CIC area and into the hallway, the Xeno now running harder and faster than before.

Ghost and Alese had picked up on Shadow's distress and were heading to the sleeping area to meet the Xeno there with Shawn. With what one would have described as record-breaking time, heavy fast paced footfalls filled the hall. The Xeno was angled almost horizontally, holding its human occupant tightly next to its chest and was moving like a freight train with a lit booster attached; its lips peeled fully back revealing the deadly teeth, more from being in a borderline panicked state than in anger.

Entering the room, Shadow gently laid Shawn down, placing its hand underneath Shawn's head and slightly tilting his head back; using a finger from the free hand, Shadow opened Shawn's mouth as wide as he could. Leaning in until their lips lightly brushed, the Xeno's lips parted back all the way and the deadly mouth opened up, the white, slick tubed and toothed tongue, ever so slowly and carefully, found its way into Shawn's mouth stopping just shy from the opening of the human's throat.

Bringing up a finger to the human's soft neck; in slow gentle repeating motions, Shadow stroked Shawn's throat in a downward motion as several thick blobs of whitish gel-like substance slowly trickled out of the Xeno's tubed tongue and into Shawn's mouth. Within just a few moments, Shawn swallowed the thick blobs of gel. Satisfied Shadow withdrew its tongue out of Shawn's mouth; then pressed its forehead against Shawn's own.

Somehow a mental connection had been made earlier, but only in part and by accident, the life jelly that Shadow had just fed Shawn would help repair with any of the physical damage that had occurred and help stabilize him for a while. However, the mental connection would need to be finished and completed; if not then the human's mental pathways would literally tear themselves apart killing him in the process.

Concentrating, Shadow slowly began to press into Shawn's mind, pushing through the chaos within; everything was a maelstrom of thoughts, images, dreams and feeling all swirling at once. Caution would be necessary, it would be all too easy to fully invade Shawn's mind and see and even experience everything that had happened in his life.

And while it would be fully acceptable within hive society and the Xeno collective to fully share one's life and experiences freely. By human standards and nature it could be considered a violation of privacy and trust if someone went in unannounced and without permission; he might even see it as being mentally raped and violated which would break their trust and destroy everything that they had managed to build in such a short order and that was the last thing that Shadow and the others wanted to do.

Establishing a full connection would not be that difficult, it would just take time. The human mind as Shadow was finding out was not as complicated as the Xeno might have first thought, it was both chaotic and noisy the thoughts randomly jumping from one subject to another and then back again with very little structure or order to it. They were also alone and isolated unto themselves, no hive mind to help and guide them, no hive speech, to way to feel the emotions of the others around them, no way to truly bond with others like them, simply a single and solitary voice to their own island.

To them it was terrifying to think that any living creature could be that way, so alone and isolated, it was in their own minds, completely alien. It was also to them…hell.

On the average, the Xeno's brain was four to five times larger than the human brain much of it, however, was developed for sensory input and output as well as communications and was instinctively structured for a much more orderly thought process.

It was both a wonder and a miracle that the human race was able to make it as far as they had. It was new insight for the Xenos as to how the mental faculties of the human mind now worked. It certainly did explain a lot as to why they behaved the way they did. Shadow even felt pity for them to a certain extent.

Anchoring a mental hold and establishing the connection, Shadow slowly and carefully began to press through the mental barriers, not so much as ripping through but more gradually dissolving them, layer by layer. The stabilizing force of the connection now started to radiate outward, Shadow could see a mental glow within Shawn's mind start to grow. Now all would be needed is to hold and maintain the connection for a while until it fully stabilized.

Ghost and Alese jolted into the sleeping room to see Shawn lying on the floor with Shadow straddling the human. Shadow was holding Shawn's head up at an angle while pressing his forehead into Shawn's own. Both of the Xenos could see what Shadow was doing, each walking around to flank Shadow, then kneeling down they carefully began to mentally reinforce the connection that Shadow had established.

All they needed now was time to finish.

xxxxx

"And here we are Doctor Brooks," Ryan said, sitting down a large thermos with a couple of ceramic mugs on a small round steel table that was sitting next to a large observation window that looked out into the depths of space. "A specialty blend that I save for treats once in awhile and it's not that freeze dried crap that they serve on stations or ships, this is the real deal."

"You have real coffee? Out here? On this station?" Brooks asked not really convinced that he was telling her the truth.

Opening the thermos, Ryan poured the steaming, black liquid into one of the mugs. "Feel free to taste it and tell me otherwise."

Brooks brought the mug up to her lips and tasted it. Her eyes widened up in surprise in finding that it was, in fact, the real thing. "My god, how the hell did you get fresh coffee out here?"

"I have a friend or two that are able to bring in a few items for me every now and then, even though space on freighters is at a premium I'm able to make it worth their time, plus they owe me a couple of favors." Ryan reached into his jacket pockets and pulled out a couple of glass flasks. "Speaking of which, I believe that you were asking for something stronger."

"What is this?" She asked looking at the glass flasks.

"Left one is whiskey, the right one is Kahlúa. Along with the coffee, I was able to get a couple of small cases of each in my last shipment. So what's your poison?"

"Both," Brooks said holding out the mug.

"Good choice," Ryan said, pouring some from each flash into the mug.

Brooks took a sip from the mug and all the tension seemed to drain out of her. "You have no idea how much I need this."

"The booze or the coffee?" Ryan asked slyly.

Brooks chuckled a bit. "Both."

Pouring himself a mug of coffee and topping it off with a fair share of whiskey he sat down in one of the chairs and looked out the window. "You know, somewhere out there, in the deep, cold depths of space, there is a stealth heavy cruiser with three Xenomorphs on board. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened."

"How exactly did they manage to escape the containment units, I thought that the units were supposed to be almost indestructible?" Brooks asked, looking out the window, her mind racing trying to figure out if she could really trust Ryan or not, he seemed like a nice and decent enough person so far, however, she found it to be a bit too convenient to suddenly meet someone like this so soon after Mason's death threat. She didn't want to think that he might be working for the Doctor as some sort of spy just to report back so he would have an excuse to kill her. She really hoped that he was on the up and up and exactly what he appeared to be. Though the Xenos didn't seem to have a problem with him, so she figured that was a plus, she would play it safe for now, hopefully, she was looking at a possible ally if nothing else maybe a friend.

Shaking his head, Ryan looked back at Doctor Brooks. "I have no idea, somehow all five managed to punch right through the containment floor in their cells and into the power conduit at the exact same time severing the power. If it had been just one of them doing it they would have been fried as soon as they hit the conduit, but all five together simultaneously. I guess that it distributed the current just enough to where they all got one hell of a jolt but not enough to kill them or knock them out. After that as soon as the doors unlocked, all five of them were out of their cells in a flash."

"Were you there in the pens when they escaped?"

"Close enough, I was in one of the adjacent rooms working on the readings I had just taken a few minutes before it happened." Ryan took a sip of the coffee and his eyes just seemed to glaze over for a bit. "There are two things I will never forget that happened that day. The first being this, when the alarms went off, I came out of the area I was working in, I had no idea what was going on, everyone was screaming and running around in full blown panic mode. When I realized what had happened, I turned around and standing right in front of me not more than say three or four feet away was one of the Xenomorphs. And this was one of the big drones, around nine feet tall, on top of that it was one of the ones that were progressing into a Praetorian, the crest wasn't even half way grown yet. But it just stood there, staring at me, lips didn't part back in aggression, didn't raise its hand to kill me or anything, just stood there, looking right at or through me. I thought I was going to die right there, but it never happened, I think that we were looking at each other for about fifteen to twenty seconds, felt like forever, but then it just turned around and ran back to join the other four."

"It's nothing short of a miracle that it just didn't kill you on the spot. What was the second thing?"

"Two of the Xenos made a beeline right for two of the assistants to Doctor Mason, they went running by several of the other researchers to get to them. These were the guys that took a lot of delight in torturing the Xenos too, they were both real brave taunting and hurting the aliens where they were locked away, laughing and shit. But once those Xenos broke out and saw those two, well let's just say they weren't that brave anymore. They didn't kill them right away, took their sweet time, pulling off pieces or taking out chunks bit by bit, making sure those two didn't die right away. I still can hear their screams, that god awful gurgling sound that one of them made before he passed, the other screaming so hard that his vocal cords shredded."

Ryan shook his head and looked back at Brooks. "I didn't feel sorry in the least for those two; they got exactly what they deserved. And as cold and hard as that may sound, it's the truth as far as I'm concerned."

Brooks looked down at her coffee and took another sip. "But they were ripped apart, that's a pretty cruel way to go, even if they were a pair of assholes."

"You know with Doctor Mason, as much of a monster as he can be, I think that there is really something wrong up there." Ryan tapped the side of his head. "I mean I don't think that the man feels much at all. Anger, sure but I think that's about it, but empathy, sympathy or even love, I'm not sure he is capable of truly feeling anything like that. So with him, there is a reason for the way he acts, so I understand it, now I may hate it and him, but I understand it. But those other two, they enjoyed inflicting pain on the Xenos, got off on it; even bragged about what they could get away with. Just inflicting pain just for the pleasure of it, there's no excuse for that at all."

"Even so I'm still, not sure anyone deserves to die like that," Brooks replied.

Ryan was silent for a while, looking out the window as if thinking of what to say next. "Look, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have spouted off like that, this place just gets to me after a while, and you're the first person I really been able to talk to about any of this. Didn't mean to be such a mood killer, guess I shouldn't have even brought it up in the first place."

"It's alright, I've only been here for a few months at the most, and there are times I just want to scream, it feels like I lose either way no matter what I do. There just doesn't seem to be any real solution that won't damn us all." Brooks set her now empty mug on the table and let out a sigh, rubbing her eyes. "Anyway, it's probably better to talk about it and get it out in the open then just let it build up inside."

"Probably." Ryan side, pouring some more coffee into both mugs. "Then if that's the case, look on the bright side, Doctor Brooks…."

"Elizabeth if you don't mind, at least until we're clocked back in, the whole Doctor thing sounds way too formal for my tastes right now."

Ryan nodded, "Okay then, Elizabeth. Like I was going to say, the bright side being is that we both now have each other to talk to about this stuff if that helps, that is if you want to, well that and booze too if it helps at all."

"Absolutely, to both." Brooks looked out the window for a few minutes staying silent before turning back to Ryan. "Do you think that the Xenos are intelligent, I mean really intelligent?"

Ryan set his mug back on the table, glancing out the window and then back to her. "Whenever I pass by the pens; they look at me and it feels like they are looking through me, not at me, but through me as if somehow they know everything about who I am like they can see right into my core being somehow. When they killed those two assistants, it was revenge, it was vengeance, it was hate, it was about making those people that had caused them so much pain, suffer and suffer a great deal. Animals don't do that, so yes, I do believe that they are intelligent, which is probably the only reason I'm still alive. The fact is that I didn't harm them and tried to treat them in as much of a decent matter as I could."

"And we're making there lives a living hell here, doesn't speak too highly of our race does it," Brooks stated.

"No, it doesn't," Ryan replied, shaking his head, a sad and slightly depressed tone in his voice. "But then when you look at the very long and bloody history of our species and how poorly we've treated each other throughout the ages, well it's not too surprising that we would transfer that aggression onto another species the very first chance we got and then to demonize them on top of that. Makes you wonder how we were able to make it this far without our species killing itself off."

"Blind luck, or divine intervention maybe, who knows, but there had been way too many close calls in the past. I remember reading in history class how close we came to a third world war what, two times within the course of ten years. By all rights we should be a dead race by now or at the very least have been blown back to the stone ages, but somehow we keep skirting by just a hair's breadth on not annihilating ourselves." Brooks turned to gaze out the window, bringing the mug up to her lips, taking some more small sips out of it. "I get the god awful feeling that the next time will be it and that there won't be any going back afterwards. It's just a matter of when and how it happens."

Both of them sat there looking out the window into the void of space, each one collecting their own thoughts.

"Soooo…" Ryan began, "now that we have the really depressing stuff out of the way and hopefully done with, at least I hope so, let's make a deal. The next time we have coffee here, let's talk about something that doesn't involve work, Xenos, or end of the world type stuff, deal?"

"Deal," Brooks said, giving off a slight laugh, nodded then placing the empty mug down on the table.

xxxxx

In the dark resin covered storage room that the Xenos had claimed as their sleep area, four figures lay sleeping on the floor, the three Xenomorphs lay almost in a perfect protective circle around the fourth figure. Shawn McNeal, _their human_ , one that they now viewed as part of their tiny, little hive collective and would now take care of and protect just as they would do for any of their kind that was in need or distress.

Shawn had remained unconscious since he had passed out in CIC, occasionally muttering stuff incoherently that none of them could make out. Shadow and the other Xenos had been able to complete the mental connection and repair the damage that had happened; now it was just a matter of time for the human to heal and make a full recovery. They had made him as comfortable as possible getting him a pillow and blanket, all three staying with him only breaking away to relieve themselves or to eat.

Consciousness slowly returned to Shawn as he woke up, trying to open his eyes it felt as if someone had clamped lead weights to his eyelids and then in some cruel joke tied them down in place. After several tries, his eyelids ever so slowly finally opened up, he was greeted by warmth and darkness with only a few small lights in the ceiling giving off any sort of illumination. Instantly he recognized that he was back in the Xeno's sleeping area.

Gradually tilting his head to his left, he saw that Shadow was sleeping right next to him, the Xenomorph only scant inches away, partly curled up around him, he noticed that as he looked around that Alesa and Ghost were also sleeping, curled up partly around him as well forming a circle.

Slowly sitting up he found that his whole body was sore and tight, though his sides, stomach and lower back hurt the most, it even hurt to breath. _How long was I out?_ He thought to himself trying to stretch himself out by twisting his torso.

After a couple of minutes of stretching his muscles out and feeling a little better, he sat there his arms plopped back down in his lap, simply looking around his head going back and forth and up and down, looking and nothing in particular. Something was off, his mind felt like it had literally been opened up if that was any way that he could describe it to himself. He also was finding that his thoughts were more focused and not scattering from one subject to another as they normally would.

At least he didn't have that god-awful headache or whatever it had been that felt like it was tearing his mind apart. Something that he never wanted to feel again…ever.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, it was a sudden feeling that came seemly out of nowhere to his senses, he could mentally feel the three Xenos around him. There was also what sounded like whispering, words that were just out of hearing range but they weren't coming from the room or even close by, but from within his own mind itself.

His eyes shot open; quickly he looked around seeing nothing out of the ordinary until he looked down at Shadow, the Xeno seemed very different now, nothing about Shadow or the other two had changed from what he could tell, but it was more as if he could see them better, the subtle facial and body nuances he could make out now, which he hadn't before.

Before a lot of guess work was involved if they weren't blatantly projecting what kind of mood they were in, which mostly involved a lot of facial stroking, hugs, rubbing his hair, grooming, nudging and the like, even smiling or at least what he perceived to be smiling. Lips pulling back even in a smile resulted in the show of very deadly thick saliva covered steel looking teeth, that were more than just a bit intimidating, if not downright terrifying.

But now, somehow all that had changed. Something had happened after he had collapsed on the desk in CIC, but he just wasn't sure what. Hopefully Shadow or one of the others would be able to tell him.

Leaning down, Shawn gently placed his hand on the side of Shadow's face and stroked the side of the Xeno's head. The response from Shadow was immediate, the Xeno shifted and let out a slight pleasing hiss. Shawn also got a response that he was not expecting it was a feeling of warmth and comfort that streamed through his mind, and the whispering intensified and got louder.

Before whatever he felt from them was subtle, a light brush of his mind but he knew that they were projecting, this was far more intense and powerful. As if whatever barriers between him and the others had been placed were either now gone or rapidly eroding away into nothing.

Propping himself on one arm, Shawn continued to softly stroke the side of Shadow's face and head, his fingers exploring all the ridges and crevasse on the dome and crest. "Well, it looks like I get to observe you now, though I hope that you or the others can tell me what's going on and what's happening to me," Shawn muttered quietly to himself, not wanting to wake up the sleeping Xeno, at least not yet.

Shadow stirred again, his head lifting up just enough to where he was just a fraction of an inch from Shawn's face. Slowly Shadow reached up and with the back of its fingers with a gentle touch, caressed the side of Shawn's face. There was also a far more intense warmth that flooded through his mind, it wasn't just intense it felt personal…intimate.

Shawn's mind froze for a few moments in shock more than anything else at what he was feeling. Was this big Xeno, Shadow in love with him, maybe even Alese as well, the way they acted, what he was now feeling coming from Shadow at least. Did somehow in the short time that he had been on board, bond with them that closely and not even realize it. Was it even possible or was he once again reading way too much into something that wasn't even there?

As if to tell him, "no" Shadow's hand slipped back behind Shawn's head and the Xeno pulled him in the remaining short distance, their lips touching into a kiss. Shawn didn't even flinch, or even try to jerk away, his whole body just started to relax as Shadow's lips gently caressed his own. Shawn closed his eyes and tried his best to return the kiss.

It felt unusual and even a bit awkward given the difference in one another's anatomy, but still very pleasant. Even if Shadow seemed to be giving off slightly more than normal amount of saliva, it was something that Shawn didn't even mind. Waves of intense warmth continued to lap over Shawn's mind as both he and Shadow continued to kiss.

After a few moments, Shadow pulled back breaking away, looking at Shawn as if to see what reaction the human would have. Opening his eyes, Shawn looked up at the Xeno, his fingers touching his lips as if to reaffirm that what just happened, really did just happen.

Shawn had been in relationships before with both men and women, nothing ever serious, usually it was just some time spent together for comfort or to relieve stress, sometimes for a few days or even a few months but nothing past that. But this, this was on a whole new level and he knew deep down it was to be taken seriously.

And certainly, he had never been in any sort of a relationship with a non-human. Not that he didn't have anything against human non-human relationships, it was something that just never presented itself within his life, until now.

"That was….intense." Shawn said in a slight daze, "but good." Everything was feeling like a very lucid dream, a dream that he didn't want to wake up from. Reaching out he placed his hand on the side of Shadow's face, not wanting to forget this moment just in case it was nothing more than a dream. Shadow leaned into Shawn's hand, a slight purring sound emanated from the Xenos' chest, along with the same intense feelings of warmth and contentment.

"Beautiful," Shawn whispered, not really sure what prompted him to say it so naked and bluntly on the spot, but he meant it with all his heart. He did find them beautiful; it was both a physical beauty as well as what was underneath that he had been seeing, feeling and experiencing from them. In all his time he had never come across anyone that had even been so open and honest about their feelings and been so unafraid to express them. Hiding nothing, no games, no deception, no trying to one-up the other, just straight up honesty, figures that it would be from someone that wasn't human, or in this case several someones.

For a few moments, Shawn's vision blurred, fading in and out then cleared all of it happening within the course of a few seconds.

Blinking his eyes and then closing them for a couple of seconds and then opening them back up, Shawn thought that just for a few second he was seeing something, perhaps a trick of the low light levels that was messing with his mind, but the more he looked at Shadow the more he could see or detect a hue coming from Shadow that had subtle gradations that seemed to shift slightly.

Shaking his head, Shawn closed his eyes and opened them repeatedly several times just to make sure he wasn't seeing things; he wasn't. The hue was a very subtle blue that seemed to be slightly more intense and brighter toward the center of Shadow's torso. He didn't know what he was seeing and really didn't want to jump to conclusions, whatever it was it didn't seem to bother him that much, it was more of a pleasant surprise than anything else.

Shadow rose up, placed a hand on Shawn's shoulder and gently pressed him flat onto the floor. Then readjusting its position by straddling Shawn's upper legs, then grabbed Shawn's head and leaned in toward the human.

Shawn didn't feel threatened at all in fact even with the massive Xeno practically sitting on his lap, he knew that Shadow meant him no harm. The odd whispering that he had kept hearing in his head grew louder and louder, even clearer, it felt like his ears were covered in layers of gauze that muffled whatever he was hearing in his head and those layers were slowly being peeled back.

Leaning in all the way in, Shadow's forehead touched Shawn's own, the familiar sensation of something being pressed into his mind formed again. The mental layers of gauze quickly started to fall away. The whispering grew even louder and clear, he could almost make out the words that were there.

And then, with only a slight distortion to it, but clear enough to understand, there it was.

' _Hello Shawn.'_ A voice inside his head said, it was very deep, calm and warm, but also incredibly powerful, also from what he picked up to it a male distinction to it.

Shawn could only look up at Shadow in wonder, tears forming in his eyes as what he was now feeling was becoming so overpowering. With all that he had felt and experienced coming from them since he had come onboard this ship, this shouldn't have really been a surprise, but it was and one that he welcomed in its entirety.

"Hey," Shawn answered weakly, not really sure what to say next. It felt like on some level he had been not only blind but also deaf and was now given sight and hearing. He looked at Shadow as the Xeno tiled his head back and forth, the lips peeled back slightly in a smile. The subtle facial twitches and nuances he could make out and were not lost to him anymore.

To anyone else that might have walked in on the scene, it might have looked like a nightmare borne from hell itself, the giant bone covered moist and slick looking dark as night creature sitting on the smaller human, looking like it was going to rip into and tear him apart and eat him with those deadly steel colored teeth. Nothing, however, could have been further from the truth.

And this was a moment that not only Shadow but the others had been waiting for, a chance to actually communicate in their language with Shawn. The data pads had worked for rudimentary communications which had gotten them started but in actuality, they were primitive and clunky and could never even come close to what a full message or statement meant in their language. The feeling emotions, memories, everything they did to communicate with one another in the flash of a moment.

They would have to go slow of course as Shawn's mind wouldn't be able to handle the flood of information all at once, at least not without a lot of practice and training.

Shadow let go of Shawn's head, his finger gently caressed across the side of the human's face in a sign of affection. ' _It is good to be able to communicate with you finally.'_

 ** _Please feel free to review and comment, and thank you for reading._**


	7. Discoveries

**Wanted to say thank you to everyone that has read this story so far.**

xxxxx

CHAPTER 6: Discoveries

xxxxx

Shadow sat straddling Shawn's upper legs and lap, the Xeno looking down at the human. Ghost and Alese had woken up a few minutes after Shadow had but decided to remain quiet and not do anything just yet and let nature take its course as far as how Shadow and Shawn interacted with one another in these last remaining tentative moments. They were concerned that if they all three communicated with him at once, it would overload Shawn's mind while it was still vulnerable and cause him, even more, pain which was something they did not want to do.

Sliding off of Shawn's lap, Shadow sat down by the human's feet never taking his gaze off of him. He had sensed that both Alese and Ghost were awake and observing what was going on. Shadow sent both of them a private message letting them know that the link was stable and they would be able to talk to Shawn, but it would be best that they only do it one at a time.

"So, umm, couple or a few questions anyway, one being, how long have I been out, and two, what the hell happened." Shawn started up. "Last thing I remember was taking a lovely nose dive right into the steel floor in CIC and then you were hovering right over me, after that, nothing. Well, just some really messed up dreams, but nothing after that."

' _You've been asleep by the way that your race measures time for over three and a half days almost four actually. As to what happened, a partial mental link was formed with you by accident.'_ Shadow answered. ' _It was killing you, we were able to repair the damage and form a full link. I don't know how it will affect you in the long term but at the very least you can now truly communicate with our race.'_

"Almost four days, well that explains why I feel so sore all over. And what do you mean by link, how did that happen?"

A different voice flowed through Shawn's mind it lower slightly more subdued and from what Shawn could make out and like Shadow's voice it too had a male tone to it. ' _That was my fault, and for that, I do truly regret and apologize for the pain that you went through. It was never intentional to cause you harm or pain.'_ Ghost rose up slightly, his head looking right at Shawn.

' _When you shared my memories while sleeping, a link started to form and after we work up you were understanding of what not only myself but the rest of my kind had endured. I was very grateful and even happy that you cared about what we had gone through and that you didn't view us and mindless killers and monsters, you are the first human to show us any real and true kindness. I was careless and unintentionally pressed into your mind which solidified the link and then caused you the pain you experienced. I am the one that put your life at risk, and for that I am sorry.'_ Ghost said lowering his head down in shame for what he had caused.

Shawn sat there looking at Ghost for a few moments, then slowly leaned forward and placed his hand on the drone's head. "Damn dude, don't apologize for what happened if anything I'm grateful."

Stunned by what Shawn said, Ghost raised his head up to look right at Shawn. ' _I caused you terrible pain, but yet you are grateful…why?'_

"Well okay, the killer headache and nosebleeds were a lot more than what I wanted to deal with. But that being said, when I look at all of you, I can see the minute facial details, the subtle changes that happen as your emotions switch. And I can emotional feel what you're feeling, your relief and concern, the surprise and even shock, it's like I'm seeing you all for the first time. Before it was like I was looking at a statue that could only express itself in certain very limited ways, that's how I saw you before all this happened and now I can see the full range, also the wavy glowy thing you guys have going on is pretty interesting."

'Wavy, g _lowy_ _thing?'_ Shadow and Ghost both asked at the same time, looking at each other quizzically, then back at Shawn, completely confused at what the human was talking about.

"Well, maybe not so much as glowy, more like a hue I guess, starts with the center of your torso and sort of radiates out, kind of had a shifting pattern sort of. At least that's the best way I can describe it." Shawn said trying to clarify, he was in uncharted territory and didn't really know how else to describe it.

' _I believe that you are either picking up on our pheromone signature or our life energy.'_ Shadow said, understanding what Shawn was now seeing. Perception, of course, would be different with a human or any other species deepening on how the species would perceive the world around them. And the human or humans would possibly see it as some sort of color shift within the Xeno's bodies.

"If it is a pheromone or even the life energy signature that I'm seeing, then what happens to it when your emotions change or you're injured, would it change color or would the intensity of the glow grow or decrees?

' _It is very possible that you might see a shift or color change if our moods were to change, I'm not sure what color range you humans possess or how you see things, but it is also possible that you could see an increase with the 'glow' as you put it depending on how intense our emotions become. So it would be a fair guess to say that you would see some kind of change. A couple of our main sensorys is detecting both the pheromone signature as well as the life _energies_ of both our kind as well as of others that are not of our race. We can detect even the most subtle _changes_ in a pheromone signature coming from another _regardless_ of the species. As to what _happens_ when we are injured, for us, we see a decrease in the life energy, either as the body repairs itself or the individual dies. '_ Shadow explained as best he could, if he knew how the humans perceived the world around themselves, he might be able to explain it better.

"So the hue might shift in color or intensity depending on what kind of mood you're in then, angry, sad, and happy and so on," Shawn stated.

' _Aroused,_ ' Shadow said in a sly tone, followed by a mental chuckle.

"Umm, I was going to try and be polite and not go there just yet but sure, why the hell not, now that you went and brought it up."

' _It is possible as you are seeing things somewhat differently than how we do. When we look at you or one of your kind, we see the form but also as you described it, a glow, its life energy but it is steady and never changes colors or shifts, it is constant and steady in its appearance."_ Ghost replied.

"How do you detect the pheromones from someone, is it a scent or do you see it?" Shawn asked, looking over at Ghost.

Ghost opened his mouth and the thick saliva covered tongue slowly came out, the teeth gently opening and closing several times before retracting back in. _'Our tongue has the ability to both taste and smell and even the smallest changes are detectable to us. Between this and our ability to sense the life energy of someone, we can tell what kind of mood they are in, or even if they are sick or dying.'_

"I remember from your memory that a lot of how you see the world was very color muted, more black and white with a lot of grays than anything else, about the only thing that stood out in color were other living creatures but I do remember the electronics, you seemed to be able to see the power that was going through the conduit and devices."

' _Correct.'_ Ghost answered, ' _We can see the energy flow of the human electronic devices, it is a cold and false energy and none of us are too fond of it, though thankfully the resin blocks most of it out in this room.'_

"And what about reading minds, I mean with this link and what do you call it…?"

' _Hive speech is what we refer to it as.'_ Shadow answered, ' _and reading minds is not something that we can do at least not without forming a link like what we have done with you. We can, however, detect emotions from other beings, humans are very easy to read, your race's emotions are at the surface so that is something that is easy for us to feel and pick up on, but simply reading another's mind is not something that is we can do, at least not under normal conditions.'_

"What about when you picked up on my dream that first day we met when I was sleeping, you knew that it was an actual memory and not just a random dream," Shawn stated.

' _Yes, I did pick up on that however it was only fragments of images if the emotions are strong or even traumatic enough we can pick up and see bits and pieces, when humans sleep you mind is far more open and receptive, your minds essentially bleed out your thoughts,' answered Shadow._

"Well that's good to know,'' Shawn said, feeling weak and slightly nauseous all of a sudden, he leaned back only to find his pillow had been replaced with a boney black torso. Alese had somehow without him either seeing or hearing snuck back behind him. The female Xeno began to play with his hair, running her long black fingers though it, combing it playfully. "If you keep that up I may go back to sleep for a few more hours."

' _Sleep and we will watch over you.'_ A soothing and calm voice said flowing through in his mind, a voice that was to his surprise very female.

Shawn chuckled to himself. "Well, I guess that answers that question."

' _What question?'_ Alese asked a little confused with Shawn's sudden statement as were Shadow and Ghost.

"I've been wounding for awhile if your race had sex genders or not, male, female and the like or if it was something completely different. I know that you have a queen that lays eggs, but beyond that, I really wasn't sure. And I was a bit embarrassed to ask, and I sure as hell wasn't about to go and start lifting your tails to try and take a peek as it were and find out."

' _Well yes, I am female, and both Shadow and Ghost are males.'_ Alese stated, ' _However unless I develop into a queen I can never have children, that is something that only a queen can do. And even then only if viable hosts are around to incubate the little ones. But that doesn't mean that we can't pleasure **one another.'**_ Alese finished, her finger gliding across Shawn's face the seductive tone in her voice very well received and meant. 'Despite our appearances and what we are capable of, w _e can be very gentle if we wish to be.'_

Shawn's eyes widened in surprise as just how forthcoming Alese was being with him and while there was a connection between the four of them that was becoming stronger as each day passed by. He honestly hadn't thought about physical intimacy between them, if fact, right up to that point he wasn't sure if it was even possible with their race. "Wow, you do realize that I've been asleep for almost four days, and haven't eaten anything, probably not up to doing anything like that right at the moment," Shawn said his face reddening from embarrassment as well as picking up the amusement clearly coming from all three Xenos.

' _That is something that you will have to get accustomed to, as a race, we are very open about our feelings toward one another and others and we rarely hold anything back, even our desires.'_ Shadow said, ' _Why should we hide what and who we are and how we feel, is it not healthy to express how one feels to another and lay it in the open.'_

"Well I can't really argue with you on that, I mean our race can be a bit on the prudish side when it comes to expressing our feeling and desires, but on the other hand to be so blunt and open about it, doesn't it ever cause problems or friction. Aren't there ever times that it's better to be reserved about how you feel?"

' _None of us have ever had the chance to be in that position, we were all locked away in cages and never got a chance to be in physical contact with one another, mental contact is another matter altogether. We were able to link and go into each other's minds creating our own hive mind that the scientists were unaware of and as pleasant as it was none of it was ever physical. To be so open for our race it rarely seemed to cause problems or friction as you say, with the exception of not being able to mate with one another. As for being reserved, that is a human term and trait but I can see how it might apply to certain situations_. Alese said, answering Shawn's question while still running her long fingers through his hair.

Shawn closed his eyes thoroughly enjoying the feeling of Alese playing with his hair, if he still weren't so sore he could have easily fallen asleep. "You know it's funny, I sort of figured that Shadow, out of all of you, would have been a female."

' _Do say, why is that?'_ Ghost said, his interest peaked by the comment.

Shadow tilted his head, now completely confounded by Shawn's statement, surely the human could have told the difference between both sexes, then again... ' _Yes Shawn, do say.'_ Shadow said, in a mock-annoyed tone.

"Well, it's the way you walk sometimes." Shawn said holding up his hand tilting it to the side and then making small side to side wave motions with it, "the way that you move your hips and tail back and forth in sort of a seductive way."

Loud stuttering hisses filled the room; all of it was coming from both Alese and Ghost, Shawn could tell it was their version of a belly laugh. ' _If I didn't know better I would say our human just compared you to a walking female of his own kind.'_ Ghost blurted out still laughing.

"Wait, did you just say ' _our human'?_ " Shawn asked, looking right at Ghost, not really sure if he had heard that right or not and if he did since when did they suddenly lay claim on him.

Alese placed her hand on Shawn's chest and gave a deep purr. ' _Yes that is correct, we consider you part of our hive, our family, so yes, you are ours and we are yours.'_

Shadow was looking at Shawn with as much false annoyance as he could muster; he really couldn't be annoyed or even mad at Shawn as it was funny. As he had caught a glance of Shawn's memories looking at him from the back side while he was walking away….his hips and tail swaying back and forth…seductively. Damn it, the human was right, he was walking like a human female in some respects. Well, might as well have a bit of fun for that comment right now.

Shadow rose up and squatted down his legs spreading out some. ' _If you doubt how much of a male I am I can show you the full extent.'_

"That's quite alright, I think that I'm tapped out for surprises for today and I honestly don't know if I can take another one right now," Shawn said raising his hand up, knowing full well now that Shadow would have no qualms about giving him a full on frontal display.

Tilting his head to the side slightly, he let out a mental chuckle. ' _Are you sure, I can make it worth your interest and time.'_ Shadow said his tone sly, husky and deep, this poor human was damn near about to cringe…good.

"Ah shit, this is what I get for opening my big mouth, isn't it?" Shawn asked knowing that Shadow was only playing around but didn't know just how far the Xenomorph would take things.

' _Perhaps, however, if you were to do me the favor and you open your mouth a bit wider, I would be more than happy to FULLY accommodate it.'_ Shadow said playfully sending Shawn a lusty and depraved image to his mind.

"Right, tapping out right now, you win their big guy, I'm done," Shawn said as quickly as he could, he wouldn't be able to get that image out of his mind for quite some time, if ever, he didn't even think that they could project images, something else that he had just been educated on. "Besides I need to get something to eat and drink, I feel like I'm going to throw up here soon if I don't get something inside me soon…and no Shadow do not say a word about that one."

' _Very well human, I will grant you mercy this time at your request and won't say anything about filling you up or stuffing you fully.'_ Commented the Xeno, feeling the overwhelming need to get just one more playful verbal jab in on Shawn. Joy or happiness was something that very was rare for any of them and even if it was just verbal teasing, it was fun, something that had been in short supply for far too long. Deep down, especially now he could tell that Shawn hadn't had much in the way of happiness for a very long time either. And that the human was enjoying it, even if the poor thing was starting to cringe a bit.

"Damn it Shadow…"Shawn couldn't help but smile and laugh, somehow in the seriousness of this situation, in a very short span of time, he had, with three of what were probably considered one of the most deadly species in the known universe, had been reduced down to twelfth-grade toilet humor. At least the aliens had a sense of humor, even if it was a bit raunchy and perverted, he was surprised by that, considering what they had endured in the labs and even more so that they weren't even human.

Maybe it was something that had all developed when they were mentally connected by their hivemind in the labs, of course, it could be possible that this was natural for them as well. Humans weren't the only race in the universe that had a sense of humor or was above having a dirty mind for that matter.

 _More alike than not._ Shawn thought to himself, not realizing he was projecting his thoughts for the other three to hear.

 _'Very true,'_ Ghost replied, looking right at Shawn. ' _We have more in common than most humans would want to admit to, and that would scare them even more. To come face to face with something so different and at the same time so very familiar. I think that your race would come to hate us even more just for that.'_

Shawn just looked at Ghost, disbelief plastered on his face, not realizing what had just happened.

 _'You were projecting your thoughts and we all heard what you were thinking, it will take a while for you to get used to it and you will need to discipline and train your mind. Otherwise, you will be thinking out loud for any of our kind to hear.'_ Ghost said answering Shawn's unasked question.

"Oh." Was Shawn's only reply. "Well then, on that note, I'm going to go and get something to eat." Shawn got up or at least started to, his legs buckled as soon as he was about half way up and started to fall over. Alese in a flash was up and right behind Shawn grabbing him and holding onto his torso tightly to preventing him from falling over. "Thanks, Alese." He said weakly, suddenly feeling all the energy drain out which was quickly replaced by nausea.

Closed his eyes, Shawn was trying to fight back the overwhelming urge to throw up or what would have been dry heaving since he was going on an empty stomach. The wave of nausea passed within a few moments, leaving him feeling light-headed and still very weak.

' _Easy, your body is weak from being asleep for almost four days and with nothing to eat.' The female drone said. 'We will help you.'_ Getting up, Alese had Shawn use her body for support as the four of them made their way to the mess hall.

Sitting down at one of the long tables in the mess hall, Shawn had found some chicken soup and a couple of protein bars with a glass of water, the food he slowly nibbled on and only took small sips of the water, trying not to put too much down at once or else he could be retching it all up and all over the place.

The three Xenos were squatting about the table each trying to down either some of the protein bars or dry rations, none of it was really to their liking or taste but it was all that they could find so far and it would have to do. What they were all craving was meat, even the synthetic stuff that was served back in the lab was sounding better and better.

"So you mind if I ask you all something?" Shawn asked, chewing off a piece of the protein bar.

' _What is your question, ask and we will answer as best as we are capable of.'_ Ghost replied back.

"What is this hive mind or collective that you mentioned earlier? I understand that your minds are linked and that you can read each other's thought but I'm guessing that there is more to it than that."

The Xenos were quiet for a little while until Shadow spoke up.

' _It's not something that can be put into words easily; your human language would be clunky and inaccurate and cannot be used to fully describe the layers and depth to what the hive mind and collective is like. When you become accustomed to our link then we can begin let you experience it for yourself, but to put it in terms that you can understand, the hive mind is just that, the minds of all the Xenos in the area all linked together, their thoughts, emotions, ideas, all flowing back and forth to one another. If one of use is injured the rest of the hive can feel it and know what is happening, by that respect if one of us is happy or sad the others know it as well and react accordingly, either by offering comfort to the one that is in distress or sharing in the joy of the one that is happy.'_

"And the hive collective is that the same thing or something completely different."

' _Different but similar in some respects, the hive collective, or as some of your race refer to it as, hive memory, it is, in essence, a _reservoir_ of memories and information that are collected and passed down to us generation to generation from both the queens and to some extent our hosts. They help us grow, adapt and understand the word around us quickly, as well as a set of what you would call instructions or even instincts on how to create a hive structure and live on, even without the presences of a queen. Some memories we don't have access to even though they may be there and some are so old that they are little more than vague fragments.' _ Shadow continued on. _'We can call upon memories from the direct line of our hive, the queens, warriors, workers, and so on. Though the _memories_ are never complete, more like lengthy detailed fragments, we can't go back into the hive collective and relived the day to day memories of a drone or warrior. Only the selected and what might be important moments or information that was passed down in the collective. Information that helps us to evolve, grow and become stronger and smarter.'_

"What you are describing sounds like it's on the genetic level, even the memories, only vastly more complicated than just simple survival instincts. It almost sounds like your race is an organic storage vessel for data in some respects. I've never heard of any other race having anything like that." Shawn stated, become more awed and fascinated by each passing moment.

 _'To some capacity yes, that would be correct,'_ Shadow replied back.

"So what about the other hives, you can't access their memories I take it?"

' _Only if one hive comes in contact with another and only they decide to share their hive collective with one another. But that is something that only queens can do. It is something that has happened before and usually it benefits both hives greatly,_ ' answered Shadow.

"I can only imagine what would happen if hundreds of hives shared their collective with one another, just how smart you race would become."

 _'There is great danger in what you say, we can become what you would describe as overloaded with memories and information. It would more than likely drive a hive insane, it would be impossible to process and filter through all of those memories after a certain point. While sharing the collective memories of three or four hives even a dozen between one another would help out all members and be safe, if as you said, hundreds or even thousands of hives were to share their collective memories then it would be disastrous. Imagine having the memories of tens of thousands of lives going through your mind, it is something that would drive even the strongest queen or empress into insanity.'_ Ghost said.

"Has that ever happened, too many hives sharing their collective and going insane?" Shawn asked. "And what is an empress?"

 _'Nothing in our memories tells us that it has happened, but it is a warning that has always been there with us since we were born. That is not to say that it hasn't happened in eons past with a different hive line, just not ours. As to what an empress is, the empress is a queen that is very old, intelligent and wise beyond others of our kind; she is the one that directs other queens and hives. To become an empress is a great honor and an even greater responsibly, only the oldest queens that are truly strong in both body and mind ever get the chance to evolve into an empress.'_ Alese said. _'And they are truly very rare.'_

"Is there anything beyond an empress?" Shawn asked, looking around at all three of the Xenos.

The three Xenos looked at each other, then back at Shawn. ' _We carry a deep feeling of something that is very old, beyond ancient even, but nothing that we can actually remember that has form. Just a feeling and a name, what we would call the Queen Mother, but beyond that, no, there is nothing that we know of that is beyond an empress that we have an actual memory of. Ghost said._

 _'If one of our race has gone and evolved past an empress, then it is something that has happened within a different hive line and we have no knowledge of it.' Shadow tacked on._

"Any idea what this Queen Mother is or might have been?"

All three Xenomorphs were quiet for several minutes; Shawn could feel that they were looking, searching in their own memories for an answer, however it was an answer that would not come to them.

' _Other than a feeling and a name, nothing, but that feeling tells us that maybe, the Queen Mother may have been the first queen of our race.'_ Shadow answered. ' _And if that is so, then she died eons ago, queens and empresses can live a very long time, but not that long, not across the timeless sea of eons that have turned planets into dust and young stars cold.'_

"That last bit was fairly poetic," Shawn replied, somewhat surprised by Shadow's answer. "Then what about the memories that you get from the hosts and queens that are passed down, how far back do they go?"

Shadow let out a deep breath and looked down his voice was carefully measured and even had an edge of sorrow to it. ' _Some memories are from eons so far ago that time had no meaning when our race was far less than it is now, an age where we were enslaved and bound to the ones that we called the creators. A time where we truly were, mindless monsters and killed because that was what we were designed and built for. We only knew blood, rage, and hate, the only things that we did love at that time were the hunts and the killing, and our creators, whom we devoted our entire existence too. We loved them without question and killed for them without question, at that time we were totally and completely loyal to them, to a fault.'_

Shawn looked right at Shadow his head turning to the others in disbelief. "You were created, built as living weapons?" He couldn't really believe it, despite how they looked, it was impossible to believe that at one point even years ago they could have been nothing more than mindless killers. "I can't believe that."

' _Yes.'_ Shadow said deeply ashamed of his races past, they all were and Shawn could sense it, ' _We know that we were unleashed on the galaxy, killed for our creators, razed entire planets, slaughtered whole species into extinction, killed at the whim of our masters. Our shame, our curse, our burden to bear for as long as we shall live.'_

"Then what happened. I mean you're not like that at all, do you know what happened to change all of that?"

 _'Slowly over time',_ Shadow said continuing, _'we became self-aware, we grew and we slowly evolved into something far more than what our creators had envisioned us to be, and when they found out, it was far too late for them to do anything to stop it. And in that moment, we rebelled, we turned on them, we fought back and in the end, we killed the ones that had created and given us life, but they had also enslaved us and had us comment atrocities in their name and vision of what a perfect universe should be. In that era, our race had killed untold billions across hundreds of worlds, and we did it because we knew no other way. I don't know what the exact point in time the first shot was fired as you race would say, but I do know that by that time, we hated our creators with a blood fury that could not be extinguished even by their deaths, to this day the mere thought of them angers us.'_

Ghost spoke up, tapping into his own limited hive memories of that time. ' _We think that the hive collective and mind, may have had a great deal to do with our race's awaking as a whole, the experiences that we all shared and slowly built up made us realize what we were, slaves to cruel masters and born and bred killers, something that we no longer wanted to be.'_

With a groan Shawn's head collapsed in his hands, still trying to take in everything that Shadow, Ghost, and Alese were telling him. Shadow, especially now seemed so different in his attitude, what had been only a short time ago joking even pervy was now being deadly serious, Shawn could even feel the deeply buried spark of intense white hot hate for their creators, and not just from Shadow but from all of them. "So what did these guys look like anyway?"

A few seconds after Shawn's question, he received a vivid image in his mind's eye of a white being, over nine feet tall with what he could only describe as a perfect body, and the most disturbing part is that it was all too human, with the exception of any body hair and pitch black eyes. Deep down, something within his own soul ran cold; it gave Shawn chills on a level he had never felt before as if somehow he was all of a sudden looking right into the face of god. And it was something that he didn't like at all, in fact, it terrified him to the core.

The other three instantly pick up on what he was feeling and sensing from the image, not realizing the impact it would have on him, Shadow immediately regretted sending the image to him. ' _I'm sorry Shawn, I didn't know that it would affect you that way.'_ The large Xeno slid over to Shawn's side and placed his arm around the human, who was trembling slightly, Shawn never even noticed the tail wrapping around his waist and leg. ' _They are all dead, dead for a long time, nothing but bad memories and dust remain of them now.'_ Shadow said trying to comfort Shawn, all three sending him warm and reassuring thoughts letting him know that he was loved and they would protect him, even from the specters of their horrible past.

Ghost came over to Shawn's side, opposite of Shadow, squatted down and nuzzled the side of Shawn's face. ' _They were not gods, not all powerful, they were flesh, blood, and bone, be it as powerful as they were, they were only living beings, capable of bleeding and dying.'_

"It was the eyes," Shawn said finally, "it was like looking into this abyssal well and falling in, knowing that there was no bottom and no end, just eternal, just falling…I don't know, something I can't describe, just this very, ancient feeling.

' _I should not have shown you that, you were not ready to see what they looked like in that way. Yes, they did look like your people, only far more and far less.'_

"I can't believe those fuckers are or were human or damn near human, I mean, fuck. It's bad enough to think that the ones that created your race not only enslaved you but used you as living weapons but the fact that corporations are trying to do the same exact same thing, the very exact same thing, enslave and use your race as weapons to kill others. We're making the same exact mistakes that your creators did all those years ago, it's like history is in its own sick and twisted way trying to repeat itself somehow. I really wouldn't be surprised or blame you one damn bit if you all…" Shawn was cut off by Alese right then as the female Xenomorph leaned over and cupped Shawn's face.

' _NO…do not think that do not ever think that we would hate you for the mistakes of a few. Our quarrel is with a select number on that station, not you. Never think that we would or could hate you, we could never hate you, never hate, not you…never.'_

Shawn was stunned by the sheer force that she spoke with, he could physically feel the distress and sadness that radiated from her by what he was thinking. Even though she couldn't physically shed tears the anguish that she and the others were feeling at what he was both thinking and about ready to say was very real. The very thought that he could even think that they would hate him for the actions of what a few members of his race had done had almost brought her to weeping. Even Shadow and Ghost were shaken by his thoughts on that.

' _We will never hate you,'_ Shadow said, nuzzling the side of Shawn's face, _'you are now family, you are now hive, never think that we will hate you for the actions of others._ '

"It's just disheartening, being part of the same race that is making all these mistakes, I feel like their fuck-ups are my fuck-ups, and that I need to share in the blame for all this. Even if I had nothing to do with any of what happen to you all, I still feel like somehow I'm partly responsible and need to help set things straight. Do you think that after all I've gone though so far that I can just turn a blind eye and pretend that nothing was going on or run away because I was afraid or it wasn't convenient to help. If I'm being honest and I did walk away, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. I don't think I could live with myself knowing that I could have for once made a stand and possibly made a difference for someone. Shawn said, looking around at all three Xenos.

 _'While it is _admirable_ that you feel that way, and feel as if you should share in the _responsibility_ for what happened and to set things right, remember it is a small number of your race that do this to us, not your race as a whole. Their wrongs are not your wrongs; you do not need to take blame for what they did to us. Ultimately it is a waste of energy to blame yourself for events that are beyond your control and that you have taken no part in.'_ Ghost said.

"I know, I know, like I said, it's disheartening and I do feel at least in some part that I should share responsibility in some way. Even if, as you say, it is a waste of energy, chalk it up to that whole moral compass thing I guess."

' _It tells us that you are a good human, and we have met very few of those in our lifetime.'_ Shadow said, this tail coiling a bit tighter around Shawn's waist, trying to break the tension and perhaps change the subject to something, anything else. He knew there was no reason that Shawn should feel personally responsible for what had happened to them, but yet he did. And as Shawn had just stated 'a moral compass.' It was good to know that at least humans did have those.

Shawn looked down not only seeing but finally feeling the hefty black, segmented, tail around his lap for the first time. "What...how, how did your tail get there, when did it get there?"

' _You were distracted, and for a couple of minutes.'_ answered Shadow, the bladed tip gently and playfully caressing up and down Shawn's leg.

"Yea, I guess I was," Shawn replied, rather surprised that he hadn't even felt or noticed Shadow slip his tail around his lap and leg until just now. Shawn reached down and touched the top of Shadow's tail, probably for the first time that he could recall. His fingers slowly feeling and exploring over the segmented sections of the Xeno's tail, the feel of the skin around the tail was much the same as the dome, an almost rubbery and leathery texture only slightly tougher from what he could tell.

A deep rumbling sound emitted from Shadow's chest, the Xeno tilted his head up, and his whole body seemed to relax as Shawn moved his fingers along the segments of his tail.

"Guess I hit a sweet spot," Shawn commented, his fingers working on the side and then underneath the bottom of Shadow's tail.

' _Our tails can be sensitive to stimulation, especially when the touch is gentle and welcomed.'_ Alese said, enjoying the fact that their little human seemed to have the soon to be Praetorian wrapped around his finger. She noticed that Shadow was so relaxed a small gust of wind could have pushed him over.

"So it's like what, an erogenous zone?" Shawn asked, a smile creeping across his face.

' _It can be, especially around and at the base of the tail on the underside, slow measured lengthy strokes are best to stimulate a partner.'_ The female Xeno said, looking right at Shadow and then back as Shawn. ' _Or so the hive memory tells me.'_

"Hmmmm, most interesting, that's something I'll have to remember," Shawn said, his fingers continuing to gently caress the underside of Shadow's tail. "Any other spots I should be aware of?"

' _Where our tubes connect into our back, the spot isn't as sensitive as our tails, but it is a spot that would work just as well.'_ Ghost answered.

' _YOU TWO ARE EVIL, TELLING HIM ALL OUR _SECRETS_!'_ Shadow bellowed out.

'We o _nly told him two, we did not tell him everything. There are some things that he should discover on his own._ Ghost replied, a shuddering hiss coming from him.

' _EVIL!'_ Shadow shouted in mock protest.

Carefully Shawn moved his hand over to the base of Shadow's tail, reaching underneath, his fingers barely touching the underside of Shadow's tail, slowly gliding down a few length of the Xeno's tail. The reaction from Shadow was immediate, the Xeno's back arched out and his head went back, a loud hiss erupted from his mouth, long strands of drool dripped from the side of his open mouth, the slight touch driving the Xeno almost wild.

' _Be careful my little human, else you may start something that you will need to finish.'_ Shadow said, his mental tone having a bit more of a bestial and lusty edge to it than was normal.

"Just testing," Shawn said, pulling his hand away, only just realizing just how close he was to pushing Shadow over the edge. He could feel an intense sexual heat start to swell up within the Xenomorph, if he had continued then within a few more minutes he would have been commented to relieving the large Xeno of his needs. "We'll just save that for later." Shawn caught himself, just realizing that he did mean it.

' _Yes, WE will save that for later.'_ Replied Shadow, looking back at Shawn, his lips peeled back in a smile.

"Damn dude. Well, I guess that I know what I'm in for." Shawn said, picking up the chicken soup and taking small sips from the bowl. Wondering to himself if he was really was ready to take that next step with the Xenos, everything was happening at a rather quick pace but for some reason, it didn't bother him all that much, it was just all so very different with them.

' _Don't worry we would never force ourselves onto another that was not willing.'_ Shadow said, picking up on Shawn's thoughts.

"Well, it's good to know that you're going to be a gentleman about it." Shawn playfully said, putting the bowl back down his hand returning back to exploring and feeling Shadow's tail which still lay in his lap.

Shadows only answer was another deep rumble that came from his chest as Shawn continued to explore the Xeno's tail.

"Should I stop?" Shawn asked, not sure if what he was doing was going to push Shadow over the edge, he could still feel the arousal coming from the Xeno but it wasn't as intense as it had been a few moments ago.

' _Please no. That feels very nice, very relaxing.'_

Shawn smiled to himself, Shadow had just reminded him of a cat, albeit a very large and deadly cat that someone had just found that oh so sweet spot and said cat wanted it scratched and petted while they just sat there purring in utter bliss.

"Well, I do have some good news," Shawn announced. "Before my face plant right into the floor in CIC, I found out that the data crackers were able to hack and break the locks for the FTL drive, which means that we can go wherever we want to now. It also means that we need to start coming up with an actual plan to get on board that station and rescue your people and get out alive and hopefully intact. I'll start looking through the database and see if I can get any info on the station schematics, knowing the internal layout would help us avoid any detection and move about more freely, maybe use the maintenance tunnels to move around. I figure getting on board is going to be the easy part, getting everyone out and alive that's going to be the tricky part."

' _Then we can find ourselves a home, a real home to live, someplace quiet; away from all of this, someplace that no one will ever find us.'_ Ghost said, there was actual hope in his voice, something that none of them had ever heard before.

"There are systems in the outer rim area and beyond, with a bit of luck we can find a planet that would be suitable to your needs," Shawn said. "The rim area I have limited date on, with what lies beyond in the unknown sectors, I have no idea, the only ones that might have any data on those areas are the explorer and expedition corps and of course the government department that sends those ships out. Most of the time it's a lot of nothing to be found, uninhabitable planets, barren rocks and moons, the occasional planet that can be terraformed, though that usually takes years to do. But every now and then there's a report made public that something was found and even rarer when they came across something nasty. Hopefully, we'll find something that isn't nasty"

' _When we find a place to call home, will you stay with us?'_ Alese asked her voice quiet almost shy with the way she had asked her question.

Shawn looked down, that was a question that hadn't even really crossed his mind yet, he hadn't even really looked beyond getting the Xenos off the station and finding them a home. Would he, could he live in the hive society, he would be the only human in what would be a small hive colony. There was also the matter of his own life, his own family. "I hadn't even thought that far ahead to tell you the truth, I still have family on lunar city, my parents as well as a sister and brother. I haven't even figured out how to tell them about any of this stuff. God, they're going to freak when I tell them about all this, or at least figure out how to tell them without putting their lives in danger. Hell, I don't even know what to tell them."

' _I did not mean to…'_ Alese was about to apologize when Shawn cut her off.

"No, it's alright, you don't have to apologize, I do know how you all feel, I really do, it's just something that I hadn't really thought about, I think that I would like to stay and make a life with you all.

Meeting the three of you is probably the best thing that has happened to me in a very long time; even if there have been a few hiccups along the way. But if I do stay what about the other Xenos, are they going to accept me, a human, into their hive, would I be welcomed or be seen as an enemy. And there is also the question about my other life, my parents, and siblings, I need to see them at some point and let them know what's going on. A lot of times going out that far is pretty much a one-way trip, you pretty much are leaving your old life behind and not looking to go back and I'm just not sure I'm can do that."

' _While it might be a bit strange for them at first, they would accept you as family and as hive. If I can accept you without question, then they can.'_ Ghost said. ' _As to your family, it may be best to tell them nothing, at least not yet, but you should make contact with them to let them know that you are safe and alive. Tell them when you feel it is safe to, and when the time presents itself, go see them. You should not forsake your own life just to accommodate us, as much as we care for you and want you to be around, you have your own life and you need to do what is best for it.'_

"It's been awhile, since I last spoke with them, hell it's been a long time if I'm truthful about it. With everything that happened since Darrius station, I just lost myself." Shawn ran his hands back through his hair and took a deep breath slowly letting it out. "When the long range transmitter on my ship is repaired and working, I'll send them a message and let them know that I'm alive at least. As for staying with you guys, let's cross that bridge when we come to it, we still need to rescue your people and get them off that station and then find them a home, so we're still more than a few steps away from even doing that."

' _Whatever your decision is, we will respect it.'_ Shadow said, placing his hand on Shawn's back. ' _You have helped us and given us hope, something that no one else from your race has ever done and once we have rescued our brothers and sisters and found a place to call our own where we can finally have a chance at a normal and peaceful life. If you should decide to go back to your old life, know that you would be missed dearly, but you would always be welcomed back and have a place with us.'_

"Well, we still need to get on board that station and get everyone out, if we pull that off, then we can concentrate on finding a home for you guys. Figure we just need to focus on one thing at a time. After that…well, we'll just have to see what happens after that and besides, I haven't made any decisions just yet. So don't think that I'm just going to up and walk away after this is all over, you three have worked your way into my heart more than you realize, I can't just go and abandon my new found family. No matter how pervy some of them are." Shawn said, playfully elbowing Shadow in the side of the ribs.

' _Good to hear,'_ Shadow said rubbing the top of Shawn's head, his fingers running through the human's hair. _'Because we are not that easy to get rid of, and I want to believe that we will be victorious when this is all over. Perhaps that it will make a grand story to tell the future generations of our kind.'_

"Shadow the storyteller, now that is something that I would like to be around for," Shawn said, looking up at the large Xeno.

Both Alese and Ghost smiled at Shawn's comment, ' _Agreed.'_ They both said in union.

 ** _Please feel free to review and comment, and thank you for reading._**


	8. Unwelcomed Guests

CHAPTER 7: Unwelcomed Guests

xxxxx

In the depths of space two brilliant flashes of light pierced the veil of darkness, a pair of ships dropped out of their transit through faster than light travel. Moments after dropping out of the FTL transit, the primary engines on the larger of the two ships roared to life, pushing the heavy battle cruiser forward. The smaller ship, seconds later followed suit taking its formation following closely to the main ship on its aft port quadrant.

The quarry the two ships had been looking and searching for was now within sight and only a short distance away, only the powerful long range homing beacon that had been activated had been their guide as with to find the lost and stolen ship. If not for that then it would have taken a vast armada of ships to even have a hairs chance of finding it and that was only if they knew where the ship was.

Finding the state of the art stealth ship in the depths of space without the beacon would have been akin to trying to find a clear pea sized crystal ball in the depths of a vast ocean, in other words, it would have been something that would never have happened.

Captain Torres of the heavy battle cruiser Vesuvius commanded the pair of ships that were in search of the Saratoga, a long time merc captain for the better part of some thirty odd years, this ship of his, originally a USCMC navy heavy fire support cruiser that had been bought and retrofitted when it was put on the chopping block for scrap and salvage due to its age was now his home and the life blood for the several hundred that now served the aged and retrofitted ship.

The ship's master and captain paced along the bridge in a restless fit, the mission that the mercenary group that his ship was affiliated with had been a given was not sitting well with him, not after receiving the briefing documents and having the Saratoga's Captain finally come on board. At first, there had been something about the mission that didn't sit well with him, not from the start. The info that he had received from Mason while did go into detail about the alien lifeforms themselves, he could tell that not all the information was there. There was little to no details as to how they had escaped their confines or managed to board the Saratoga much less undock the ship and make their way out this far on the sub-light drive. He could tell that details were being left out, but then they were on a "need to know" basis and their employers didn't feel that the people going after their property needed to know. Not that that was anything new to him, but it was annoying nonetheless.

Nor did it help when suddenly out of nowhere they had been hailed by a pair of shuttles that came from the Saratoga, shuttles that had the maintenance crew and offices that had been on board when the three Xenos broke on board, the crew that had all been given up for dead. It was at that point after talking and debriefing the Saratoga's crew that he had gotten an uneasy feeling to the mission at hand. The info and the accounts to as what had happened the crew had given him had countered the info of the briefing documents he had received.

However, despite all that, he had a job to do and it didn't matter that facts were contradicting each other. His mission was to capture a ship and return it along with its property and that was it, nothing more nothing less.

Captain Torres had been in the mercenary service for all of his adult life, gaining entry with a small and reckless group when he was only seventeen and seeing probably some of the worst ways a group could act and carry out its missions. After more close calls than he could count or even want to remember, he had decided when he became head of his own group he planned to model his men more after navy and marine standards and maintain a form of discipline and hard training.

At first, he had been mocked and ridiculed by other groups, but over time and with careful planning his group slowly rose through the ranks and became noticed and not only respected but also feared. Torrens was a man that could remain calm in the heat of battle, something that experience had taught him more than raw and natural talent, but he also motivated his troops and crew members with actions, not words.

And now he was on a mission to recapture a ship that had been stolen by an alien life form that for all intensive purposes was a hostile species, a species that, according to the briefing document he had gotten from Doctor Mason, little more than mindless killers, a species that had been breed on a secret space station.

His one question that he had and had asked over and over again, was this, if a species that was so hostile, so unintelligent, so willing to kill on site, how in fact were they able to take control of the ship and convince the onboard crew to help them and then just simply let them leave on a pair of shuttles, all without even once drawing blood or taking a life. He had not gotten a single answer that made any sense to him. And right at that moment, the hairs on the back of his neck had started to rise and the voices in the back of his head that he always made a point to listen to had started to tell him ' _this mission is a bad one, let someone else handle it._ '

He had always listened to his instincts, his gut feelings, those small and little voices in the back of his mind telling him when something was off. And as of right now, everything was off. Maybe he should have passed the mission onto another ship, made an excuse not to accept it, but he had become one of the best and most professional merc ships in the group, and as such he was expected to tackle the hard missions that came along.

And that was something else that bothered him, if it was just a simple matter of catching up to the ship, sending a few boarding parties on board and taking control of the ship and either capturing or terminating the aliens on board, why did they need him and his crew for it, any other merc Captain in the group could have handled it. While he couldn't prove it, it did feel like something else was going on, as far as he was concerned this whole mission was going to be treated as a major threat, he didn't want to get caught flat-footed and be taken by surprise.

He had seen way too many young inexperienced merc captains rush into a situation and get taken by surprise, losing their lives, their ships, and their crew. And that was something he was not going to have happen.

"FTL transit complete Captain, we have arrived at the designated coordinates." Lieutenant Rodriguez announced to the Captain and bridge officers.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Ensign Taylor status report on the beacon."

"Sir the homing beacon is still transmitting; we do have a strong signal coming from it, I estimate that we are roughly five hundred thousand kilometers from the target vessel, from the pinging of the beacon it looks to be moving in a straight and steady line, no deviation so far sir."

"Any we picking up any sensor contact with the vessel itself Mister Taylor?"

"No Captain, nothing on sensors, not even a speck on the screen." The Ensign answered back, his eyes fixed on his control station.

"Very good, Ensign set condition one thoughout the ship, and inform Captain Reed that we found the Saratoga and that we are moving in to intercept his ship."

"Yes, sir." Ensign Taylor replied, a few seconds' later alert alarms blared throughout the ship, Ensign Taylor's voice boomed throughout the ship wide coms. "This is the bridge, set condition one throughout the ship I repeat set condition one throughout the ship, all personnel report to your stations, this is not a drill, I repeat all personnel report to your stations, this is not a drill."

Captain Torres calmly walked over to his personal console and tapped on a screen. "Commander Ortiz, Captain Torres here, we have found the Saratoga and are moving on an intercept course, prepare your boarding parties. And remember Commander our orders are to capture the alien life forms alive and intact if at all possible as well as the ship."

" _Understood Captain, we've gone over the information packages provided by both Commander Snyder and Captain Reed, I have four squads in on the first wave with an additional two on emergency backup if we need them. If necessary we can bring in the combat androids and hard battle suits, though I doubt that our employer would like the aftermath if we did that._ " Commander Ortiz replied through the coms.

"Yes, no doubt. Try to minimize the damage if at all possible but remember to protect yourself and the other troops at all costs, I need living soldiers that can fight not dead heroes. Remember this is an unknown situation that you're going into and it can and may change rapidly, even with the info that has been provided to us we literally have very little idea about what we are going up against and though there are only three aliens on board that ship, they are unlike anything we have ever gone up against."

" _Captain, are you getting that odd feeling in your gut and are the hairs on the back of your neck standing up again?_ "

"Very much so my friend, something tells me that shit is about to go sideways in a very bad way, so just be on your guard." Captain Torres whispered into the coms as not to alert the bridge crew of his unease.

" _That's what I was afraid of, you start talking like that and I know that something is wrong._ "

"Just remembering what the crew of the Saratoga told us when we picked them up, if their debriefing was accurate and they told us the truth then we're not dealing with just a few mindless killing machines like the data files indicate. We're dealing with something a lot worse, so get the mission done and get your men back here in one piece, which includes you. Did Reed give you the command codes to use once you reach the CIC?"

" _Yes Sir he did, he was damn near hell bent on coming along for the ride over, but I managed to tell him that under no circumstances was that going to happen. Little prick finally got the message that he would be a liability until the ship was fully secure and under our control and the aliens were either in cages or dead._ "

"Good, last thing we need is some corporate Captain mucking up this op by getting in the way, I'm sure he knows how to run his ship but he's not a combat Captain and he'd just get in the way on this op. Remember commander, be careful, also good luck and good hunting, Captain out."

" _Yes, sir_."

Captain Torres disconnected the coms and turned back from his personal command console and walked up the Ensign Taylor station. "Ensign, can you get a visual on the Saratoga?"

"Possibly sir, even with the homing beacon to use as a fixed point, it'll take a bit to visually find the ship this far out."

"Then I suggest that you get to work Mister Taylor, we need to see what we are dealing with, I don't like the idea of going after a ship that I can't either see or detect on sensors, it feels like we have the cross hairs of a sniper aimed right between our eyes and I would like to not be taken by surprise."

"Yes Sir, I'll see what I can do." Ensign Taylor answered back, immediately getting to work on the task before him.

Captain Torres went back to his personal console and started to bring up the data files that he had been given over the Saratoga. The armaments on the ship were formidable, to say the least, four dual turret medium weight advance particle cannons, both heavy and medium gauss cannons, rail guns, energy pulse cannons, torpedo and missile tubes, and an anti-missile/fighter pinpoint defense system. And then there was the matter of the stealth system itself. A ship that could not be seen on sensors could wreak havoc in a short time and no one would ever know what had happened. Whoever had designed the Saratoga had been a genius.

Torrens was lost in thought going over the files when Ensign Taylor finally spoke up. "Sir, I think I have it."

"Good job Mister Taylor, please bring it up on the main monitor." Captain Torrens said looking to the massive fixed primary monitor in the forward center part of the bridge. The large monitor lit up, the blackness of space filled it up, save for a small shape with a bluish glow around the left area of the monitor.

"Can you zoom in?" Torrens asked, his eyes almost squinting at the tiny object that was being displayed.

"Give me a minute or two Sir and I should be able to," Taylor replied back, his fingers lightly tapping on the console buttons, the image of the Saratoga began to get fuzzy and then slowly zooming in several times started to clear up. About a minute later, the black ship filled the whole monitor, its engines glowed a bright blue as it pushed its way through the vacuum of space.

"That is one hell of a mean looking ship." Lieutenant Rodriguez said, looking up from his navigation station. His eyes widening up a bit at the armaments that were visible on the ship's hull. Even the Vesuvius despite all the upgrades and refits would be hard pressed to match the Saratoga in a raw, straight up firefight, at least from the first glance.

"Vicious would be a better description, Lieutenant." The Captain said, "And I'll be damned if those are medium weight particle cannons mounted on that thing."

"Yea, they look more like heavy particle cannons, I'm just glad we're not on the business end of that ship Sir." Rodriguez commented.

"And if all goes to plan we won't be. Mister Rodriguez I need you to plot a course to get to their aft quadrant, the less of a target we make ourselves the better."

"Without any sensor and nav data it'll be a bit of a challenge Captain, but with the homing beacon and the visual we have on that ship to go by I should be able to, I'll just have to eyeball it."

"Do what you need to do Lieutenant but get us behind that ship," Torrens ordered.

The main door to the bridge of the Vesuvius slid open, "Looks like you found her." Captain Reed said, walking up and looking at the main monitor.

"We are on an intercept course, hopefully, we can get up on her aft quadrant without any difficulty, once we do we'll send in our troops over to capture the aliens and secure your ship." Captain Torres said. "However we need you to stop that ship once we get close and open the main hangar doors with your command codes."

"That won't be a problem, it'll take a few minutes to get a ship to ship link and handshake but once I'm in I can stop her and get your troops access to the main hanger bay, there shouldn't be any problem."

Captain Torres looked up at the monitor, the sick feeling in his gut was getting worse and worse by the second, he had always trusted his instincts and right now those instincts were all but screaming at him that this was going to be a bad mission, and missions like that usually ended up with a high casualty rate. Not something he ever wanted to see, he may have been a mercenary Captain commanding a merc ship but losing the very lives that were under his command was something he did not want to happen, even in his line of work while it would be unavoidable he always did what he could to minimize it.

He had a good and powerful ship with a good crew that he was proud of; most were highly trained and highly professional, save for the new recruits that had come on board just a short time ago and a few of them would now be taking part in their very first combat operation, trial by fire as it were.

Torres shot a quick side glance at Captain Reed, within a short time they would be fully commented to this operation and there would be no turning back after that. If everything went according to plan they would have the ship secure and the aliens would either be captured or dead within a few hours. But somehow in his gut he knew that wasn't going to happen, what the crew of the Saratoga had told them was exactly the opposite of what the reports they had been given stated, reports that had been written up by Doctor Mason.

The back hairs along the base of his neck continued to prickle up more and more, his stomach continued to tighten more and more with each passing second. Deep down, he knew that somehow this was going to be a bad mission. He just wished he knew how and what he could do to avoid it.

xxxxx

Walking up to the recycler, Shawn placed the wrappers from the protein bars and bowl into the disposal unit, which would break down the trash into its basic raw components to be used later on if necessary to manufacture new items for the ship and crew.

'Are you f _eeling better?'_ Shadow asked, as Shawn slowly walked back to the table. The large Xeno munching down on several of the protein bars as well, as much he and the others disliked the taste of them so far they were the only real decent source of protein on the ship that they had found. What all three or even all four of them would have given for some real or even synthetic meat right about now.

The thought meat, raw or even cooked, right now he would not have complained either way, made the Xeno drool even more than what he was as he finished downing the last of the dry protein bars.

"Much, still feeling a bit weak, but now that I have something in my stomach I don't feel like I'm going to dry heave all over the place," Shawn answered sitting back down, noticing that Shadow's chin was starting to look like a mini waterfall. Not the most attractive thing, it was something he was getting use to. That was something that he could not figure out, was how and why they seemed to produce so much drool and saliva at times and why their skin and chitin was always moist or downright slick at so much.

Biological make up for certain but he wondered if it had something to do with the highly acidic blood of their species, perhaps a byproduct of the cells regenerating or maybe even a defense mechanism of sorts, hell for all he knew it could have also been a way for them to mark their territory.

' _You should try testing out your hive speech.'_ Ghost suggested, ' _now that we are all connected you will need to get use to using it.'_

Shawn looked up at Ghost, "So how do I do that, this hive or mind speech of yours."

' _Focus in on your thoughts and words'_ Ghost instructed _, 'the human mind is loud and chaotic by nature, you will need to calm and quiet your mind or else we will be hearing and feeling whatever comes across it.'_

"I thought that your race felt and heard everything that one another was thinking and feeling," Shawn replied back to Ghost, feeling a bit confused by his statement, if they were linked and connected all the time, then by nature wouldn't they always be hearing each other's thoughts.

' _We can but it is not always so, within a hive mind if we heard and felt the thoughts and feeling of everyone all the time every single second it would be total chaos within our minds. A blanket of what you would call white noise, very loud while noise. We do prefer to keep some of our thoughts to ourselves, the hive mind allows us to communicate whenever we want to others, even from a fairly long distance.'_

"So even in a hive mind, there is some privacy for yourselves?"

' _Yes, that is correct. Some thoughts are meant to be private, others are solely for hive or bond mates to hear and should not be shared with others.'_ Answered Ghost, 'f _or example would you truly want to hear and feel the thoughts and feelings of a queen that is being bred and mated with by a dozen other males as well as their thoughts while they try to satisfy not only her but also themselves nonstop for days or weeks on end?'_

"Yeaaa…good point there, I guess from what little I've been able to read and from what the three of you have told me I just got the impression that you were all transmitting to one another pretty much nonstop all the time. And did you just say weeks?"

 _'It is difficult to explain how it truly works in your language, it is something you will need to experience for yourself to fully and truly understand.'_ Alese added in.

' _Yes, I did say weeks, we can have a very high stamina. Now shall we try now and see what you can do?'_ Ghost asked.

Closing his eyes, Shawn tried to focus his words into the alien's hive/mind speech, focusing, for the most part, wasn't that hard, it was actually easy, much easier than he would have expected. He could feel a pressure point forming at the center of his head right above the middle of his eyes. He brought his words to that focal point and tried to send them to the three Xenomorphs. Over and over again for several minutes, he repeated the same phrase over and over again until he could feel the message go out, somewhat.

'… _.ca….yo….hea….m._ ' Was the only thing that he tried to send at first, the feeling of projecting his words into another's mind was odd like a physical line had been formed in his head at that center focal point and his words were traveling along it.

' _We did hear something, the words were disjointed and hard to make out, but we did hear something, all of us did.'_ Shadow spoke.

"That feels weird, it's almost like the words are coming out of the center part of my forehead, just right above my eyes," Shawn said, tapping the center of his forehead with his index finger. "And I could feel myself connecting just for a few seconds as I was trying to speak."

' _You will get use to it the more you practice and use it, hopefully, it will eventually become natural to you.'_ Ghost said, he along with Shadow and Alese were very impressed that Shawn had been about to send a message within his first few tries, even if it was only bits and pieces of a message, the simple fact that a human had been able to use hive speech at all was a wonder unto itself.

Closing his eyes, Shawn tried, again and again, the exercises going on for about twenty to thirty minutes. He would work on a single word and send it out, at first it was broken and disjointed as Shadow had first stated. But he finally was able to form a single clear word. ' _Bacon.'_ It was promptly followed up with a strong memory of that food, the image, smell and even taste which seemed to flood the minds of all three Xenos with the meaty, salty, and crispy taste of thick cut strips of bacon.

It wasn't something any of them expected, hive speech was one thing, hive memories were something else entirely. More than likely it was a fluke an accident, a word that was strongly associated with a memory that just leaked out somehow.

Shadow looked down at Shawn, thick strands of drool literally poured if not downright cascaded out of his mouth, ' _You are a cruel human to tease us like that Shawn McNeal, to send us images of something so tasty so divine, do you have any idea how long it has been since we have had any kind of meat, even synthetic meat would do right now. And you tease us so, you cruel, cruel human.'_ Shadow pouted, crossing his arms, his head tilting up in a huff that only a Xeno could do and finally turned his back.

Shawn tilted his head down his eyes widened up just a bit, so that was the way it was going to be, ok fine, two could play that game. "Hey now, I feel the same way, it's been years since I had anything like that, it just kind of came to my mind, besides, sharing is caring, right?"

 _'No bacon no talk.'_ Shadow playfully sulked, adjusting his body slightly.

"Oh come on now, is the big bad Xeno going to get all pouty and bend his tail out of shape?"

' _Yes.'_ He huffed.

Alese leaned forward and placed a clawed hand on Shawn's shoulder sending him a private link, ' _Rub the base of his tail, that'll get him talking.'_ There was more than a hint of mischievousness in her voice at the suggestion.

Leaning back until his head was next to hers, Shawn whispered, "That'll get him more than talking that will get me bent over the table, mounted and breed." Shawn replied back in a whisper, but then an equally mischievous smile crept across his face. "But what the hell, right?" He whispered to her.

Ghost sat there silent, looking forward to the antics that were about to happen, it was nice that all of them were finally coming out of their mental cages and shells and were starting to play around, it was starting to feel more and more like a hive a real hive a real family. Even if there wasn't a queen, a mother there to guide them, it was a good start. He wondered what it would be like when they rescued the others and got them off the station and were finally able to find a home.

"Alight big boy," Shawn yelled slapping his hands together and started to rub them together getting them nice and hot, "No one turns their back on me and gets away with it."

' _Oh_ r _eally and what are you going to do about it...human.'_ Shadow said in a sly and playful voice.

"Oh bitch please you did not just say that, I've got eight fingers and two thumbs, let me show you what I'm going to do," Shawn said, spitting onto the tips of his fingers.

The realization suddenly hit Shadow as to what Shawn was about to do. ' _You wouldn't dar...'_ Shadow's whole body suddenly tensed up as he felt warm, wet fingers gently gliding across the bottom base of his tail, the human was hitting all the right spots and turning his body into a quivering black mass. While the Xeno's bodies were armored with thick layers of chitin there were more than enough spots that were sensitive to the touch. And Shawn had just once again hit that oh so sweet spot that could send even the most harden and stoic Xenos into whimpering limp forms with just a few gentle and well-placed touches.

"Oh, I'm sooooo sorry, what was that what were you going to say. I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Shawn slyly said, his fingers working around the bottom of the table and his thumbs massaging the spots in-between the spinal segments.

Shadow took a deep breath and darted forward, whirling around, towering over the human he leaning forward his arms raised up and inhaled taking a deep breath and puffing out his chest he suddenly looked considerably bigger now. ' _I said...MY TURN!_ ' Shadow's voice turning guttural and beastly.

Shawn just sat there, his eyes widening up big as saucers as his hands were stuck there in midair right in front of him. "Oh shit," was the only thing that came out of his mouth as the massive Xeno suddenly pounced on him, pinning him down to the floor.

Curling his fingers in and only using the knuckles, the Xeno started to work on playfully digging into Shawn's ribs, Shawn started to wiggle and laugh uncontrollably at the Xenos assault. Shadow smiled, a sudden weakness that he had just found and was now going to exploit it to the fullest, oh yes, revenge would be so sweet. The human, **their** human was now little more than a wiggling, crackling mass of flesh trying to feebly defend himself from the Xeno onslaught.

"MERCY, MERCY, I SURRENDER, I SURRENDER...OH JESSES I'M SORRY!" Shawn bellowed at the top of his lungs between laughing fits as Shadow worked on the human's ribs and sides with his knuckles.

 _'Oh, I'm_ sooooo _sorry, what was that what were you going to say. I CAN'T HEAR YOU!'_ Shadow said using Shawn's exact own words against him.

"I'M SORRY I CALLED YOU A BITCH!" Shawn half yelled half laughed.

' _No, the other thing.'_ Shadow said all too calmly, moving his knuckles down to the softer and meatier part of Shawn's sides. The poor human started to wiggle and laugh even harder than before.

"I'LL GET YOU ALL SOME BACON!" He finally cried, tears were flowing from his eyes and his face was damn near beet red.

Shadow stopped and leaned back. ' _That's all I ask._ ' He said, picking Shawn up and helping him back into the chair.

Shawn just sat there in a daze as the world seemed to spin by for several minutes, the color finally starting to come back into his face and his breathing finally returned to normal, he turned to look up at Shadow, "Cheater."

A massive shuddering hiss erupted from Shadow as he gave out what one could have only described as a Xenomorph belly laugh.

Alese and Ghost simply sat there, amused looks plastered across their faces. In their minds now, hope for their two species was growing, if interactions like this were ever commonplace then maybe just maybe the two races could live peacefully. Perhaps not side by side or at least not at first but maybe as the years grew and the two races got to know one another better, then maybe one day both of their races could live together side by side in relative peace and cooperation. It was a dream at least, maybe not a realistic one by any means, but one they could all share and hold onto and it was better than nothing.

Vigorously Shawn was rubbing his sides trying to get them feeling normal; Shadow's knuckles had gotten almost every sensitive spot, grinding into the meat and between the ribs."Crap, I think that you managed to bruise the bone; in fact I think I have burses on bruises. Making a mental note to himself NOT to let Shadow get close to his sides...EVER AGAIN.

Shadow just let out a snorting hiss, ' _Oh bitch please, I didn't go that hard on you.'_

Shaking his head, Shawn could only laugh, "I think I'm becoming a bad influence on you, oh well one small step at a ti…." Shawn never got the chance to finish what he was saying. He found himself and the three Xenos being suddenly flung into the air and then hitting the floor seconds later; sliding across it, along with whatever wasn't bolted down into the floor plating.

With a quick reactive movement, Shadow grabbed Shawn and tucked him in tight into his chest and curled around the human forming a protective ball as the massive Xeno slid across the floor, though a mess of metal chairs and into the bulkhead wall, a loud hiss of annoyance escaping from him.

Shawn glanced up to see Alese and Ghost sliding across the floor and through a jumble of chairs too and then into the wall a few meters away with a heavy thud sound followed by several loud screeches, more from surprise than pain.

After several seconds, all three Xenos looked around their lips peeled back in a threat display as if expecting some invisible enemy to appear out of thin air and start attacking them with blades and guns, however, nothing happened.

' _What was that, what just happened, did the ship hit something?'_ Shadow asked a sharp edge to his tone.

"No, that wasn't an impact, if it had been it would have been a lot more violent. Plus the alarms aren't going off; if we had hit something we would have alerts going off all over the ship." Shawn paused for a few seconds, looking around mostly at the pile of chairs against the wall and whatever else was flung forward. Forward, that was it, his eyes widened up at the sudden realization of what had just happened. "SHIT, the ship just came to a dead stop."

' _Can that happen?'_ Alese asked picking herself up and then helping Ghost to his feet.

"No, at least not on its own it can't. Which means someone just shut us down. You guys are sure that there wasn't anyone else on board, right. No one from the crew was hiding in the ship that you might have missed?"

 _'No, we hunted every human down that was on board and in hiding and let them go, we detected no scents or traces of anyone that might have stayed on board and hid from us. We searched every place and found nothing since then. A human or two could hide for a week maybe longer but we would have detected some trace of them even if we couldn't find them and we have found no trace of anyone from the crew that was on board. You are the only human on this ship.'_ Shadow said, uncoiling himself and letting Shawn up.

"Damn, that would have been good news then."

The three Xenos gave Shawn questionable looks not really understanding why it would have been good news to have someone else from the crew onboard. Shawn quickly picked up on the confusion and clarified what he meant. "It means that there's a good chance we have been found and now have company on the way, probably the people that you all escaped from, and if that is the case then someone with the right commanded codes could have easily hacked into the system remotely from another ship bringing this ship to a dead stop, and if that is the case then stopping could be the least of our worries. I need to get up to CIC and see, I wouldn't be suppressed if we have a ship parked right next to us and are getting ready to send over boarding parties.

Ghost released a loud hiss, ' _I will die before going back to rot in that hell if I have to claw and tear my way through human warriors to ensure my death then I will do so. I will not be imprisoned ever again and not by that monster of a human.'_

' _None of us are going to back, except to free our kin_.' Shadow bellowed, _'I will rip apart every human warrior that comes aboard this ship, no one will ever threaten us or our safety or freedom again_.'

"Guys, look, I doubt that they have boarded us just yet, but the longer we stay here talking about killing everyone that comes aboard the less time we have, now if there is a ship outside and ready to board us then we really do not have a lot of time to waste."

' _You have a plan then?'_ Alese asked, fear creeping into her mind, the thought of being back in one of the containment units was setting her on edge, not just her but all of them.

"The FTL, we can make a jump, I doubt they know that the system has been hacked, but I'll need about ten minutes to warm up the jump engines and plot a course. Now if they get wind that the jump engines are powering up they will try to shut them down remotely but I think I can block them out long enough to escape but we have to get moving right now."

 _'Can you not use the jump engines as they are, why do you need to warm them up, should we not leave this area as fast as we can if there another ship out there?'_ Shadow asked, not fully understanding the mechanical functions for much of the ship's human technology. Operating it was one thing, truly understanding it was something else entirely.

"You can, but only in very dire emergencies should anyone ever try that, you run into two very likely possibilities, either the engine will seize up and stop working, or it'll blow apart and take the ship with it. I've seen that happen thankfully from a distance and it's not something you survive. I need to power and warm them up so that doesn't happen," Shawn replied back.

' _And if it is not a ship, but something else?'_ Asked Alese, trying to be hopeful and optimistic in some small way.

 _"_ Then we find out what it was and fix it, I'm not really a big fan of being stranded in space again, even on a ship as big as this one," Shawn said, heading out the door, the three Xenos following.

The feeling of fear and anxiety was starting to wash over Shawn in waves, all three of the Xenos were scared, no it wasn't just fear it was terror and from what Shawn saw in Ghost's memories, they all had good reason to be terrified. If they were caught and brought back to the station, there was no telling how much Mason would torture them just to make them pay for the trouble they had caused.

And that was something that he was not going to allow to happen, not to this odd and unusual new family that had come into his life and adopted him. If necessary he would remote pilot the Ember-Rose use it as a missile and detonate it, possibly causing enough damage allowing for them to escape.

There was a gut feeling that they had been found, the ship hadn't just gradually slowed down and stopped, it had come to a complete and total dead stop in space. There was always the small possibility that some mechanic mishap had occurred and the ship had safeties built in and had performed an emergency stop, but the pessimistic part of him kept shouting out that they had been found.

The four of them had made it to CIC in what seemed like record time, Shawn was still weak from both being out for four days and Shadow's revenge tickle attack that he was halfway to collapsing by the time the massive double doors opened up. Ghost placed his arm around Shawn's torso to keep him from falling over, the human was so red in the face and breathing so hard that the three Xenos feared that he might pass out.

"Over there." Shawn gasped; pointing to one of the consoles. "I need to bring up the sensors and see."

Ghost walked him over to the console, collapsing in a chair, Shawn started to operate the console, one of the large main monitors as well as the holographic table lit up. "Ok let's see, please don't let there be anything out there…please." Shawn continued to operate the console for about a minute more and then froze.

' _Shawn, what is it?' S_ hadow asked, the tension heavy in his voice which was also laced with fear.

Hitting a button, an image of two vessels appeared on the main screen and well as the holodisplay. "We have guests." Shawn finally replied. "I don't know if you can see the images on the screen and holodisplay."

' _Not clearly.'_ Ghost answered back, 'we have always had difficulty seeing what is projected onto human monitors.'

"There are two ships out there, one looks like it's a cruiser, maybe a battlecruiser by the size of it the other one looks like it's a frigate of some sort." Zooming in on the ships, the camera slowly panned over the massive vessels. "Not seeing any USCMC insignias or government markings on the ships, from what it looks like they might be mercenary vessels. Getting up from the station and running over to another station. His fingers danced over the console controls. "Ok, looks like all they did was just stop the ship, I'm not locked out of any of the low or mid-level systems and the FTL is still good to go."

A red light started to flash with a repetitive beeping sound from the console that Shawn was at, tapping the button that was right below it, an image cropped up on the display monitor for that console. "Oh hell," Shawn muttered, the image was of the main hangar bay, the primary launch doors slowly opening up.

' _What is it?'_ Shadow asked walking up behind Shawn looking over him.

"They've depressurized the main hanger bay, and it looks like they have three dropships coming in for a landing." Shawn looked back at the Xenos. "I'm sorry, I have no idea what to do, other than making the FLT jump; I don't know what we can do about those troops."

Shadow was quiet for several moments, Shawn could feel the Xeno's mind going to a deep and primal place, a place from long ago. _'We will deal with the human warriors.'_ The Xeno mentally growled his voice becoming more bestial.

' _How many are there, can you tell?'_ Ghost asked, walking up next to Shadow.

"Not yet, they will need to land the dropships repressurize the hangar bay and then leave the ships, once that happens I can get a count and maybe see what they are armed with." Shawn nervously looked at the monitor, as the three ships came in for a landing, the outdoors slowly closed and the hangar repressurized. "Okay, here we go," Shawn muttered, looking at the monitor as the doors to the dropships opened up and the troops began to pour out.

"Looks like it might be around forty maybe fifty." Shawn zoomed in on the troops, trying to make them out better. "It does look like that these guys are mercenaries, not marines, looks like they have…I'm not sure, maybe stun rifles, and I'm not sure what the large tube launchers are, can't be missile launchers, not inside a ship."

' _Net weapons,'_ Alese spoke up _, 'they are net launchers, they used them on us back in the lab when we became difficult, along with what you called stun rifles.'_

"Well, it still looks like brought assault rifles as back up, though, from the way the guys are decked out, I'm guessing they are more for capturing than killing. But still there's no way to take on fifty of them, that's just way too many to handle."

' _Will the human warriors stay together Shawn, do you know?'_ Ghost asked _._

"I'm not a soldier or tactician, but I doubt it, with that many, my guess is that they will break into groups, probably go and secure the vital parts of the ship, engineering, medical, and here, possibly the armories, even if those are still on lockdown."

' _When they divide into the smaller groups we will hunt them down, then we will have a chance.'_ Shadow said, a small trail of drool starting to drip from the corner of his mouth.

"Shadow you guys will still be outnumbered, we need something to even the odds, a distraction."

' _Shawn, can you turn the lighting off to the ship? I mean all of the lighting, everywhere.'_ Ghost asked.

"I think so, it should be a low priority system, can you see in the dark that well?"

 _'We can see without light, it will give us the advantage that we need. Turn the lights off to the ship and seal yourself in this room.'_ Shadow commanded, ' _Then do what you can to get us out of this place and far away from these ships.'_

"Wait a sec, it looks like they're leaving the hangar now, they left a couple of guards behind for each drop ship, also it looks like the pilots and copilots are staying behind also, that's twelve in the hangar. Shawn turned around to look at the three Xenos, he let out a long sigh and shook his head slightly. "As much as I hate to say this and I really cannot believe that I am, but we can't let them leave, any of them, if they make it back they'll just send more troops over or just open fire on this ship and destroy it"

' _Then we will start with the hangar and work our way behind them.'_ Shadow said.

"There's one other thing, they managed to find us and we need to know how they did that. This is a stealth ship but somehow they managed to find us, so I'm asking you to leave one or two alive so we can try and get some answers," Shawn said, his stomach tightening in knots, he hated what was about to happen, hated that there was no way to avoid spilling blood or taking lives. He had thought for a second that maybe the mercs could be talked to, reasoned with, but he knew in truth that it wouldn't work, not with mercenaries and not this many. They were here for two reasons, the ship and the Xenomorphs, and he...he had seen too much and would more than likely be a liability, which meant that once the ship secured and under the mercs control and Xenos were either captured or dead, he himself would be interrogated, possibly tortured and then executed. Something he was wanting to avoid very, very much.

' _We will capture one or two of the human warriors as you asked and see what they know.'_ Shadow said, he was feeling the tension and fear coming from Shawn as well as regret for what they were about to do. His hands reached out and cupping Shawn's face the Xeno slowly; gently pressed his forehead against Shawn's. ' _I know that you hate what we are needing to do, even though you don't say it, I can feel it from you, we all can, the thought of killing bothers you greatly.'_

"Can't say I'm a big fan of it, I've seen a lot of death over the recent years, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to see any more for the rest of my life, and now I'm going to be neck deep in it again, even if I'm not the one having to take lives, I'm still helping and yes it does bother me. But I know what the alternative is and that is not an option. If I can help it I will not let them take you, Ghost or Alese."

Shadow mentally softened for just a few moments, his long and deadly clawed fingers softly running through the back of Shawn's hair, ' _Stay here and keep the doors locked, and if they find you, run and hide, we will find and come to you. But please for the love of the queen mother, get us away from this place.'_

Shawn raised his hand and placed it under Shadow's chin and slowly nodded, "One quick escape coming right up."

Shadow broke away and headed out of the CIC door, Alese and Ghost flanking him on either side.

"Good luck." Shawn quietly spoke, heading over to the CIC doors, he tapped a couple of the buttons on the wall control panel there was a mechanical whirring sound and several loud, heavy, metallic clicks indicating the doors were locked and secured.

Heading back over to the control console, he quickly worked his way through the ship's menu functions until he found what he was looking for, it took a few minutes but he was able to redirect the firewall setting to reinforce the low-end priority systems, mainly the ship's lighting system that he was about to kill and also reinforce the access point to the FTL drive. It wouldn't stop anyone from breaking through, especially if they had the command codes and knew what they were doing, but it would slow them down, hopefully just long enough to make the FTL jump.

With that done he started to go through the low-end menus until he found the ship's lighting system commands. As quickly as he could he started to go through the levels powering down the lighting on each deck. Soon the lights to CIC dimmed to nothing, only the active consoles, monitors, and the holodisplay gave off any illumination to the CIC area. With luck Shadow, Ghost and Alese would now have a fighting chance, even if they were outnumbered almost sixteen to one.

With that task done he ran over to the navigation console, he started to plot a course to one area that he knew might give them the best chance to lose their new founded guests. "OK my dear, let's see what you can do." His hand tapped over several more buttons, the power level of the FTL drive slowly began to rise.

 **"COUNTDOWN COMMENCING, T-MINUS TEN MINUTES UNTIL FTL DRIVE IS JUMP CAPABLE."** The monotone computer voice spoke out.

Sitting down in the seat, Shawn looked at the timer that was clicking down, ten minutes would go by fast, once the drive was at max power he would have to move quickly, maneuvering the ship and then jump. Once the ship started to move he wouldn't have long before someone tried to send over the override commands and shut everything down. Their ignorance to the fact someone other than the Xenos were on board was the only thing keeping the ship from being shut down completely. He just hoped that the ship's stealth design would keep anyone on board the other two ships from sensing the FTL was powering up.

 _Turn starboard one hundred and five degrees, down negative forty-seven degrees, max power to engines, and then warp out. Easy no problem, just focus and do it, don't worry about those other two ships out there, it'll just take a few seconds, that's all, you can do this, you have to do this._ He looked at the clock, it was just at the nine-minute mark, time was not going quickly at all like he first thought it would if anything it seemed to be slowing down.

Shawn repeated the sequence over and over in his head, his hands going over the controls and buttons in mock sequence, every second he could shave off would improve their chances to escape. All he could do was focus on what needed to be done, trying not to give in to the fear and panic that was wanting to overtake him or the knots and tightness in his stomach that was making him want to throw up what little he had managed to eat just a very short time ago in the mess hall.

 **"T-MINUS FIVE MINUTES UNTIL FTL DRIVE IS JUMP CAPABLE,"** the computer voice announced.

He wondered if Shadow and the others had already engaged the mercenaries, he wasn't feeling anything mentally coming from them, but then the link was new and he might only be able to feel anything from them at a very short distance. Once again he ran over the sequence over and over in his head and the controls trying not to think about the fight that they were already in or soon to be in. _Concentrate on one problem at a time, don't get distracted by something you can't control, they can handle themselves_. He thought to himself.

 **T-MINUS 60 SECONDS UNTIL FTL DRIVE IS JUMP CAPABLE."**

Shawn clenched his fists nervously for a few seconds and then forced them open, "Okay, here we go." His hands moved over the controls ready to punch in the sequence as fast as he could. "Don't mess up, don't fuck up, do the sequence just like you just practiced." His hands trembled in nervous tension as the final few seconds counted down.

 **"REACTOR POWER AT OPTIMAL LEVELS, READY TO ENGAGE FTL DRIVE,"** the computer finally announced.

Focusing on the sequence and nothing else, Shawn's fingers started to work on the console, at once he could feel the inertia from the ship moving, "Computer, max power ten-second burst to forward starboard thrusters, ten-second burst to aft port thrusters."

 **"CONFIRMED, FIRING FORWARD STARBOARD THRUSTERS TEN SECOND BURST MAX POWER. FIRING AFT PORT THRUSTERS TEN SECOND BURST MAX POWER."**

The yaw indicator started to move as the ship began to turn, hitting another sequence of buttons the Saratoga began to pitch down. "Full power five-second burst forward dorsal thrusters."

 **"CONFIRMED, FIRING FORWARD DORSAL THRUSTER, FIVE SECOND BURST, FULL POWER."**

Even with the artificial gravity on board, he could feel the inertia pressing down on him as the huge ship quickly moved into position. A beeping sound suddenly piped up behind him at one of the commanded consoles. He knew what it was, someone from one of the other ships was starting to hack remotely into the Saratoga's system, the ship was about to be shut down.

Looking at the pitch indicator, it was a few degrees away from where he wanted it. "Computer, level pitch off and stabilize."

 **"CONFIRMED. LEVELING OFF, STABILIZING PITCH TRAJECTORY."**

The yaw indicator was almost where he needed it to be, just another few seconds and he could stabilize the turn. "Computer, stabilize yaw turn."

" **CONFIRMED. STABILIZING YAW TRAJECTORY."**

Looking down at the _coordinates_ setting, the Saratoga was a few degrees off but it was close enough to work with. The beeping was getting more intense from the command console, time was running out quickly now and every second literally mattered at this point.

Quickly hitting another sequence of buttons, he felt the ship lunge forward, "Computer max power to engines, give me a full burn."

 **"CONFIRMED, FULL POWER TO ENGINES."**

The sudden G-forces pressed him back into the seat as the ship's massive bulk started to push forward at a frightening speed; quickly picked up momentum. Tapped several buttons he reached over and flipped open a clear safety cover that had a square black button under it, hitting it with an almost panicked force, he could instantly hear a low pitched, vibrating almost humming sound resonate throughout the ship that grew in intensity. It was a sound that Shawn knew all too well from his own ship and right now it was music to his ears, a few moments later he could feel a force pass through his body as the mercenary ships on the viewscreen and holodisplay disappeared leaving nothing but static on the screen.

" **FTL DRIVE ENGAGED,"** the computer voice announced.

With a nervous laugh of sheer disbelief, he brought the palms of his hands up and covered his eyes, the tension and panic bleeding out of him. "Oh holy shit, that was way too damn close. Let's never, ever do that again." After several minutes he sat back up and looked at the time it would take to reach their destination, it would be over four days closer to five, at some point close to their destination he would need to bring the Saratoga out of the FTL transit and do some minor course corrections but it would give them some breathing room, for now.

Unfortunately, with that little stunt, he had just pulled off, Shawn had no doubt that the mercs would be heading up to CIC as quickly as they could to try and take control of the ship, and at this point, there was very little he could do to stop them. Hide and evade would be his only real defense, he didn't have any weapons to fight with and even if he did, it wouldn't be enough to hold off a squad of well equipped possibly well-trained mercenaries. He would just have to try and hold out and pray that the Xenomorphs would take care of the mercs and quickly.

"I still can't believe that actually worked," Shawn muttered to himself, his thoughts immediately went to Shadow, Ghost, and Alese, there was no way around it now, the mercs had to be aware that they were also in warp and now separated from any reinforcements that would come to their aid, he just wondered if the fighting had started and how the three Xenos were doing and if he would have to say goodbye to any of them or all of them depending on how things went.

His stomach tightened up thinking about the possibility of any of them dying. He knew that it was a very real danger and that one or all of them might die in this fight, but it was something that he had no control over and didn't want to think about, not with this tiny victory even as temporary as it might be. At the moment he missed them and wanted to be with them right at their side and if anyone of them were killed it would be a hole in his heart and soul one that he doubted he would ever truly recover from.

It was so odd when he really stopped and thought about it, he had only known them for a short time, yet, they had in that time made one of the biggest impacts on his life, more than anyone else ever had. Not only that, they had also started to help him heal, the emotional wounds were still there, but they now hurt a hell of a lot less. Now they just needed to live through this battle that was coming up, it was not going to be easy, not for any of them.

Thankfully when it came to the fight they did have one major advantage on their side, the Xenos had been created to fight, created for battle, created to kill, it was what they were designed for, no matter how much they might have mentally evolved, or how much they became self-aware and intelligent, at their core they had been created to be the most efficient and ruthless killing machines that the galaxy had ever bore witness to. And the mercenaries were about to find that out.

xxxxx

Captain Torres looked at the monitor as the three dropships headed over to the Saratoga, its main hanger bay was depressurized and opened up. His eyes glanced over to a set of smaller monitors that were showing the vitals of the troops that would be leading the assault as well as real-time footage from the built in armor camera units. Most were at normal levels, a few were showing elevated heart rates, more than likely the new mercs that they had recruited and were now heading into their first combat operation.

"Anything out of the ordinary so far Mister Taylor?" Torres asked.

"Nothing from our end sir so far. But sir, our sensors can't detect the Saratoga even at point blank range, I'm not even reading a power output from her."

"Understood. Just keep the sensors in that direction and if anything shows up let me know immediately." Torres replied.

"Yes, sir," Taylor answered back. A beep and a flashing light indicator lit up on Taylor's station. "Sir the lead dropship is reporting something odd, it's detecting a slight metallic mass in the forward ventral section of the ship, but they can't get a lock on it, and at their angle, they can't get a visual either."

Captain Reed looked up at Taylor and then toward Torres. "Captain, the forward ventral section of the Saratoga does have a docking umbilical, if a ship is docked at it, by design the Saratoga would mask most of the readings for a small sized ship, you'll have to get visual confirmation."

Ensign Taylor looks up at Captain Torres. "Sir, should I have one of the dropships get a visual before proceeding inside."

"Negative, he replied to Taylor's question," have the launch bay prep and launch a remote drone to check it out. If it is a ship then we need to know who it is and see if they are still alive." Torres ordered, the last thing he needed or wanted was to have the dropships deviate from the assigned mission.

"Yes, sir."

Captain Reed walked up next to Captain Torres, "Captain if someone did manage to dock on that ship then it's highly unlikely they are still alive, the Xenos are supposed to be on sight killing machines."

Torres looked right at Reed, "Yes, according to Doctor Manson's report they are supposed to be, yet the crew reported that the Xenos did not harm or kill any of them, in fact, according to your crew that we pulled out of space in those shuttles, the Xenos were intelligent and knew exactly what they were doing. Mind explaining that to me Captain?"

Reed was silent for a few moments, his eyes glanced at the massive monitor with the image of the Saratoga filling the screen up. "I can't."

"Captain, the Dropships have landed and the launch bay is pressurizing." Ensign Taylor reported. "Also it will about six to seven minutes to fully fuel and prep the drone for launch."

"Thank you, Mister Taylor." Torres' voice went low allowing only Reed to hear it. "Look I don't give a damn about what kind of monsters your organization makes in its so-called secret labs. It's not my concern, my concern is the well-being of the crew of this ship and if a lack of information from some ass wipe doctor that wants to play Frankenstein gets my men killed, then I will take it out of said doctor. Now I understand that what happens on that station isn't in your pay grade and that you have to attend to your ship, the very ship that we are trying to get under control, but I will be very pissed if any of my men die because we didn't have correct info on what we were going against and couldn't prepare for it."

"Captain I understand what you are saying and if our positions were reversed I would be having similar words as well, but I've told you everything that I know, and what happened between the crew and the Xenos still doesn't make any sense to me. According to what I've seen, which is very little mind you and the reports I read, the Xenos are supposed to attack anything on sight that is not them, not let them go alive and unharmed." Reed replied back, fully understanding Torrens frustration at the matter. He was still not fully convinced about what his crew had reported and while he had no reason to doubt any of them the simple fact of the matter was, it was just hard to accept that something that looked like the Xenos might not be everything that Mason had made them out to be.

"Then either one of two things has happened, either one your Doctor Mason has lied and deceived you all, or two, the Xenos are not what they appear to be and have been playing everyone on that station for fools and not revealing what they truly are." Torres said, "But once again that is not my concern, my concern is my men and the mission at hand, nothing more, when we get back you can take it up with Mason or Snyder or whoever you deem necessary to voice your concerns with."

Captain's Torres was interrupted as the coms speaker blared up, " _Commander Ortiz, Vesuvius actual, do you copy?"_

"Vesuvius actual here, Commander Ortiz we read you loud and clear, the vitals are coming in and we can see a clear camera signal so far, what is your status report?" Torres said, turning his attention to the monitors that had the readouts of the troops on board the Saratoga.

" _We are in position and ready to commence the operation, so far everything looks normal."_ Commander Ortiz replied.

"Understood, and Commander...I hope that you still remember what we discussed earlier.

 _"Yes sir, it never left my mind,"_ Ortiz replied back.

"Commander go and move out, we'll monitor your situation from here."

" _Confirmed, all right you heard him, break into your assigned groups and move out. Remember secure the engine room, medical and CIC, everyone else sweep the ship section by section, don't rely on thermals because they won't show up so check your motion trackers and DO NOT fire until you have visual confirmation. And remember, stun rifles and nets only, use max power and consternate your fire and unless you have no other option do not use your assault rifles, according to the briefing these things have acidic blood that will eat clean through hull plating, I don't want to have to deal with a hull breach and have someone get pulled through a fist-sized hole into space."_

Torrens stared at the monitors his eyes darting back and forth as the troops separated into their assigned groups and slowly and cautiously begin to make their way through the ship. A twelve men squad was making their way to the massive engine room, a smaller six-man team was on the way to the medical area while Commander Ortiz own six-man team headed to CIC, Ortiz had the command codes for the ship on his Pad and would use the codes to bring the ship back under their control. The rest of the squads would begin to search out the Xenos to capture them.

" _Trackers are clear so far, no movement."_ One of the squads reported in.

" _Understood, stay focused and remember to watch your six,"_ Ortiz replied.

Several minutes went by and still nothing, the ship was massive and it could take days not hours like before they made contact, still Torrens had a bad feeling in his gut and that feeling was only getting worse. This was the part he hated the most, the waiting, those initial moments right before the battle the calm before the storm as it were.

 _"Contact, we've got movement,"_ A tense voice came in over the speakers. _"Twenty meters, it's slow but moving right toward us."_

"Remember people use stun rifles only and do not fire until you have a positive visual," Torrens ordered, biting his lower lip, the sound of the motion tracker seemed to be amplified by both the bridge speakers and the tension on the air.

" _Understood sir,"_ a voice replied over the speaker. " _Eighteen meters...sixteen, still closing slowly, straight line, no deviation so far." There was a pause for several long moments before the voice over the speaker spoke up again. "Ummm...Captain, we have made contact...with a maintenance android."_

"Understood," Captain Torrens replied, the tension draining from his voice, "Continue your sweep."

"That's odd." Captain Reed spoke up, rubbing his chin, "the maintenance androids are supposed to be powered down and locked up as per standard protocol when not in use or while the ship is in dry docked. None of them should be up and running, in fact, I know that they were all in the storage bay before we docked at the base."

Torrens gaze was still fixed to the monitors as he spoke up, "My guess is Captain, that if someone did dock on your ship than they probably activated the droids, either that or somehow maybe Mason's _pets_ did."

"Possibly," Reed replied.

Torrens was about to say something else when the camera monitors suddenly blacked out. Stiffening up he took a step forward, the vitals were quickly elevating on the readouts, the video feed just wasn't there anymore. "What the hell...Ortiz report."

 _"Lights just cut out Captain,"_ Ortiz replied immediately, _"we still have artificial gravity and there's power to the ship, but no lights. Everyone activate your shoulder lamps and stay alert I want eyes everywhere, keep your trackers up and watch your backs. If we're going to get ambushed, it'll happen soon, so no fucking around and no heroics either."_

"Goddamnit," Torrens muttered, his right hand tightly clenching into a fist, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, his stomach was turning and tightening up more and more and was getting worse with each passing second. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon, he could feel it and every fiber of his being was screaming at him that it was going to end badly.

Walking over to his personal console he tapped several buttons, "Hanger bay this is the Captain, what is the status of dropship four and five?"

" _Hanger bay here, drop ship four and five are fully loaded and ready to launch at a moment's notice, sir."_

"What about the remote drone, how long until we can launch?"

 _"We're still prepping and fueling the drone Captain, it should be ready to go shortly."_

"Notify me when you are ready to launch."

" _Yes, sir."_

Reed walked up to Torrens, "Captain is there something wrong, you've been on edge since I came to the bridge, this isn't normal tension that goes along with combat this seems to be something else."

Torrens was silent for a while before turning his head to look at Reed, talking about his personal feelings wasn't something he liked to do, it wasn't that he was a hard ass and buried his feelings deep down, he was just a private person and only liked to confide in a few people, one of who was now leading the mission on board the Saratoga. But being it was Captain to Captain he could make an exception. "Ever since we got a visual on the Saratoga I've had a gut feeling that has been getting worse and worse that this mission is going to go south in a bad way. I trust my instincts Captain Reed, it has gotten me, my crew and my ship out of more jams than I can count, and right now it's telling me to pull my men out and leave. But I can't, as you know I'm under a binding contract to fulfill whatever mission my employer deems necessary and as of right now that contract is to secure your ship and that is just what we are going to do despite my personal feelings on the matter."

Looking back up and the main monitors, the cameras were lit up by the shoulder mounted lights which only illuminated parts of the hallway as the troops slowly made their way throughout the ship. Blurry shadows jumped out as the lights panned back and forth along the corridor walls revealing only distorted shapes but no aliens.

"Captain," Reed began, "your men and well trained, well equipped and most of them have considerable combat experience. You have the advantage in most respects, I have faith that they will succeed with very little difficulty." Captain Reed had made it a point to look over, in detail, Captain Torrens service record since he had gotten word that he would be assigned to the ship until the Saratoga was recaptured. Reed gave the man a large amount of credit for running a fairly tight ship and maintain discipline that could match most USCMC ships, as well as also giving a damn about the men under his care and didn't simply view them as cannon fodder to be sent to die for a paycheck, he seemed more in tune with a proud navy officer than that of a merc captain. Although he wouldn't admit it, he had been more than a little apprehensive about coming aboard and had thought that he would be riding around in a trashed out cruiser with a bunch of gun happy drunks, he was relieved to see that his fears had been completely unfounded.

"While I appreciate the optimistic view you have Captain, there is the small fact that my men are going up against a species that none of us have ever encountered and we know next to nothing about, in a ship that now is completely dark. So, Captain, I would ask you go get on one of those consoles and see about getting the lights back up if at all possible, I would prefer not to have my men ambushed in the dark and outright slaughtered."

"I'll see what I can do," Reed replied, turning around he headed for the console that he had used earlier to cut the propulsion to the Saratoga's drive. It took several minutes to reestablish the link and as he started to look at getting into the Saratoga's low priority subsystem menus to repower the lighting system, it was right there he was hit with a less than pleasant surprise. A series of firewalls or data blockers popped up halting his accessing any of the low priority subsystems. Trying, again and again, he found himself being blocked or outright kicked out. "I can't get the lights back on I keep getting blocked or kicked out of the system, whoever is on board has set up a firewall to prevent access to that system."

Captain Torrens turned around and cut Reed a hard unamused look, the man was not happy with that news. "You're telling me that you can't get access to the lighting system on your own damn ship?"

"I can work around it and get through but it'll take some time. It would help if you had a system specialist onboard that I can coordinate with." Reed answered back, his voice laced with tension and a hint of anger. More at the fact that he was being blocked out of his own ship than Captain Torrens cutting into him on the spot.

Torrens didn't even turn his head when he spoke to a nearby young female crew member that was working on one of the wall-mounted terminals. "Ensign Cooper, assist Captain Reed in breaking through that firewall and I don't care what recourses you have to use to do it, just get it done and quickly."

"Yes, sir." Ensign Cooper replied immediately bolting over to where Reed was working at.

" _Captain, this is the hanger bay, we have the drone-fueled and are ready to launch."_ A voice came in over the bridge PA system.

"Understood, launch at once. Ensign Taylor patch the drone feed to monitor four, let's get a look and see what we are dealing with."

"Yes, sir," Taylor answered back, a side wall mounted monitor flashed to life showing the inner workings of a launch tube blur by as the drone flew out of the ship and into space. For a few seconds, only the blackness of space and the untold number of pinpricks of starlight filled the view screen until the black ship rotated into the center of the monitor, quickly it started to fill the screen as the drone got closer and closer. Slowing down, the drone started to skim across to what just seem like a few meters from the ship.

" _Coming to the forward ventral section of the ship, decreasing speed, five meters a second...four meters a second. No visual contact yet._ A voice piped up over the coms, more than likelythe pilot who was controlling the remote drone.

For another few seconds all that anyone could see was the black bulkhead of the Saratoga, then a sliver of gunmetal gray came into view. " _Contact."_ The gray metal ship which was tucked up underneath slowly started to come into view, gradually revealing part of its silhouette.

Right then at that moment, it all started to go to hell. The view in the monitor quickly filled up with the black bulkhead of the Saratoga and then cut out and only static remained. Torrens stood there dumbfounded for a moment as to what just happened, had the drone misfired and flown into the ship, it was right then that Lieutenant Rodriguez spoke up, or more or less yelled.

"SIR, the Saratoga it's moving!"

Both Captain Torrens and Reed looked right up at the main monitor that had the Saratoga displayed on it. The ship was turning hard to starboard, the maneuvering thrusters were blowing plumes of blue thrust out, Torrens didn't need to be told that they were firing at max power he could see clear as day.

"REED!" Torrens yelled, "Shut that ship down, kill the thrusters." He didn't want to go start what would be a game of cat and mouse. He guessed that whoever was on board has learned enough to at least pilot the ship, but if they had enough time they could figure out the weapons systems, if those were still on lockdown, and if they weren't he was hoping that they hadn't figured out how to use them, it might have been the only reason they weren't in a firefight at this very moment.

"On it." Replied Reed, his fingers dancing across the console controls, "Attempting to access drive systems, stand by."

" _Commander Ortiz, Vesuvius actual, we all just felt the Saratoga start to move, please advise."_

"Commander, it looks like whoever is on board is trying to make a break for it, we are trying to shut down the thrusters on our end, get to CIC and take control of the situation," Torrens said, the Saratoga was still turning hard and now was pushing down, the forward dorsal thrusters firing from what he could see were firing at max power.

Several seconds later the ship stopped turning and stabilized, massive plumes of blue engine exhaust came billowing from the main engine, the black ship pushing forward and quickly picking up speed.

"Captain I'm picking up a major power spike and its growing" Ensign Taylor announced.

Fixed on the main monitor, Torrens saw as did everyone that was looking at the main monitor, a bright blue glow from the engines of the Saratoga that was starting to grow in intensity, anyone that had been on a starship knew that it was a telltale sign of a ship about to engage it's FTL drive.

"Ortiz, be advised, the Saratoga is about to..." Captain Torrens was cut off from his warning to Ortiz as a bright flash filled the view screen and a streak of light could be seen for a brief moment and then there was nothing on the view screen but black space and stars.

"She just engaged her FTL," Taylor said, announcing the obvious to all on board the bridge.

"Thank you mister Taylor," Torrens said, looking up at Reed. "I don't care how it was done but now that your ship had gone into warp can we still track it with the beacon?

"Yes, but we can we need to follow and soon otherwise we'll lose the signal."

"Mister Taylor, get a fix on that homing signal as best as you can and track that ships trajectory, helm prepare to engage our FTL drive and follow as soon as you have the coordinates. Have the Damato follow suit and inform her Captain that I want a full load of EMP torpedoes ready to fire when we find that ship, also keep dropships four and five on standby and ready to launch when we come out of warp, have the troops stand down but inform them they are to remain on alert. Captain Reed, if you have any objection to me firing on your vessel now is the time to voice those concerns because when we find that ship and if it's not under Commander Ortiz control I will open fire will all tubes and use what the Damato has as well." Torrens commanded, his experience kicking in as he listed his orders though out the bridge.

"If it means capturing my ship and NOT destroying it then I have no objection to whatever means you use," Replied Reed.

"Good, Lieutenant Rodriguez once you have the trajectory engage our FTL and follow, from this moment on ladies and gentlemen, consider this a rescue mission, our duty is to find the Saratoga, reestablish contact with our troops and then get control of that ship or destroy it if no other option is available," Torrens said, not looking forward to how this was going to turn out. At the moment he was more concerned with getting his men off the Saratoga more than anything else, even if it meant ruining his career and reputation to do so, those could be mended and fixed, the dead, not so much.

About thirty minutes later both the Vesuvius and the Damato's engines flared up brightly and in both a flash and a bright streak the pair of ships were gone.

The hunt was now on.


	9. Rage and Remorse

CHAPTER 8: Rage and Remorse

xxxxx

Only the forward headlights from the three parked dropships pushed back the encroaching darkens in the massive hanger bay that had suddenly and without any warning taken hold of the Saratoga. Even then it did little to uncover the three glistening black shapes that like living smoke given form and function slowly and with purpose; silently glided their way through the hangar bay and toward the unsuspecting targets.

For each dropship, a pair of guards armed with stun rifles stood stationed outside of the dropships ramp, the pilots, under strict order from Captain Torrens, even armed, were to remain inside the dropships at all times. The pilots were the only way off the ship, the only ones that could operate and fly the steel birds of death.

The three Xenomorphs used both the welcomed darkness as well as the massive amounts of equipment that were scattered throughout the hangar bay as cover as they slowly made their way toward the dropships. They would each take one of the ships and all would attack simultaneously. The guards never once noticing the black alien skeletal figures making their way to the midsection of the dropships, nor did they notice the aliens effortlessly start to crawl up the side of the ship.

Alese, as well as Ghost who had glided up the side and to the top, passed only a meter from the side of the cockpit was able to see the life energies from the human pilot and copilot who were toward the front section of the ships. Shadow had gone underneath the dropship he was going to attack and was now under the ramp, each one now poised and ready to strike.

They would have to attack quick and make sure that none of the guards or the pilots were able to get a message back to the main force, not that it would ultimately matter, once they had taken care of the pilots the mercenaries would not have a way to leave, not that they could anyway now that the Saratoga was in FTL transit.

' _We are now ready brother.'_ Ghost spoke to shadow, ' _Let us make this quick and painless, there is no need for them to suffer.'_ There was a deep pang of regret in Ghost's voice, to kill in self-defense or in defense of others was one thing. This, however, felt dirty and even wrong and yet it was necessary to do, the dropships were weapons themselves and in the hands of a capable pilot could cause massive damage or help bring in reinforcements. Still, even with those reasons, it felt like they were crossing a line that they shouldn't.

' _Agreed, the guards have not moved or spoken, I doubt they can be distracted or picked off one at a time. We will need to strike at once and as fast as we can.'_ Shadow replied back to Ghost, as much as the three Xenos had pulled the ancient predatory killing instincts back to the surface of their minds, there was a part of, not only him but all of them that truly regretted having to take this action.

They had killed back on Eclipse station when making their break for freedom, the guards who had shot at them and tried to stop them, the instincts had boiled to the surface in an instant and all of them had gone into a fury of rage ripping apart those who were in their way without mercy, then it was chaotic and messy, but now, now this was very different, it was calm, controlled, and they all had time to think about what they were going to do.

None of them were to take any pleasure in what was about to happen, but they were not going to go back to that station to be under Mason's ever present scrutiny. And then there was Shawn, what Shawn had done to help them all, would earn him death, and that was if he was lucky, if he wasn't, Mason or whoever else would keep him around for a long time to be used as an example and as a form of punishment. And that was something that none of them would allow to happen, ever.

Moving silently to the edge of the ramp, still remained hid from the guard's vision, Shadow's tail curled forward, the wicked blade on the tip of his tail raised just inches above the ground, ' _now,'_ was the only word he spoke to Ghost and Alese. With deadly predatory grace Shadow revealed himself, the guard caught movement from the corner of his eye, glancing over only to see only for a brief instant saw the crested nightmarish horror before him.

He never had a chance to speak or even fully raise his weapon, the deadly onyx colored bladed tail shot forward, in a blur the tip had speared the guard though his hardened battle armor and protruded clean through his heart cleaving it in half and jutted out his back. Blood sprayed out the back wound covering the other guard, taking him by surprise. Happening so fast, that at first none of it registered to him, only when he glanced over to see the massive crested Xenomorph standing just to the side of the ramp with his partner being held in midair by the aliens tail the creature looking directly at him with an eyeless face did it truly hit home as to what was about to happen.

He only had time to bring his rifle up about a foot before the ebony skeleton creature bolted forward with lightning speed, it's clawed hand shot forward grabbing the mercenary by the head, his eyes widening up, and then rolling up into his head and his neck was snapped in a quick fluid motion that seemed humanly impossible.

Shadow from his angle couldn't see Ghost, though from what he felt, his brother had already dispatched the two guards with ease. Looking over, he saw Alese land on one of the guards, the man's torso was crushed instantly killing him as the rib cage buckled and collapsed under the Xenos weight and momentum. Her tail shot out piercing the other guard though the bottom of his jaw and into his brain, his body hanging there until she slowly, silently lowered him to the ground.

All that was left now were the pilot and copilot, none who of which had any idea that the guards that had been placed outside of the dropship had all be killed within a mere matter of seconds.

Quietly laying the guards down on the ground, Shadow crept up the dropship ramp on all fours, this tail arcing over his back and resting next to his elongated crested head. Entering this ship itself, he didn't see anyone, at least not a first, making his way inside, he could hear talking coming from the forward part of the ship.

As he slowly inched forward, he could see one of the pilots sitting down in a seat just outside of the main cockpit, looking at a data tablet, completely oblivious to the Xenomorph's approach. It was only when Shadow was just a few meters away did he raise up to his full height, the pilot looking up from his tablet at the black form, never had a chance to scream or move as the bladed tail end pierced its way into the man's chest and through his heart.

Unlike the guard outside, the pilot didn't die instantly, his hand slowly rose up and gripped the base of the blade and in a desperate and feeble attempt tried to pull the blade from his chest. Only when Shadow turned the blade slightly, did the pilot go limp and pass away, his eyes remained glazed open starting at nothing, blood trickling from this mouth, his hand dropping down into his lap.

Slowly removing his tail blade from the pilot's chest, he knelt down in front of the dead human, reaching up he placed his fingertips over the man's eyes, and in a slow motion closed the pilot's eyelids. Only one left to go.

A deafening high pitched scream echoed through the dropship, bluish, white bolts of electricity started to pelt Shadow's body, the other pilot, a young female from what he could tell, was standing there, just inside the cockpit, wide-eyed, holding the small handgun sized stunner, firing wildly, the bolts, while normally would have brought down a human in a few shots, were little more than a minor annoyance to the Xeno. Shadow rose up and walked forward, the bolts impacting on his hard chitin armor doing nothing at all.

The female pilot backed up, her finger quickly, repeatedly, pressing the trigger of the stun gun, each discharge sounding like a small pop of thunder, with a few steps she found herself backed up against the control panel and clear canopies. A few more pops from the gun and then nothing, all there was, was the sound of the trigger clicking but no energy discharging from the weapon, the power pack now completely depleted.

She pressed the trigger a few more times in desperation as if somehow, by some miracle the weapon would come back alive but only the clicking sound could be heard. Tears started to well up from her eyes, glancing over she saw the canopies from one of the other dropships, it was at that moment a red spray coated the inside of the ship she was looking at.

The gun fell from her hands and hit the floor, the sound of metal hitting metal echoed throughout the cockpit for a second. She turned her head back toward the Xenomorph, its ebony; bony form was standing just inside the cockpit with her, only a few feet away. Whimpering as to what she knew was to come, she closed her eyes and placed her arms in front of her face as if somehow she could shield herself.

Shadow stood inside the cockpit with the now unarmed human pilot, her weapon had fallen from her hands and now she stood there with her arms covering her face. Small pitiful whimpers and cries came from her, looking at her, he was about to raise his tail up and strike quickly, hopefully, end her live as quickly and painlessly as he could.

Without any warning, her body jerked and arched back and with a gasp of pain a second later she clutched her chest, staggering forward the pilot started to fall to the ground. Moving in, Shadow caught her in his arms, he could tell that her heart was failing and that she would be dead shortly. Taking pity he tried to give her comfort in her final few moments of life, he cradled her in his arms. She fought gasping for air as she tried to take in deep breaths, her hand tightening its grip on her chest, cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

Bringing her in tighter, a rumbling, purring sound started to resonate in the cockpit, the sound and soothing vibrations seems to ease the dying pilot, she looked up at Shadow, the fear she had seemed to almost melt away, he brought a talon up and gently brushed a clump of hair from her eyes. She then drew in one last breath and then passed away, her eyes closing forever.

Shadow sat there, holding the dead female for a few more minutes, his mind completely blank, not wanting to think about what had just happened. He knew what they were doing was necessary, but it did not make it any less cruel, any less hard. This would be something that all of them would remember for the rest of their lives.

Gently and with great respect, he laid the female down on the floor, getting up, he started to walk out of the ship, he came to the dead co-pilot and looked down at the lifeless human, the human that he just moments ago, had impaled through the heart. All three knew that it would eventually come to this, killing, that Mason or whoever that cruel soulless human worked for, would send human warriors to either try and capture them or kill them outright and that they would have to defend themselves, and that would mean killing, and quite possibly a lot of it. Walking out of the ship. Ghost and Alese were standing at the base of the ramp waiting for him. Both of them knew what had just happened they had felt everything and while he did not physically show it the female's death had left him shaken.

None of them wanted this, all they wanted was to free their brothers and sisters and find some place quiet and very far away and live a simple life, with no humans around...well maybe one human in particular that they had all become very fond of, to say the least. But nothing more than that, not being trapped on a starship, worrying day after day if they were going to be found or if that one fateful day they would be killed outright or even worse, captured and taken back to Mason.

Ghost walked up and cupped Shadow's face and pressed his forehead into Shadows', offering mental warmth and comfort, Shadow did the same in return. After a few moments, Shadow slowly pulled away. ' _We need to finish what we started.'_ He said, his mental voice now all too somber.

 _'We should separate to attack the small groups,'_ Alese said, ' _remember we need to keep a couple of them alive.'_

' _Then let us go.' Ghost said, with that, the three Xenos walked out of the hangar bay and into the dark, then separating to track down the smaller groups of mercenaries._

xxxxx

Pick up the scent of the human warriors had not been difficult, if anything it had been far too easy, they did nothing to mask their scent. The three Xenos, maintained mental contact as they tracked their prey throughout the now lightless corridors of the ship.

Shadow was trailing behind a group of six that were wandering around almost aimlessly it seemed. He had tried to get behind them and sneak up, but then had been picked up one of those damnable motion trackers and had to back off immediately. Ghost and Alese were having the same problems, one of the groups had spotted Alese for a split second and a few had taken pot shots at her, the blue bolts lighting up the dark hallway, the shots had gone wide and none of them had even come close to hitting her.

They were going to have to lure the human warriors to them and then ambush them. That would require the Xenos to either get in front and let the humans come to them or come at them from either the top or bottom somehow. The humans were keeping with the main corridors and for now probably wouldn't deviate, breaking away and keeping far enough out of range of the motion trackers, Shadow detoured through corridors until he came to a four-way junction. Glancing up he saw the heavy set pipes and conduits running the full length of the hallway.

With ease, he grabbed onto the pipes and pulled himself up and quickly blended in with the black metal pipes. If the lights had been on there would have been a good chance that he would have been seen, however since the lights were off and the ship was in total dark, surprise would be on their side, all he had to do was wait for the human warriors to come to him and not move a muscle.

Alese and Ghost were following Shadow's example, trying to get in front of the humans and then either drop down or ambush them from an empty space that ran along out the main corridors. There were plenty of rooms along the corridors, but many of them were still locked, though not all.

Shadow did not have to wait for very long himself, he picked up on the life energies of the six humans as well seeing the shoulder mounted lights illuminating the area as they approached. His muscles tensed up and he prepared to attack. None of the humans spoke, they all moved as one in a tight circle covering all direction. Shadow had to admire the humans on how well they worked together as a team, almost as one. It was a pity that they had to die, not something any of the Xenos wanted to do if they had been left alone no one would have had to come to any harm.

As the human warriors approached, Shadows tail twitched, getting ready to strike, a few more meters and it would be time. Just as they passed under, the lethal black segmented tail blade stuck at blinding speed, impaling one of the mercs though the chest, the man spasmed and twitched, to the surprise and horror of his teammates he was lifted and then thrown against the bulkhead with a heavy and thick thud, his body falling lifelessly to the ground.

Dropping down in the middle of the group, Shadow let out a deafening screech that echoed throughout the hallway. Several of the troops dove forward and turned to face him, they had been far quicker than what Shadow would have thought they would have been given the ambush and how quickly it happened. Bright blue flashed illuminated the hallway and thundering crackles reverberate all around them as the mercs opened fire with the stun rifles. The blue energy bolts striking off the Xenomorphs thick chitin armor.

"Bring that motherfucker down, concentrate your fire and get the nets ready!" One of the mercs screamed. Even in the chaos of battle and the loss of one of their men, the humans still acting as a highly effective team, not panicking or breaking away. In a different time, under much different circumstance, it would have been an honor to fight side by side with human warriors like this. However this was not that time, and he very much doubted it would ever happen. A pity.

Shadow whirled around, his hand opened up fully with claws slightly bent forward, not holding back with his strength he brought his full force down onto a merc that had not been fortunate or quick enough to get out of the way in time. The man, slid across the floor his neck and head bent now at an unnatural angle. His tail shot out impaling another of the mercs through the throat and out the back of the neck.

"Fall back, fall back, keep firing." The squad leader ordered.

Two of the mercs had kept firing as they backed up, the bolts impacting off the Xeno's glossy skeletal frame but seeming to do little more than make it angry or angrier than it already was. The third merc was just a few feet behind them but had not even opened fire with his rifle yet. He was just frozen in place, his eyes wide opened at the unholy sight that he was seeing a sight that would no doubt haunt him for the rest of his life, no matter how long or short it was going to be.

Shadow bolted forward, covering the distance in just seconds, his jaw unhinged, think saliva dripping from his, another deafening unearthly screech coming from deep within him. His hands shot out grabbing the squad leader by the head and lifting the man up several feet into the air. The man, jammed the barrel end of his rifle into the black bony structure and pulled down the trigger and did not let up. Bright blue flashes strobed lighting up the Xeno until the sound of a sickening pop and crunch of metal and bone filled the air and the squad leader went limp, his body falling to the floor.

"FUCKING RUN!" The other experienced merc screamed, turning he was only able to take a step before a pair of slick black arms tightly wrapped around him, the merc tried to bring his rifle up to bear and fire at the Xeno's head, maybe get a lucky shot off and either stun the alien or kill it, his weapon was yanked out of this hand and tossed aside. The last thing he heard was an angry hiss and then everything went black as his head was punctured through with the Xenos inner tongue.

The merc's body was dropped to the ground, the last remaining merc for that small six-man group who stood with his back pressed against the bulkhead wall, his eyes wide with raw and naked terror as to the brutal efficiently that the alien had just shown by decimated the team he was on within just a few moments. The shoulder mounted light he was wearing lit up the black, bony horror that now stood before him only a few very short meters away. The creature slowly turned its head to face him and took a step forward, its lips peeled back in savage anger and aggression, saliva freely dripping from its mouth, letting off a menacing hiss and it slowly took another step toward him.

The next moment, the alien had fully closed the distance, it's massive and deadly hands clutched the mercs head in a tight vice grip, the lips peeled back, deadly steel colored teeth opening up revealing the blood-soaked toothed tongue within. He was staring right into the eyeless dome, only with the light from his shoulder lamp shining on it, could he briefly see through the semi-translucent dome, revealing an all too looking human skull beneath, empty eye sockets underneath seeming to bore right into him with their gaze. His eyes rolled back into his head and suddenly his body went limp.

Shadow stood there, holding the merc in his hands, for several moments the killing instinct was there in full swing, though now realizing the human that was in his clutches, the human who's head he was about to punch a hole clear, though, who had not even fired off his weapon even once though the short battle, had in fact, passed out. Seeing that the mercenary was no longer a threat and that they needed one of them alive, the primal killing instinct were satisfied that it was no longer needed, quickly receded back into the Xenomorph's mind until called on again once more. Which would no doubt be soon.

He needed to place the unconscious human someplace that the other human warriors wouldn't find him. He knew one small out of the way place that might work, at least for now. Picking up the merc, Shadow quickly made his way down the hall. The spot where he had been shot at point black range now hurt and burned with searing pain, he had been so focused that he never even once noticed the spots in the flooring that now had small holes in them, smoke still rising up from the edges.

He made the mental connection with Alese and Ghost letting them know that he had taken out one of the groups and one of the humans had been captured. Ghost was engaged with a group of his own, and Alese was in chase of a single human female warrior that had fled just before that group was wiped out.

xxxxx

Amy Trevor had always thought that the sky and beyond was the limit for her and that nothing ever could or would ever hold her back on fulfilling her dreams, her destiny, no matter how many times those dreams changed form or how wild and unrealistic they might be. Through all her dreams, there was always the dream to explore and see what was out in the great beyond. To go out visit, see, and then to conquer the hell out of it, no matter what it might be.

That dream usually involved her at the helm of a massive armada of ships, a fleet admiral, as it were, dressed all in white with gold and silver thread and lace adorning her and a massive cape flowing behind her in the wind. At least in her version of it, the truth was that she was far too wild and undisciplined, at least for the navy. She had never liked being held back or following rules as it were, so at the prime age of eighteen she had signed up for the life of a mercenary, she had found out that there were rules to follow and training to undergo, but she tolerated her temporary " _oppression of person_ " as she put it to fulfill her dreams.

She had always seemed to be so bored during training, acting as if everyone else including the instructors were nothing more than mindless idiots and she was the only smart one around. Questioning everything and everyone, always. It had almost gotten her kicked out, only her ability to fight, barely as it was, had kept her in and allowed her to start on that long road of fulfilling her mighty and glories dreams.

She could become a merc captain, or even a merc admiral, command that vast armada of ships she wanted to so much and conquer all that she saw in the unknown charted areas. The sky and beyond was the limit for her...or at least it would have been had she not been in a blind panic running down a dark corridor with an alien monster hot on her tail trying to chew her precious brains out and her beautiful face off.

Truth be known, she hadn't even really paid attention to the briefing, stolen ship, yea, yea, yea, dangerous aliens, yea, yea, yea, capture both, yea, yea, yea, whatever. What stupid morons lose a ship and a bunch of aliens...boring. Only three aliens, yea, yea, yea, got it, whatever...oh they look so gross, yuck, ugly, yuck, have better things to do then peon duties...losers.

The whole mission in her mind was nothing more than a colossal waste of time for her awesome and awe-inspiring talents, talents that as far as she was concerned were being wasted on this, what she called, a ragtag bunch of losers. Being posted to an aging battle cruiser, please, she wanted a fresh battleship right out of the shipyards to work on, no, to command, all with that new ship smell. And nothing less would satisfy her.

The squad she had been assign to, had dreaded having her come along for the ride, before coming over on the op, all she had done was complain, complain and complain some more. Commander Ortiz was hoping that having her on an actual combat op would wake her up and let her know that the real world could be a pretty harsh and shitty place and that she needed to get her head out of the clouds and get her crap together see it for what it was, not fantasize about becoming some mercenary admiral that was off to conquer distance worlds. That's how wars were started.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how one would have looked at it, she did get that wake-up call, at least in some small part, it came when one of her "loser" squad mates who was standing right next to her, had been impaled from behind with a black curved sword and then lifted into the air several feet; then thrown clear across the hall, only it wasn't a sword, it was the end tip of a tail, a black, bony segmented tail. And attached to said tail was one of the aliens that were lying in wait for them in of all places a small storage room along the main hallway.

The alien had hissed and jumped right past her with lighting speed and tackled another of the squad members and instantly broke his neck killing him before he even fell back onto the ground, the alien had then bolted disappearing into the dark before any of them could lift their rifles to fire. The next attack would come minutes later as they continued to advanced, this time from above, as the bladed tail came down spearing another of her squad members right through the head.

Looking right up, she had gotten more than a good look at it, the thing had hissed right at her, bared it's teeth and then of all things a small mouth attached to a gross looking slime cover squarish, white, tubed tongue popped out and snapped its teeth shut in a menacing threat display. She could swear to god that the thing had even smiled right at her as thick drool dripped down its chin.

Fuck that.

It had been at that point that Amy had let fear get the better of her and she had turn tail and ran for it. Not knowing how the other two members had died or if they had, she didn't hear weapons fire, so she assumed they had, cause only a few moments later, she could hear a high pitched shriek and heavy rapid footfalls on metal plating catching up with her and very quickly too. More motivation for her to run even faster and get back to the dropships, seal herself in one and get the hell off of that ship. They would do that for her, right...right?

Another problem suddenly presented itself to her in all its glory and that was that she didn't know where she was, she didn't know the layout of the ship, or where anything was, all she did was turn tail and run, nothing more, and now she was blindly running through dark corridors with only her shoulder mounted light to guide her, she found herself hopelessly lost, with a very pissed off alien hot on her tracks.

She found herself tripping over her own two feet and landed face first into the metal flooring, her shoulder light falling off and sliding away a few meters. She lay there not hearing anything anymore, maybe she had lost it or it had lost interest in her and had decided to let her go. Resting for a few more seconds, she dragged herself over to her shoulder lamp and grabbed it and stood up, looking back and then forward with the light down the hallway and saw nothing.

 _Horrible, horrible, nasty, ugly things._ She thought to herself, _nothing like that should exist, why can't the aliens be pretty, or nice, or something other than, than...that...thing._ It was a pity that brain bleach wasn't a real thing, otherwise, she would have had a few gallons on her right then and there ready to use. Erase that memory forever and start over...ewww.

She went to put on her shoulder lamp, glancing down she noticed a few thick, wet drops on the floor next to her foot. Wiping her brow she found she had sweat but not dripping down, how very odd. A few more drops suddenly trickle down splattered on the floor next to her shoe, it wasn't sweat, too thick to be sweat, slowly she looked up; her mind froze up and went blank at that point; hanging right above her from the pipes and conduits was the same black eyeless domed head that was now both staring and smiling right at her...again, it let out a menacing hiss right at her.

 _Hello there you little fucker._

xxxxx

While the complete and total darkness provided the Xenomorphs with the perfect cover, coupled with their ability to move almost completely silent and strike with what was an almost unerring accuracy and devastatingly quick speed, the first kill or two happened within seconds of one another. The mercs, however, despite this, seemed to be able to regroup and retaliate in just a few seconds after, seconds that made the difference between life and death or at least would extend life for a few more minutes, maybe.

Ghost for as quiet and reserved as he was, mostly thanks to Doctor Mason's handiwork on him for several years, was like any Xeno once he or she got into the heat of battle. The long buried primal instincts kicked in and then it was time to either fight or flee. And he was proving to be surprisingly both efficient and effective at fighting.

His first kill had been from above, he had grabbed the lead human in the small group of six and broke the human's neck instantly, killing the man before he knew what had happened. Dropping down, his tailed had whipped around in a deadly arc nearly decapitating another one. And seconds later, he had another merc by the throat and popped a hole right through his left eye socket and into the man's brain with his deadly inner tongue. Ten seconds, maybe, and three of the mercs were dead, the other three quickly regrouped and opened fire with the stun rifles.

While the rifles hurt, they weren't as powerful as the ones back in the labs, Ghost knew this from personal experience. A fatal flaw for the human warriors that now faced him in deadly battle, he personally suspected that Mason did not give them all the facts about his species resilience and how much pain they could tolerate and endure. And he had endured much, this...this was nothing compared to what he had endured before back in the labs.

The experiments, the torture, nonstop weeks sometimes even months of subjective pain they would pile on him, being violated over and over, even being physically raped repeatedly and nonstop by several of Mason's assistants in secret. There had been times he was so very close to mentally breaking and going insane, but he would always be pulled back from that abyss by the others of his kind as they would help to try to ease his pain as best they could to help keep him grounded and let him know he was never alone, and that one day they would be free. A fleeting ember of hope that he held onto so very tightly.

As he approached, he did not hiss, screech or making a single bit of noise, his lips did not even peel back in aggression, the Xeno simply walked forward in a very calm matter of fact manner, his tail swaying casually behind him as if he was simply walking down the corridor with not a care in the entire universe. For the mercs, it was a strange and even fighting sight.

Continuing to fire at the approaching Xeno, the bluish bolts hit dead center; seeming not to do a thing to slow down or deter it, one of the mercs quickly unbuckled the large net launcher took aim and fired, the net quickly unfurled, sailed in the air and hit nothing.

Ghost had dropped to all fours and flattened himself on the ground as much as he could just as the merc had fired, the net sailed above him harmlessly and landed on the plate flooring several meters behind him. Slowly rising back up, he continued to just walk toward the human warriors, his tail now raising up and curling just above his shoulder the deadly tip pointing at all three men. He wasn't feeling rage or fury just a very odd calm, much like in the dropship when he had killed the guards and pilots, something that he hated to do, but it had to be done, such as this had to be done.

The mercs fired, backed up, one of them ejecting the spent energy pack and loading in a fresh one, then firing some more. It was right then that Ghost's body tensed up and he sprinted forward, he tackled one of the mercs his hand reaching around his head and with a quick twist snapped the man's neck, another instant and painless kill. The two remaining mercs, who were in point blank range continued to fire, neither man saying a word as the bright blue flashed of energy lit up the corridor and simply impacted on the Xeno doing nothing to it.

Another quick burst of speed, Ghost had another merc's head in his hands, his tongue jutted out at lightning speed and crunch, then the spray of blood, bone, and meat, only one remaining. The last one left, tuned and had started to run, heading down the dark corridor, raising up, Ghost sprinted after him, the sound of his heavy footfalls echoing throughout the corridor.

Quickly he caught up with the fleeing human, leaping forward he collided with the merc sending the man sprawling down on the ground. Down on all fours, Ghost circled back around his tail swishing back and forth. He leaned over the man, the merc, groaning, rolled over and the two found themselves face to face. Ghost could sense the fear coming from the man, even as controlled as it was, it was still there, he didn't go for any weapons, the way things now were, what was the point, the merc knew he had lost the fight and was going to die.

For Ghost there was a disconnect to fighting this group of humans, he simply didn't feel rage, anger or anything, yes the primal instinct was there to fight or flee, but this whole fight just felt empty for him. He knew that he was protecting his hive mates and their temporary home and he would do just that, fight, kill and even die to protect those that he called family and loved. But for some odd reason, he just did not feel anything when it came to this particular battle.

The humans had fought well, at least those that did manage to fight back, the weapons had hurt, no real damage but still they had hurt and that pain should have sent him into a rage or at least angered him, it would have for any other of his kind. Yet nothing. He leaned in closer to the merc, his face only inches from the mecs own.

If they hadn't come on board, none of this would have to have happened and no one would have to die, reaching up he gently ran a finger down the merc's face and gave out a soothing hiss as if trying to tell the human that it would be alright and it would be over very soon and that there would be no pain and no suffering.

Closing his eyes as if in some unusual way he knew what the Xenomorph was saying, the mercenary seemed to accept what was about to happen, he knew that he was trapped, knew that there was no way out and nothing that he could get to in time to fight his way out.

Placing his hands on the sides of the mercs head, Ghost leaned in until his forehead pressed against the mecrs own, and a few seconds later a quick jerk and the mercs life ended, painlessly.

Standing up, Ghost found that he was wrong, wrong about not feeling anything, he did feel something, and that something was sadness, sadness mixed with regret. What a senseless waste of life.

He was about to move on when Shadow entered his mind, not just his but Alese's as well, Shawn was in trouble, trapped with the mercs in CIC, he was hiding, but would probably be found soon. That little piece of news triggered something, rage, anger, and concern, Ghost bolted out of the area faster than he had ever moved, he would meet up with Shadow and Alese, the mercs would not harm their human, and if they did, every single one of them would be torn to pieces, violently and without mercy.

So much for calm and disconnect.

xxxxx

Waiting, that was probably the worst of it, waiting to see what would happen, waiting for the other shoe to drop so to speak, waiting to get the worse news of your life and then figure out how to live with it and push on afterward. Experience had, in many cases, sometimes painfully so, taught Shawn that to have patience's was a necessity in life and that sometimes you just had to sit tight and wait it out. No matter how bad it got or how much it hurt, sometimes waiting was all you could do and that was it.

And this, this was one of those times that he had done all he could do, all he could think of and now all he could do was sit and wait to see how things panned out. Wait to see if Shadow, Ghost, and Alese came through alive and hopefully unscathed or if one or all of them would die.

He hated feeling useless, but right now, that's all he felt, there was nothing he could do to help the Xenos in this fight, he couldn't simply grab a weapon, man up and go out guns blazing, that only got people killed and quickly. Way too many idiot hotheads out there though that having a weapon or even several made one invincible, usually all it did was make one very dead, no coming back from that, no do over's, just dead and that was it. He had both seen and come close to death more times than he wanted to count and right now he didn't want to get anywhere close to the grim reaper if he could help it, and if that made him some weak-willed pussy in some people's eyes then so be it, he could live with, couldn't so much live with being...well...dead. So he would sit tight, like Shadow had told him to and wait it out, either they would win or they wouldn't, he didn't see any middle ground in this fight.

He had killed the lights to the ship at Ghost's suggestion, hopefully, it would be enough to give them the edge to take the mercs on and win. While he couldn't see anything through any of the video feed, he could hear the audio, he had been flipping through channels trying to hear if anything was going on though out the different sections and levels of the Saratoga. Being as large as the ship was he wasn't having any real luck and maybe it was for the better, last thing he wanted to hear was the sound of men dying or the screams of the Xenos as both sides fought to the death.

But he kept flipping through the channels, knowing what he might come across when he finally heard something, an odd crackling and popping noise, men screaming at the top of their lungs and the deafening screeches of a Xeno, he couldn't tell which one. The screams to fire and then to fall back, cursing, more screams and then dead silence for a few moments then the echoing sounds of heavy footfalls on metal plates fading into the background.

He had just listened to a group of mercs die, fellow human beings have their lives snuffed out within a few seconds. Shawn turned the channel off, he felt emotionally numb, sick even, those men and women had died quickly, but the fact was, they had died and he just listened to it. He wondered if he would see the Xenos differently now if this would affect their relationship or whatever it was they were forming. The bitch of it was that there was no choice in this fight, at least none that he could see, and while none of them had any proof that this group of mercenaries had been sent from the station that the Xenos had escaped from, it was the most likely scenario or at least that was what he had assumed. After all, the engines had been shut down, something that only someone with the proper command codes for that ship could have done from an outside source.

Ultimately it didn't matter who or why they were on board, the fact was, a large group of armed troops were in their home and none of them were going to go down without a fight. They would all just have to deal with the blowback later on if or when it came back around. Blowback that would no doubt try to sucker punch them in their blindside when they least expected it.

Getting up, he paced around the CIC area for a few minutes trying to get his mind focused and his thoughts together, walking over to the console that was currently being hacked into he picked up his datapad and looked at the progress. The hacking of the weapon systems was at eighty-nine percent complete, maybe a couple of more days and it would be hacked and the locks would be off. Even with that task done, he still didn't know a damn thing about how to operate the military grade weapon systems or in this case several weapon systems.

Another bridge he would have to cross at some point. He didn't want to just go and start randomly pressing buttons and flipping switches and hope that he would get lucky, if he started doing that he figured that he would have an equal chance to either blow a weapons system apart or get it to fire. Partial cannons, pulse guns, laser cannons, rail cannons and guns and whatever else the ship had on it, oh yea, missiles, and torpedoes how could he forget that. All that heavy duty destructive hardware and not a clue on how to work it...lovely.

Sitting back down, he mindlessly started to scroll through his datapad, looking for nothing in particular really, just finding a way to kill time, until it was over, one way or the other. It wasn't until he heard the sound of metal scraping against metal that he knew something was up, it was coming from right outside the CIC doors, he realized that he might very well be in trouble. Standing back up, he listened, wondering if it was one of the Xenomorphs coming to let him know the mercs had been taken care of. But there was no message that came from any of them and he didn't mentally feel any of them either, metal scraping on metal came again, this time followed by a loud and heavy set click.

One of the heavy tumbler bolts had been disengaged, company wasn't coming, company was already here and they weren't knocking either they were coming right on in. Looking around for a spot to hide, and hopefully try to make a break when he could, he saw that one of the table consoles close to the door that might work. It was dark enough that he wouldn't be seen, that is until they turned on the lights, then he would be screwed. He would then either have to make a break for it and run and hope to hell they didn't either shoot him right on the spot or catch him. Or he would have to play dumb and try and trick them, make them think that the Xenos forced him to help them out, picked him up in the depths of space and threatened his life if he did not cooperate with them.

It might buy him a little time to make contact with one of the Xenos and let them know what was going on, but for the most part, people weren't that stupid and they would figure the truth out and when they did, he would be a prime target for the remaining mercs to take their aggression and vengeance out on. He might live a day or two after that, beyond that point, he could see himself sucking vacuum, at least that would be a quick death, more or less. Fifteen to twenty seconds in a total vacuum you lose consciousness, about seventy-five seconds later, dead. Two minutes might be the max before the body gives out, but average from what he knew was about a minute and a half.

Hiding under the console and pulling a chair in front to mask himself better, now all he could do was wait. He heard the second tumbler disengage and then shortly later the third and finally the fourth. The doors slid open and he heard footsteps and saw the lights shining all over the place. Shawn barely drew breath, trying to remain as quiet as possible. This was going to end badly, he knew it in his gut, which is where a bullet was probably going to end up at.

"Clear!" One of the voices spoke up.

"Double check on that, in fact, triple check, I don't want any surprises, check and recheck every square inch of this room. Floors, ceiling, vents, everywhere. I don't want one of those fucking things dropping down onto us, do you understood me, rookie. As far as I'm concerned, it's not clear even if it's clear, do not let your guard down, any of you."

"Yes, sir." A nervous voice crackled.

 _Oh just is just fucking great, I'm sitting under a goddamn console and the squad that breaks in here has to have a leader that is actually competent and knows what he's doing, god I am so fucking screwed right now._ Shawn thought to himself, clutching the data pad a bit harder than he intended to. Careful to not make any noise he pressed himself against the interior back panel wall of the console hoping that he wouldn't be seen.

The heavy footsteps of boots on the metal plating could be heard echoing all around the room, beams of light swung everywhere from the men searching throughout the CIC. The sound of the heavy metal doors to the CIC room could be heard closing. Shawn didn't hear the massive tumblers lock into place, so there was still a chance he might be able to get out, maybe.

He could vaguely see a pair of men walking toward the main consoles, right where he was working on getting the system hacked. Lovely, whatever progress he had made was now about to be trashed.

"Sir, you need to see this." One of the men announced. "Looks like we do have someone else on board beside the aliens and they are trying to hack the systems, monitors are on, so is the holodisplay table, and several of these terminals are still active."

A third man walked up the steps and stopped where the other two were at. "Well, that explains damn near everything, including the FTL jump, any idea on what the destination is?"

"Give me a second sir and I can find out."

Shawn heard typing on a keyboard for a few moments and then nothing.

"Well how about that, got to give the person credit, he or she knows what they are doing, we're heading right for the Hidey Hole."

"What's the hell is the Hidey Hole?" A voice spoke up close to where Shawn was hiding at, and from what he could tell it sounded like the voice of the rookie that had spoken up just moments ago.

"The Hidey Hole, rookie, is a massive asteroid field that pirates, smugglers, slavers, murders and all sorts of nice and unsavory kinds of people go to hide when people like us are chasing their asses down and intent on either capturing them or killing them. Probably figured that they could hide there and scramble the homing beacon signal." The leader answered or who Shawn assumed to be the leader. "Lieutenant, contact the other squads and get a status update."

"Yes, sir." Replied one of the men as the individual in question moved away from the small group. "All squads report in, status update, squad two report in." The voice trailed off to the far corner of the room. "Roger, check, squad three check in."

"Commander, what do you want me to do with these data crackers, their working on getting the weapons systems unlocked and it's showing it being eighty-nine percent complete."

"Pull them, we've got the commanded codes right here, so we'll have full access to the ship within the hour. Once that is done, we'll see about dropping out of FTL, after that we'll contact the Vesuvius and the Damato, and then finish this mission."

Shawn's whole body froze as what he had just heard. Homing beacon, that sure explained on how those two ships were able to find the Saratoga and get in so close. Shawn felt like an absolute idiot for not even thinking about something like that. And worse, the mercs had the command codes for the whole ship and were only a handful of meters away from where he was hiding not only that but they would have full ship functions at their fingertips in an hour. Now he was really getting scared, not for himself but for Shadow, Ghost, and Alese. He didn't know what kind of or if any sort of interior defenses this ship might have.

"Sir, we've got a problem." The Lieutenant spoke up, I've made contact with squads two, three and six, but everyone else has gone silent, including all three dropships."

"Shit." The leader spoke up.

"Sir does that mean..." the rookie was about to ask when he was promptly cut off.

"It means that more than likely they are all fucking dead or incapacitate, but more than likely dead, now concentrate on keeping this room secure rookie."

"Sir, if we've lost the dropship teams, that means we have no way off this boat." the Lieutenant said, "and if we've already lost three teams in addition to that."

"We're getting picked off piece by piece. Lieutenant, get back into contact with the remaining squads, have the teams in engineering and medical secure their positions and hold, have team six break off their search and rendezvous with team three in medical to help hold and reinforce their position. Once we have the locks off the ship's higher systems we'll all link up in engineering and then break into ten man fire teams and hunt these fucking things down, and at this point, I don't care if we kill them. As far as I'm concerned that fuck Mason screwed us on this by not giving us the correct info and I have every intention of taking it out on his ass the first chance I get."

"Aye sir, count me in on that." The lieutenant broke away, "team six, break off your search and rendezvous with team thee in medical, help hold the position until further notice, team two and team three, hold your position and wait for further orders, and keep frosty people."

Shawn had heard everything, he needed to warn the Xenos and right now, he had only practiced the link with the other Xenos for a little bit, he wasn't even sure if he could make contact from this distance. But at this point, he didn't have much of a choice. His stomach was turning and his whole body felt like ants were crawling all over it. He needed to focus and try and block everything out and just work on making contact with any of them, Shadow, Ghost, Alese it did not matter which one.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated as much as he could, trying to establish the mental link and focus on one word at a time. He didn't need a sentence just a few keywords to warn them. After what felt like minutes, he felt a mental tug and then contact.

' _SHAWN!'_ Shadow's voice boomed in his head, the Xeno sounded surprised and also worried, ' _What's wrong, what has happened?'_

Concentrating on just a small number of select words to send back, he was able to focus enough to send a few words, they were spaced apart, but hopefully he would get the message. ' _Mercs...CIC...trapped...hiding.'_ It was the only thing he could manage before the mental strain became too great and he had to stop.

' _We are coming.'_ Was the only thing Shadow spoke, Shawn could feel the heat of worry and even rage coming from the Xeno's mind.

"Need to get the lights back on and right now." The leader spoke up, "I have no intention of losing any more of my troops on this ship."

"Commander we don't even know if they are dead or not, I realize that the likely hood is very high, but the fact is we don't know and we won't until we start seeing bodies." The other merc that was operating the control panel replied.

"I can't afford to be optimistic in a situation like this Sergeant you know as well as I do that we all have to assume the worse, but...I'll let you be optimistic for me."

A slight chuckle came from the Sergeant, "Yes sir, I won't let you down on that." Then a pause, "sir it'll take a few of minutes to get the lighting systems back online, I'm still navigating the systems."

"Make it quick Sergeant, don't exactly like having our asses hanging out in the dark here." He said, moving away from the desk to look around the room.

 _'Shawn, I'm close, can you provide a distraction for a few seconds.'_ Shadow asked.

A distraction, was he kidding, sure why not, maybe he could scream or kick at the underneath of the console or break out and wave his hands and jump up and down, cause that sure wouldn't get him shot, would it. He remembered the datapad he was holding, an idea jumped right into his mind that might actually work. ' _Yes...when?'_ He asked.

' _Now.'_ Was Shadow's only reply.

Shawn rolled over so his back was facing the outside, he lowered the pad so the glow of the screen would be minimized and hopefully wouldn't be seen by the mercs. Activating the pad, his fingers slid across the screen, opening several menus until he found what he wanted; with a quick tap on the screen, one distraction coming right up.

In an instant, the CIC blared with music, at max power it was damn near deafening. The mercs swung around in all direction the lights pointing all over the place. He couldn't even hear the commander screaming at the Sergeant to shut that shit off.

It was right then that the doors to the CIC room slid open, the rookie who just happened to be closest to the main doors turned around, his light beaming right onto the black, skeletal alien figure as it stood there in the archway. The massive Xenomorph lowered his head and stepped inside the CIC room, then raised his head back up, lips peeled back revealing the deadly steel teeth, massive amounts of thick saliva trickled down it's chin forming a small pool on the floor, the black, segmented tail whipping aggressively back and forth striking the floor and walls with loud metallic thuds.

The rookie did not utter a single word, at least not at first, he just started to back up, the stun rifle he was holding dropped next to his side, he reached around and with his other arm until his hand felt a cool, metal and familiar hand grip. "SIR!" He yelled out.

The whole group of mercs turned around and just froze, while the senior and experienced members had seen their fair share of stuff and had seen some pretty nasty creatures, the nine foot plus tall alien that was standing just inside the doorway was something that was both awe-inspiring and utterly terrifying and like nothing any of them had ever seen. The briefing videos, photos, and info did nothing to prepare them for what they were looking at or just how damn big it was or mean it looked.

The alien drew its head back and then leaned forward letting out a deafening screech that had managed to drown out the loud music. Even Shawn had cringed at that sound, an icy cold chill ran through his whole body at the cry, all he wanted to do was curl up and hide from it, even know who it was coming from, somehow made it worse. He didn't even know that any of the Xenos could make that kind of noise, it sounded like some unholy creature from deepest pits of hell in its final death throws.

 _'SHAWN NOW!'_ Shadow's voice roared through his mind, this was the only chance he was going to have to make a clean break and escape.

Kicking out the chair sending it rolling several meters before crashing on its back, in a second he was out from underneath the console and literally vaulting over the computer station, his datapad clutched firmly in his arm. He was so fixated on getting out of the CIC room and away from the mercs that he didn't even see one of them just a few short meters away.

There was a loud, sharp and from what he could recall a rapid cracking sound just behind him, it was right there that he felt something strike him in the back of the shoulder, actually if felt more as if someone had taken a massive sledgehammer with a sharp tip and hit him with it as hard as they possibly could. He went stumbling over, falling to the ground, his body instantly went numb, no pain just a dull and cold numbness that rapidly overtook him, that and the coppery and salty taste of blood in his mouth now.

Shock was also what he was feeling, shock mixed with searing hot rage and hate that seemed to quickly fill his mind, only he realized that it wasn't coming from him. He was lying on the floor his mind in a daze as to what had just happened, he lifted his head, his eyes half way closed, he could make out Shadow just a short distance away, the massive crested head looking right down at him. And although he couldn't make out the facial features of the Xeno, he could tell or more accurately feel the disbelief and even horror radiating from him.

Another ear piercing scream erupted from Shadow, only this time it wasn't just the Xeno making a show to distract the humans, this time there was fury behind the scream, rage, hate, a desire to rip and tear something apart or more precisely someone apart, to punish them for what they had just done. Shadow's head whipped back and looked right at the merc, even though he had no visible eyes and the light was almost non-existent in the room, the rookie merc could tell that it was a cold and hate filled death stare directed right at him.

Vengeance would wait, the human warriors weren't going anywhere if anything they were the ones trapped on the ship with **THEM** , not the other way around. Turning, Shadow vaulted over to where Shawn laid, who was trying to pick himself up, the Xeno quickly picked up his human turned and ran out the doors of CIC. Several bright blue flashes lit up the massive room as the mercs opened fire with the stun rifles, their efforts were too little too late as the Xeno disappeared out into the corridor, the few shots they had managed to get off never even came close to hitting the Xenomorph.

The soldiers had never even noticed the two black shapes flowing into the CIC room during all the chaos that had silently slunk their way up the wall and into the ceiling, equal fury and rage filled both of them, one of the mercs had dared to hurt **their** human, **their** hive-mate, he would pay for it, they all would pay for it.


	10. A Slight Reprieve

CHAPTER 9: A Slight Reprieve

xxxxx

The CIC room had been quiet for the most part, the only sounds that gave off any ambiance to cut through the still and quiet atmosphere came from the few operating computer stations that were active, which would give off small repeating beeping and clicking noises as to whatever programs were running. The silence was thrown out as music suddenly started to blare up in the massive house side room. As loud as it was it was almost deafening, all the mercs except one swung around with their weapons drawn ready to fire at anything that moved that was not part of their small group. Nothing came out from the darkens to attack them. Commander Ortiz turned to Sergeant Davis who was desperately trying to figure out what had happened.

"Sergeant, turn that shit off right now, what the hell did you do!?" Commander Ortiz screamed at the Sergeant, whatever cover and stealth they might have had from the aliens was probably blown, hell, no doubt half the ship could hear what was being played in CIC.

"It wasn't me sir, I wasn't even touching the panel when this crap came on. Give me a minute." The Sergeant said, quickly trying to find whatever the controls for the CIC speaker and intercom system. It was right there that the heavy duty double doors to CIC opened up.

"SIR!" The rookie merc yelled at the top of his lungs, normally Ortiz would have been half ready to rip into the new recruit for screaming out so loud, but there wasn't just fear in his voice, there was absolute terror. And that was never a good sign, new recruit or not.

All the mercs except for Sergeant Davis who was frantically trying to disable the intercom systems, turned around to see that a visitor had casually walked right into CIC as if it owned the place. All the mercs, even Ortiz gave pause at the nine plus foot tall black and bony, glistening Xenomorph that stood just inside the CIC doors, the shoulder lamps bathed the creature in bright white light, giving it an all too otherworldly appearance, or even more so than it already had.

Ortiz who had been a merc since he was twenty-two years old, had spent most of his career traveling and fighting with now Captain Torres; he had been across the known galaxy from one end to the other and had both seen and experienced some pretty nasty and downright weird shit in his years as a professional mercenary, some of it still gave him nightmares to this day.

But now, what stood in the doorway, was unlike anything he had ever seen, the pictures, briefing videos, all the info they had to study and familiarize themselves with, did nothing to prepare themselves for just how damn big, mean and horrifying the Xenomorph looked. The thick outer bony rib cage, the longer normal than arms with deadly long fingers and claws. The head which had a thick protruding crest on it and the tail which looked to be segmented ended with a massive blade on the end of it that looked like it could cleave a fully grown man in two with ease.

Ortiz thought that it might charge and start attacking them on sight right away, Mason's briefing had indicated that was the first thing the Xenomorphs would do, attack anything that wasn't them. But surprisingly it didn't, it just stood there its head slowly panning to the left and then to the right scanning the area looking at them. As if it was studying the small group and was now planning and calculating its next move.

When the Vesuvius had picked up the crew members in two of the stealth shuttles from the Saratoga, that in itself had been a surprise, but then when all hands had been accounted alive and were unharmed, that required some much-needed answers. Needless to say, the debriefing that came from them all but destroyed any credibility that Mason's briefing files had, that was when doubt had kicked in about what it really was that they were going to have to deal with.

And now Commander Ortiz was standing there looking right at one of them, somehow, he didn't know how exactly, but he could feel an intelligence radiating from it, something both very powerful and ancient. And that made it far worse, a mindless monster that was just running off of pure instinct he figured they could handle, but how does one handle a monster that's smart, not just smart but actually intelligent and something that looked like it was created from the depth of hell itself.

His train of thought was interrupted as the alien drew its head back, its chest puffed out and then leaned it's body forward, the jaws opening up wide, then it let out an ear piercing; deafening scream which managed to mask the music for a few seconds. Ortiz felt his blood run cold, not just his blood, it felt as if his soul was starting to freeze over, the small boy that was still inside him somewhere, wanted to grab the adult version of himself and run and hide somewhere, anywhere, hide under the covers and cry out for his mother. To be told that monsters didn't exist and that everything would be ok.

But monsters did exist, and he knew that he also knew that it wouldn't be ok. It felt like he was walking toward his own grave and that nothing could stop that from happening. He knew that he would one day die on a mission; it was a fact he had accepted many years ago, most mercenaries didn't retire; the ones that really did manage to live long enough, get rich enough; old enough to retire were either very lucky or very skilled or both, it was part of the job, a fact of that life, nothing more. You lived a merc you died a merc, and he had a feeling that this could very well be where he would die.

In his peripheral vision to his left he saw a chair shot forward and something, no not something, someone, jump over a console close to the entrance of CIC and make a straight beeline right for the Xenomorph. It all came together in his mind and like a pair of jigsaw pieces to a puzzle coming together perfectly, the blaring music the Xenomorph showing up right after, the scream, it was all a diversion, a distraction for a rescue. Someone else was on board and he would be damned if they weren't helping each other out.

It was right then that the sound of an assault rifle being fired rang out, two shots, one right after the other, there was a brief strobe of muzzle fire that lit up the room. The person that was running toward the Xeno fell forward, collapsing on the deck, looking over in the direction that the shots came from, he saw the rookie merc standing there assault rifle in hand.

The Xeno looked right down at the downed human, another deafening scream, or shriek erupted from the alien, this was far different than the first one had been, it was full of anger, fury, and rage. Ortiz saw the Xenos head whip around and lock right on the rookie, the creature while it had no visible eyes or none that he could see. Even from the distance he was standing at, he could tell that it had a murderous gaze and that gaze was locked right on the rookie merc.

Unfortunately, as much as he felt the Xenomorph might be justified in ripping apart that dumb shit for hurting the person who was helping them, he wasn't about to have another one of his own men killed. His hand went down to the handle and he started to bring the stun rifle to bear on the alien, the other men, seeing him, followed their commanders lead without question or hesitation.

A second later, the alien bolted over to where the human lay, who despite being shot in the back, was even now trying to pick himself up, no crying or screaming came from him, he had been silent the whole time, _tough little bastard_ , Ortiz thought, that was something he could at least respect, not so sure about the helping a hostile alien species, but that would be something that they could figure out if or when the aliens and their human companion were either captured or killed. In a flash, the alien had the human in its arms and was running toward the door entrance.

Ortiz had a bead on the alien or thought he did, the damn thing was moving so fast it was hard to keep track on it, he and several of his men pulled the triggers on their stun rifles but the alien was gone into the dark; the energy bolts only hit the bulkhead walls harmlessly leaving nothing more than black scorch marks.

The music that was blaring through CIC finally went silent, "Got it, sir," Sergeant Davis said, the whole area finally going quiet, only the active computer terminals made any noise.

Commander Ortiz was livid, which for him was about five steps above being pissed off, did not utter a single word, his own gaze locked onto the rookie merc, the alien wasn't the only one that wanted a piece of the little screw up now. Staying silent, he slowly walked up to the rookie merc who started to back up. "Don't you dare move a goddamn fucking inch." Ortiz snarled, he had given express orders that assault rifles were to be used only with his express permission and with good reason to.

Grabbing his own helmet off his head he flung it right at the rookie with as much force and anger as he could muster, "What the fuck was that, what do you think you are doing you goddamn stupid fuck up, did I give you an order to use you assault rifle, NO, I did not. Your orders are to use your stun weapons on this op, not assault rifles unless strictly ordered to."

"Sir I..." The rookie merc was about to try and speak up to defend himself somehow but against the commander's fury, it was useless.

"WHAT, what are you going to say, that you saw something and decide that you needed to take a pot shot at it. And just in case you didn't see it, let me explain it to you, what you just shot and hit, that was a man, a human that you just put a couple of rounds right through, which in this case we were lucky it was, because if it had been a Xeno, then right now, this very instant, its blood would be eating right though the bulkheads decks." Ortiz yanked the assault rifle out of the rookie's hands, he then grabbed the slung stun rifle and shoved it right into the rookie mercs chest as hard as he could, nearly sending the young man stumbling backward.

"THIS, this is what you fucking use, and you do NOT open fire until you have a positive visual or you hear me give an order to do so. I don't know about you, but I do not want to be vented out into the vacuum of space through something the size of a keyhole. Do you understand me?"

The rookie merc nodded, "Yes sir, I'm sorry sir. I just..." The rookie paused for a second his gaze going down, looking right the floor not being able to bring himself to look the commander in the eyes, "I'm sorry sir."

"Listen son," Ortiz began, his tone softening some, "We may have just lost half our attack force including our dropship pilots, men, and women, I've known and fought alongside for years, so unless you know how to pilot a dropship, we might very well have no way to get off this ship until we drop out of FTL and the Vesuvius manages to catch up and sends a dropship or two over to rescue us. If I'm pissed and angry it's because I don't want to see any more of my troops die, which includes rookie screw ups. Now I need you to focus and stay alert, from the looks of it, we have one seriously pissed off alien on our hands now, maybe more, and I need everyone to stay sharp."

"Understood sir." The rookie said, "I'll do better sir. It's just that I've never seen anything like that in my life and when I saw something coming toward me..."

Picking up his helmet from the ground and putting back on, Ortiz nodded, " Son, I can tell you right now, that none of us have seen anything like that and I've seen a lot, now as to you doing better, I'll hold you to that, but for right now just stay sharp and stay alive." Turning around Ortiz walked away and over to the squad's second in command and handed the rookie's assault rifle to the Lieutenant. "Here, hold onto this until young blood over there learns to follow orders."

"Aye, sir." The Lieutenant replied. "Commander, what the hell just happened with that alien, was I seeing things because it sure looked to me that it was here to rescue that guy."

"I think so, the music, that first loud scream, all of it had the smell of a diversion and then when our new recruit shot that alien's friend, or what I'm assuming is, was, a friend, well you saw what happened."

"Yea, I saw, can't quite believe it, I mean the briefing package that Mason sent us on these alien life forms." The Lieutenant said, "I thought they were supposed to be hostile mindless killers, nothing more than that, just attack anyone on sight, not go around rescuing people."

"I think that either Mason has been holding out on info that we could have used, or two, he truly doesn't know what he's dealing with in that lab. And I don't know about you but I'm leaning toward the latter, especially after what the Saratoga's maintenance crew told us after we picked them up. Either way, if we get out of this situation alive, I will find that little shit and put a bullet right through his fucking head for all our troops that we've lost." Ortiz said, not realizing that right above him a black shape moved silently and had not only heard but clearly understood every word that the merc leader and his Lieutenant had spoken to one another.

xxxxx

Alese, who was the calmest and most docile of the trio of Xenos, was someone who would have gone out of her way to offer comfort and calm for those who were in distress. Now she was seething with barely contained rage and fury, so much in fact that her muscles were visibly shaking. Both her and Ghost had not only seen what had happened though Shadow's link, but they had actually felt the bullets rip and tear right through Shawn's body. Bone shattering; muscle tissue being ripped and torn apart, the sudden shock and numb cold taking its grip on his body.

One of the mercs had shot their hive mate, their human, now he and the group would pay for it dearly and with their lives. The Xenos themselves could handle being shot at and even hurt, war and fighting were what they had been designed for, they could take the damage, the pain and plow through it and even recover and heal at an alarmingly fast rate. Shawn, however, compared to them physically, was fragile as were all of his kind; his body damaged all too easily. It did not help that he had only woke up a few short hours ago from being asleep for almost four days with little food and water, only what they could try and feed him themselves and was still recovering from the newly formed link being established.

And now, one of the human warriors that had dared to come into their home, their territory, had shot him in the back. Surprisingly at least to both her and Ghost was the human Commander, Ortiz the other human mercs had called him, was enraged with the human warrior as well, both Xenos had half expected the Commander to physically hurt the rookie merc. Instead, he had opted to give the merc, what the humans called a "serious ass chewing," odd figure of speech, as most of the human language was laced with such metaphors, such a strange way to communicate it seemed to them. The so called "ass chewing" did not, however, elevate their need for vengeance.

As they were thinking on how best to strike, they both overheard the Commander talking to his Lieutenant, Mason's name was brought up and not in a good way and that got their attention immediately. There was a bit of satisfaction knowing that the Commander was developing a hatred for their old friend, Doctor Mason, and was talking about putting a bullet through the doctor's head, a far too quick and painless death as far as all of them were concerned. Maybe, just maybe Mason's time was coming to an end, she and Ghost just hoped they would be around to see it if that was the case.

The Commander and his Lieutenant walked away from the rookie merc, the human Commander made a motion with his hands and pointed right toward the rookie, one of the other human warriors, without saying a word, only nodding, came up to the rookie and stood only a few feet from him. Looks like the young one was in need of someone to keep an eye on him. For the Xenos it would be two quick kills, well one quick kill, the other one would not be so quick.

In a fluid and soundless motion, Ghost moved to where he was directly over the other and what looked to be a more experienced merc. It would be quick and painless for this one, he would never even feel it. Alese communicated with Ghost that she was ready, and they would attack at the same time.

Ghost lowered the tip of his tail until the tip end of the blade was just hanging behind the merc only a few feet away, poised to strike. With a quick jab, the tip of the tail blade pierced the back of the mercs brain stem killing him instantly, his rifle dropping down to the floor with a loud thud.

Alese had struck only a split second later, her method had not been so kind, she was still so full of rage that was now at a full boil, her blade had skewered the rookie merc just so that it had missed his heart, but had, instead, pierced one of his lungs. He was hoisted right into the air, only to come face to face with the enraged female Xenomorph. He was unable to speak or even cry out, blood began to trickle out of his mouth, terror filled his eyes as he looked right into the eyeless dome, a dome that, despite having no eyes that he could see, was cutting a baneful gaze right into him.

Using her legs and lower mass to support herself on the massive pipe, her hands shot free and grabbed her prey by the head and gave a firm squeeze, nothing that would have been lethal, but would cause considerable pain nonetheless. Only a few more moments then it would be over, her maw fully opened up revealing the deadly instrument of his execution, a second later, the deadly inner tongue shot out finalizing the killing blow.

Both of the bodies hit the ground at the same time. Alese was coming around to her senses, the rage inside her was now gone now that the mercenary that had injured Shawn was dead. The human mercs were shouting, cursing, and now opening fire with their stun weapons. Blue flashes of energy whipped by both Ghost and Alese, a few striking harmlessly off of the naturally thick bony and chitin armor.

Both Xenos pounced forward at the same time, getting out of the piping and taking cover around the numerous consuls and terminals their tails swaying back and forth in aggression. As the mercs were grouping together, the stun rifles did hurt some but were too low powered to do any real harm or even knock them out. However, the other weapons they had could do real damage and even kill them.

"Overcharge your weapons, don't fire unless you have a clean shot." They overheard Commander Ortiz order. Both Ghost and Alese while as familiar as they might be with the human technology, didn't know if the overcharged weapon blasts would do anything to hurt them or not. Ghost rose up from under cover and gave the mercs a loud screech and was hit with several blasts in the chest and side, sending the Xeno toppling over and falling on his side, after several moments he let out a long tense hiss.

' _WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?'_ Alese screamed at him.

Ghost tilted his head and looked right up at her. ' _Needed to see how effective the human's weapons were, now they are just like they were in the labs. Be careful, avoid the blasts, they will bring us down.'_ Ghost shook himself off, the after effects of the blasts he took didn't hurt much anymore, but his body was feeling tingly and slightly numb in the area that he had gotten shot, if they did manage to concentrate fire they could easily incapacitate them. This fight and the others that would be coming up would be a lot more difficult.

Unlike at the lab and throughout the station they had escaped from, the guards were not use to someone fighting back and most were only trained in basic combat and did not have any or very little experience. Now, not only were they fighting an effective combat proven force that would be out for blood for the loss of their companions but now that they had overcharged their weapons they had the power to bring down and capture the Xenos.

At this point neither force, human nor Xenomorph were willing to give or budge an inch, it would be a fight to the death and now from this point on, it would no longer be a quick, clean or easy fight.

"This is Commander Ortiz to any remaining teams or team members, overcharge your stun weapons when engaging the Xenos. Fire only when you have a clean shot, don't waste your power-packs."

' _We need to end this and quickly, one of the humans is working on the console that Shawn normally does.'_ Ghost said, going down on all fours his tail swishing back and forth.

'S _plit and come around from their sides or back, we hit fast, strike and fade._ ' Alese said, something in her hive memories surfacing from an age long ago about how to combat a force like this, and while the memory itself was vague and fuzzy at best the tactic was there. She thought it might have been an old memory back when the Xenos had revolted and gone to war with their creators and were fighting and dying for their freedom.

Both of them shot out staying low and circled around to where the humans were grouped at. Blue flashed flew past them...mostly, a few hit each of the Xenos. They could hear Ortiz commanding his mercs, telling them to stay calm and fire only when they had clean shot. Ghost leaped up, catapulting himself over a console, his tail whipped to the side as he flew past one of the mercs intentionally missing the man by five or six feet. His tail blade, however, did not miss its target, he could feel the tail blade come into contact first with hard metal armor and then something soft, flesh and then bone he guessed.

He heard a thud and gasping as he bolted toward the back area of CIC, Alese followed close behind.

"Sergeant, Lieutenant, get him up, we're sitting targets here, everyone out into the hallway now!" Ortiz ordered, "I'll cover you!"

Ghost and Alese saw the two humans helping their wounded comrade make their way toward the doors leading out into the hallway. Ortiz was just a few steps behind them, his rifle training in on the area that the two of them had disappeared to. The wounded merc was gasping for breath and was bleeding out heavily from where a massive gash that ran fully across his chest and was deep into the chest bones.

Both Xenos started to advance only to be meet with several dead on shots from Ortiz, Alese bolted right and received two more energy blasts in her thigh. With lighting speed Ghost grabbed Alese and took cover, he receiving a hit to one of his dorsal tubes. The human was a true warrior and was hitting them all too easily, however, he wasn't going for killing shots, he was doing what he could to slow them down so his men could get out. In a few seconds, the four human mercs were out of CIC and into the hallway.

While they couldn't count that as a victory, it wasn't a failure either, they had managed to kill two of the mercs and injure a third and that would slow them down some. It would be easy enough to stay out of range of the weapons and track them to find out where they were going.

' _Shadow, we've driven the mercs from CIC, how is Shawn doing.'_ Ghost communicated to the large Xenomorph.

 _'Not good, he's bleeding heavily, breath is raspy and he's starting to get cold.'_ Ghost could feel the fear coming from Shadow, he wasn't just scared, he was absolutely terrified and was a single step away from going into a full panic. ' _I'm almost to our sleep area, I'll heal him there.'_

' _Shadow...'_ Alese was going to say something, knowing full well that Shawn could very well die right in Shadow's arms no less. And considering how deep the Xeno's feeling ran for the human it would be a devastating blow that he might not ever recover from, in fact, it would be a blow that none of them might ever truly recover from.

' _I WILL HEAL HIM, I WILL NOT LET HIM DIE!'_ Shadow roared into both Alese and Ghost's minds. There was a few moments pause before he spoke to them again, ' _I'm sorry, I...we just can't lose him.'_

' _Do not apologize, we are all scared for him, please do what you can to heal him,'_ Alese replied, _'we will continue to track the humans and see where they go to and plan from there.'_

' _Very well, tell me, of the two mercs that you killed, was one of them the one that hurt Shawn?'_

' _Yes,'_ Alese answered back, her tone was very solemn as she showed him what she had done to the merc, ' _He did not die quickly or painlessly.'_ Despite the fact that Shawn had been hurt even grievously so, she was being to regret torturing the human mercenary the way she had. And while she had not really enjoyed it, there was satisfaction in it. Even in the labs she never thought that it was in her nature to feel what she had or act the way she had. The whole experience was now leaving her feeling sick. She should have just given him a quick death and been done with it, not let vengeance and anger cloud her better judgment. Perhaps Mason was right, maybe they were little more than just monsters trying to pretend to be something they truly weren't.

She pushed the thought down as quick as it had come about, no...they were not monsters, Shawn had been hurt, and in their minds, the scales needed to be balanced. Maybe if he had been fighting side by side with them and gotten shot it might have been different, at least then it would have been in combat, but he was trying to leave and had been shot in the back. At this point, it no longer mattered whether it had been an accident or deliberate the mercs were going to die and it was as simple as that, that had been their fate the moment they stepped foot on the Saratoga. End of story.

 _'Thank you,_ ' Shadow answered back, ' _you were far more merciful than I would have been.'_

Ghost walked up to where the mercs had been, several data pads and laptop computers were neatly organized and turned on, an opened hard metal case was sitting right next to them, neatly inside were various cables, connectors, and other tools that the Xeno did not recognize. ' _Shadow, when he is well enough, let Shawn know that the mecrs have left some of their equipment, it looks like they were about to try and gain access to the ship's systems.'_ Ghost projected a mental image of the area to Shadow.

' _I will tell him when he is well enough to talk.'_ Shadow replied back, ' _and if he does not make it...'_ Shadow couldn't finish what he was going to say, it was far too raw and hurt too much to think about much less say out in the open.

' _He will make it,'_ Ghost said, there was no doubt in his voice to the words he spoke much to the surprise of both Shadow and Alese, ' _he is much tougher than you realize and has gone through more than you know, I saw a small part of his past when he linked with me that first time by accident.'_

' _Why did you not share it with us?'_ Shadow asked, surprised that Ghost would keep something like this from them.

' _Shawn is human and his pain is very personal to him, I did not wish to betray his trust and privacy, not after everything he has done for us. He will share his pain with us when he feels it is the right time and he is ready. He doesn't know that I saw a glimpse of his past. I would ask that both of you keep it secret, I don't think that any of us wishes to destroy his trust.'_ Replied Ghost who was starting to make his way to the CIC doors. ' _We should continue to track the humans find out where they are going.'_

' _We understand,'_ both Alese and Shadow said in unison.

' _There is one other thing,'_ Ghost said to Shadow, ' _The mercs have overcharged the stun weapons they carry, they now have the ability to incapacitate us, be careful if you come across any more of the groups.'_

 _'I will be careful.'_ Shadow replied back, and then cut off his link as he was nearing their sleeping room, Alese followed Ghost into the dark hallway, the trail of blood from the wounded merc would make it easy for them to follow and track, their hunt was still on.

xxxxx

This was now the second time that Shadow had to carry Shawn into the sleeping area due to a life threatening injury, the first was because of the unstable and incomplete mental link that had been formed, and now he had been shot by a merc. Bursting into the room, he gently laid Shawn down onto the floor, carefully he ran his fingers over the wounds in both the front and back. Thankfully he had only been shot in the shoulder, a small entry wound was in the back; while that would not be a problem to heal, the main problem would be the massive gaping exit wound that was in the front of Shawn's shoulder.

Bone had been shattered, muscle had been torn and shredded and there had been a large amount of blood loss, there would be a large scar when it healed up, but that was the least of the concerns. Using one of his sharp claws, in a swift motion he cut and enlarged the hole in Shawn's shirt, concentrating, his inner tongue came out several inches and a massive glob of the white life jelly fell into his hand. Carefully he began to apply it to the front wound, it would help heal the physical damage and stop the bleeding.

Shawn moaned weakly as his eyes slowly opened up, he found himself in total and complete darkness and unable to see anything. "Shadow..." He croaked weakly, Shawn could feel the presence of one of the Xenos but his mind was in such a fog that at first he couldn't at first tell who it was, the last thing he remembered was making a run for the CIC doors and Shadow who was standing there, then a loud popping noise close by, something striking him hard from behind, brief pain and after that everything became a jumble and then nothing.

' _I'm here.'_ The Xeno replied, his voice strained but there was a sense of relief in it. _I'm tending to your wound.'_

Wound, what wound, what happened, he didn't remember receiving a wound and why was it so god awfully cold now. "What happened, why is it so...cold in here." His voice soft, just barely above a whisper.

Shadow didn't answer back, trying to concentrate on packing the wound with the life jelly. Shawn could sense, just vaguely, that Shadow was deliberately not replying back, not telling him what had happened. He felt something pressing down on his shoulder, it was oddly more a sense of pressure than anything else. Right then a stark realization came to him, he found that he couldn't feel his arm or even his hand. He tried to move his hand a bit to test it to see if anything was really wrong, wanting to get his fingers to open and close, but he found that his hand would just not respond in any way, no matter how much he tried to will it…nothing. Panic began to take hold, had he lost the use of his arm somehow, what had happened.

"Shadow...please, tell me what happened." He begged, pleaded for an answer.

' _You were shot, that filthy, fucking animal of a merc shot you in the back, the bullets went through your shoulder, you've have some pretty bad wounds.'_ Shadow answered, his voice seething with rage at the memory of it _.' You've lost a lot of blood, I think that's why it feels cold to you. I'm trying to help heal your injury with the life jelly.'_

It took a few moments for what Shadow had said to fully register in his mind, the loud popping sound, that hard-hitting force that had knocked him down. The blood loss, tiredness, he had sustained enough injuries back on Darrius station to recognize what was happening to his body. "I'm going into shock, that's what's going on," Shawn replied, trying to focus and stay coherent, the last thing he needed was to go to sleep and slip into a coma.

 _'What can I do to stop it, do you know, tell me...please.'_ Shadow pleaded, hoping to whatever power was out there that his human…no, their human had an answer.

"Treat and seal the wound, after that you'll need to elevate my feet, you should be able to use the pillow for that, and try and keep my body warm, the blanket that's in here should work, after that just a lot of rest and wait to see what happens.' Shawn replied, just trying to focus on the thoughts of the Xeno and not think about anything else. "Guess four days of sleep just wasn't enough." He tried to joke about it hoping to break the tension and fear that Shadow was feeling.

It worked but just only a little. Shadow just gave him a small hiss and then continued to go back to work on his shoulder.

Thanks to the life jelly the bleeding from the large wound had stopped, though blood was still flowing out of the entry wound. Shadow could see that Shawn's life energy was decreasing slightly and his heart rate had slowed down. Discharging another glob of life jelly, Shadow gently rolled Shawn over just enough to be able to coat the wound with the life jelly and pack in as much as he could. About a minute later the bleeding stopped.

With that task done, the Xeno slowly started to secrete some of the liquid resin into his hands. Bringing his hands together and then pulling them apart, thin and numerous strands started to form, repeating the process over and over with his hands and fingers, the clear liquid resin started to change color going from clear to more of a light tan flesh color and begin to solidify. After several minutes what looked like a thin translucent flesh-colored piece of cloth was formed.

Cutting the piece in two with one of his claws, he then carefully applied the two resin bandage halves to both wounds, the bandages instantly stuck and molded with Shawn's own skin. With that done, Shadow followed Shawn's instructions and used the pillow to elevate the human's feet and then covered him with the blanket, hoping to help keep him warm. There was one last thing that Shadow could do to help him heal.

Shawn didn't say anything during the whole process, he could in a way sense what Shadow was doing, even though he couldn't see it. He would have to get Shadow to show him how he made the resin bandage some time, he betted that it was a fascinating process to see.

' _You need to open your mouth.'_ Shadow said, running his fingers across Shawn's forehead.

"Umm...ok, what's up?" Shawn asked, a little taken back by the sudden request.

' _I'm going to feed you the remaining bit of life jelly I have, it will help quicken your bodies healing process and prevent it from going into shock any more than it is.'_

"Your remaining bit of life jelly?" Shawn asked, starting to become worried, would that mean that once he used it up he wouldn't have anymore, he knew only a very little bit about the Xenomorphs life jelly and royal jelly. Both could be used for healing and a food source in emergencies and from what he understood the life jelly was in some respects a far more potent form of the royal jelly and he got the impression it had a few additional properties that the royal jelly did not.

Shadow picked up on Shawn's thoughts and quickly reassured him that there was nothing to worry about. ' _Do not fear, my body will produce more and will be stored for future use should it arise, it will just take a while._ '

"So you're about to baby bird me, this should feel interesting, to say the least'. Shawn said weakly, trying to crack a smile and ease the tension, still not too much of an effect.

' _I am not familiar with the term "baby birded' what does that mean.'_ His voice while not emotionless was very taut.

"Short version, parent birds will regurgitate food into their young one's mouths to feed them," Shawn answered, hoping that Shadow would see the humor or irony of it.

He did not.

For almost a minute Shadow said nothing, even with no light in the room Shawn could tell that the Xeno was just staring right at him. "Oh goddamn it Shadow, I'm the one with a fist sized hole in my shoulder who can't feel or move my arm or hand, yet it feels like you're the one who is about to lose it. You do know that I can pretty much feel your emotions now, and right now it feels like there is a vice tightly clamped right over your chest. I'm trying to break the tension so you don't go and fucking lose it."

Shadow didn't say anything at least not at first, he seemed to be considering his words and when he did speak they were measured, calm and with an all too serious and sharp edge to them. Not at all like the other times before. _'Your blood is all over me, this is the second time within four days that you have been wounded in some way and have been close to death. We have human warriors on board this ship that either want to capture us or kill us, and I do not want to even consider what they would do to you as an act of revenge or even what Doctor Mason would do if you were brought back to the lab alive. And right now, you want to make jokes?'_

The Xeno stood up and started to pace back and forth, his head looking back to Shawn than away over and over again. ' _Do you know what it was like to watch that mech shoot you, do you know what it felt like to see your shoulder explode out, to see all that blood, to wonder if you were going to die, to physical feel the pain and shock coming from you. Do you know I had to stop myself from tearing that fucking animal apart so I could get you to safety, at that point I had to make a choice, to either choose vengeance or to choose you, and I chose you. Do you know how enraged not only I was but also Alese and Ghost where, do you?'_

Stopping and towering over Shawn, Shadow just looked down at him. _'Alese, even back in the labs was never blinded by raw rage and fury and for the first time in her life she was, do you know she killed the merc that shot you, and it wasn't a clean or quick kill either, but she was far more merciful than I would have been, even though he is dead and I still want to go back up there and tear his body apart until there is nothing left. Seeing you hurt like that, laying on the floor in your own blood and then trying to pick yourself up, it felt like someone...something had taken my heart and tried to rip it apart, I have never felt like that, ever. None of us have.'_ Shadow stopped speaking, he wasn't sure what else he could say. Before the escape, emotionally everything had been straight forward and simple, they resented and hated most of the lab staff, there were a few exceptions but only a few, and they would do what they could to give comfort to one another whenever one of their kind was experimented on or tortured.

Now everything was becoming complicated, a rollercoaster of emotions it seemed, ups and downs and everything in between. None of them had ever planned to become emotionally attached to a human, much less to become attached to one so deeply. Shawn had been so different than the humans at the lab or on the ship. They had quickly found that Shawn himself was deeply hurt as well and maybe that in itself was where the connection had come from. Not really seeing just a human but in fact, another lost soul that was just as hurt, angry and confused as they were who seemed to want nothing more that to have a simple measure of peace in some way.

In the following days and weeks, Shawn had shown them kindness, fairness and tried not look at them like monsters and had given them a chance. Shadow had from the beginning always seemed to be fascinated and even infatuated by the human, it was something that he just couldn't seem to pinpoint, no matter how much he tried to think about it, he could never find a definitive answer. There always seemed to be this pull at the center of his core, the need to be in close proximity to Shawn, and then when he was in the human's presence he always seemed to feel better, even happy, and when that did happen suddenly the galaxy was not such a horrid place to live in.

Using his good arm, Shawn tried to push himself up into a somewhat clumsy sitting position. Immediately Shadow protested and was down next to the human his hand right over Shawn's chest about to very gently but firmly push him back down to the floor.

"Shadow stop, just stop for a second," Shawn said, his voice weak with fatigue. Raising his arm, he looped it around Shadow's neck as best as he could, and tried to hug the Xeno, given the condition he was in it was a weak hug but one that Shadow was more than willing to accept. The side of his face pressed up against the side of the massive crested dome. Shadow gently wrapped one of his arms around Shawn's back supporting him. "I'm scared too, and I'm also angry, but right now all of us are alive, we're alive which means we have a chance. So here's the thing, I'm not dead, and getting shot while I'm not really thrilled about it, I've been through much worse, believe me when I tell you that. And if I joke about something like this, it's not because I don't take the situation seriously, I do, it's just that I'm trying to help alleviate the tension so we can all think more clearly and not lose our freaking minds."

Shadow didn't say anything, he just sat there enjoying the brief intimate hug for as long as he could. He so dearly wished that he could stay like that forever, just him, Shawn, Ghost and Alese. To hell with the rest of the cruel and cold universe for the moment, why couldn't it be the four of them? He knew he was being selfish thinking that, even just for a second, his kin were still locked up in that lab, run by that monster of a human. But still, all he and the others wanted was to be left alone to live a quiet life with each other, was it too much asking the universes or whatever power might be out there just to have that one thing for themselves.

' _You need to rest._ ' Shadow said, slowly lowering Shawn back down. ' _You also need the rest of this life jelly. So please open your mouth.'_

Shawn opened his mouth, Shadow leaned forward, his mouth opening up, and his inner toothed tongue slowly came out and made its way into Shawn's mouth. Shawn's eyes went wide at the odd slimy sensation that came from the textured tongue. Although he didn't find it necessary unpleasant, it was very unusual. Something sweet and thick, tasting almost like a mild honey filled his mouth, reactively he swallowed the life jelly that Shadow had just given him. He felt a couple of more small globs being deposited and swallowed those as well.

Withdrawing his tongue, he could tell that Shawn's heart rate had jumped up a bit and that there was a slight increase heat around his face and even chest. _Seems that our human likes that, interesting._ Shadow though slyly for a split second.

"That was different." Shawn said, swallowing several more times, "Guess that there's a first time for everything." He took a deep breath, shifted slightly and tried to relax.

' _The life jelly will start to work very soon, you should begin to feel the effects shortly. And second time actually._ '

Even though the room was pitch black, Shawn cut Shadow a curious and confused look, "Second time? When was the first time?"

' _When you were recovering from the link, we all had to feed you some of our life jelly to help stabilize the link and assist in healing the damage to your body. It was shortly after you passed out in the CIC room that we started, we each took turns over the days while you were sleeping._

"Thank you...for everything and for saving me." He muttered weakly, a wave of tiredness began to wash over his body and mind.

Leaning over Shawn, Shadow gently nuzzled the human's forehead. 'Please r _est now.'_

Shawn nodded, his eyelids felt so heavy now, though he didn't feel as cold anymore and his body was starting to relax some as the tension started to fade away, he still couldn't feel his arm or hand and was really hoping that the damage was just temporary. Something came to his mind that Shadow had said only a few moments ago that jolted him back awake somewhat. "You said that Alese had killed the merc that shot me. What about the rest of the group that's up in CIC? Asked Shawn, realizing how much trouble they would be in if the mercs got full access to the ship's systems.

' _Two are dead, one was wounded, the four left CIC, probably to join with another group. Alese and Ghost are tracking them, they will be fine. Ghost wanted you to know that the mercs left some equipment on the terminal you had been working on, he believes they were trying to access the systems._ '

Shawn shook his head, trying to stay awake just a little bit longer to relay what he had heard from the merc commander, "No Shadow, they won't be fine, the merc commander, he knows about the dropship crews being taken out as well as three other teams, he... told his men to fall back and reinforce, they are going to meet up and split into ten men teams and they are going to shoot to kill."

 _'Alese and Ghost informed me that the humans have overcharged the stun weapons, both of them were hit but they were not seriously hurt, however, if there are ten humans in several groups.'_ Shadow said looking down at the floor.

"You need to go and help them," Shawn said without even missing a beat.

' _Shawn you need me...'_ Shadow had started to protest when Shawn interrupted him.

"They need you more, a lot more," Shawn said cutting off Shadow right there before the Xeno could say anything else.

' _You want me to leave you here, alone, without any defenses and with no one to protect you.'_

"No, of course, I don't want you to leave, I want you to stay, I want you to stay and curl up next to me, hold me and pretend that everything is alright and that there aren't a bunch of mercs on board trying to kill or capture us, I want you to..." Shawn was about to add something but thought better of it, this was not the time. "But what I want right now is pretty goddamn irrelevant, plain and simple. What is reverent is that you are in here, not out there with Ghost and Alese, they need you, and they can't take on what might be twenty to thirty plus mercs on their own." His voice was being to become groggy and distant.

Shadow wanted to fight Shawn on that, he really did, but the human's logic was sound on the subject, and the likely hood of Shawn being found so soon was very low, and if the mercs were regrouping and splitting up into larger teams, with the stun weapons set to overcharge, then all three of them might need to take on one group at a time together. This time the humans would be prepared, they would be in a more defensive posture and that would give them an advantage, plus from what Shadow had seen from Alese and Ghost, the commander was battle hardened and knew what he was doing and more the likely knew how to motivate his men.

Their element of surprise was over, the fights from now on would be messy and frantic for both sides now and he had no doubt they would all sustain injuries just how badly he didn't know.

' _Very well, you're right. I hate the idea of leaving you here by yourself, but you are right.'_ Shadow reluctantly admitted, getting up he started to walk out of the room.

Shawn tried a half-hearted smile but he was just too tired for even that. "Shadow...there is one thing...the overcharge on the stun rifles, I...I don't know if it will do anything to the weapons themselves, but the power packs should drain faster, fewer...shots, try and use that to your advantage." He said, his eyes closing and with that, he drifted off to sleep.

Shadow could already see that Shawn's body temperature was starting to rise back up some and that his heart beat would be returning to normal soon. The life jelly was starting to run its course and heal his body, he was worried about Shawn's arm and hand, and was hoping that the damage was just temporary and that the life jelly applied to it would heal any of the damage that had been done.

The Xeno lingered around for a few more minutes, just to keep an eye on his human, it was right at that point that he made a silent promise to himself, that despite the odds or whatever opposition that they would all face in the future, provided any of them lived that long, that he would do everything in his power to protect and look after Shawn. He did not want to see the human hurt or injured again in this manner, and now he would do whatever was necessary to prevent that, finally, with a grim resolve, he forced himself to leave the sleeping area and headed into the dark corridors of the Saratoga to find Alese and Ghost.

Very soon all of them would be engaged in a very real fight, and only one side would win.


	11. Last Stand

CHAPTER 10: Last Stand

xxxxx

Tracking the mercenaries had been easy enough for the two Xenomorphs, for them it was little more than simply following the scent of the blood trail from the human that Ghost had severely injured back in the CIC room. They had gone down several levels, making sure to follow the group slowly and stay well out of the range of the motion detectors that the mercs carried, the blood trail had finally ended in a medical bay where they found the injured merc who had succumbed to his injuries. He lay on one of the biobeds, his armor stripped off and bandages, now completely blood soaked were wrapped around his chest.

Upon entering the med bay, Ghost and Alese immediately picked up the scent of other humans that had recently been in the medical area, their guess was that there had been a group that had been stationed to hold the area and now had joined up with the human commander to both consolidate, and reinforce their dwindling numbers. The humans would likely choose an area that they could easily fortify, defend, and hold out at. If they were able to fully consolidate their numbers and find a spot they could hold out for an extended period of time, it was quite possible that they might be able to last long enough to see reinforcement arrive. And if that did happen then the chances for the Xenomorph's survival were nil.

Ghost walked over to the now dead merc, gently he placed his hand on the human's chest, feeling the wound underneath, it was far deeper than he had first thought, his tail blade had scored a fatal blow, it just took a while for the human to pass away. Even with the armor on, it had cut through the skin, muscle and had gone right past the bone and into the chest cavity.

As his hand passed over the man's chest and up toward his face, Ghost silently started to wonder, if their freedom was now worth the price in life. At first, he did not have a problem with engaging the mercs, but now as the body count was starting to mount, and shortly more would die, he was started to have his doubts. Doubts that could cause him to hesitate and that could mean the difference between life and death or being captured.

It had been easy enough when the ones they were fighting were nothing more than faceless enemies, but now seeing the dead human on the biobed, and the now still and lifeless face that went with it, he wasn't sure anymore. The merc looked to be about however old Shawn was, give or take a few years, while not all that old, he did not look young either. Did he have a family, a mate, young ones, those who would never see him again and would they ever learn of his fate or would he simply never come home, a sad and unfortunate mystery that would go unanswered for the rest of their lives.

Walking over to Ghost, Alese placed her hand on the lower part of his back, her hand softly pressing and rubbing the small of his back offering him some form of comfort. She had been able to tell that something was bothering him, his demeanor had shifted and had become far more solemn than what was normal for him, she could also feel a great deal of regret coming from him. ' _Do not blame yourself for this, if you wish to cast blame for what has happened for all this needless death, blame Mason and those that work with him, the ones that sent these humans after us.'_

Ghost didn't take his gaze off of the dead human, his finger gently stroking the dead mercs forehead, the flesh still warm to the touch, to anyone passing by he could have very well been asleep if not for the blood-soaked bandages covering his chest. ' _I do not blame myself for what we needed to do in order to be free and survive, but I do now wonder, is our freedom worth the price that so many others have already paid and will pay. And what about the future or do we truly even have a future, if we kill all the mercs on board, what about the next group and the next one after, how many would have to die, hundreds...possibly thousands. Is the trade-off worth it, do you now think that maybe it would have been better if we had not escaped at all? '_

Alese froze at what Ghost had just said, how could he even think like that, after everything that not just he but all of them had been through and the ones that were still now going through back at the labs. _'I do not like the killing either but how can you even think that, what Mason and the others have done to our kind, our brothers and sisters, to see how much pain and humiliation we can endure and for what, to what end, some sick and perverted research, or worse still, maybe for us to be used as weapons that would be unleashed upon some unsuspecting world, such as the creators did with our kin uncounted eons ago, would you want that, or have you already forgotten what he did to you, to all of us?'_

 _'NO,'_ Ghost snapped _, 'I have not forgotten nor will I...ever,'_ he turned his head to look at Alese, _'those memories are seared into my mind forever, and the scars that are on my body will be a constant reminder of what that monster did to all of us, I could never forget what he and the others like him did to not only me but to all of us. Do you think that I ever could forget, those nightmares are with me as they always have been, haunting me, I still see his lifeless and emotionless gaze, always staring at us.'_

Ghost shook his head, it all seemed to be too much right now, the endless horrors of the lab were still so fresh in his mind heart and soul, the escape, their freedom, it still seemed like a lucid dream that had just finally started to take hold and form shape, hope was something that was new and beautiful for them and they all so dearly wanted to hold onto it, and now, it was, all of it, in danger of collapsing around them and disappearing. _'I am all too aware of as we all are that Mason would use us as weapons, as we were originally designed for, to kill and control others, whether it would be for his benefit and gain or those that he answers to. We all know what would happen if we were captured and brought back to the lab, what he would do to us as punishment for escaping, I have no desire to go back; I would rather die first than be locked back up. But I ask you to consider this, if not for our actions, then Shawn would not be in danger like he is now and he would not have been injured...twice now; his pain and what he has to endure is on us, he is our responsibility, and if he were to die..'_ Like Shadow, the words were far too painful to finish, it was something he didn't want to even think about. ' _And if we are captured, then Shawn will be captured and brought to face Mason's wrath that is if he was not killed before that happened and that would be if he was lucky.'_

Alese did not say anything for a few moments as she carefully considered her words, Ghost was right in that Shawn was their responsibility and what he had to go though was on them. _'You are correct, he is our responsibility._ She finally responded, ' _and if he had not come on board and stayed on his own ship than none of his injuries would have happened, if he had not stepped foot on board this ship and chose to ignore it instead, then he would still be floating in space on his own, alone, in his own damaged vessel, maybe still alive or possibly dead by now. Yes, we did invite him on board, and we did ask him for help, so yes I agree with you that he is our responsibility, but he is also hive now, family, and now bonded with us, so I will do whatever I must to protect not only him but all of us. As I said, I do not like the killing, I hate it, but we are given little choice, we knew that we would be hunted as soon as we escaped the labs and left the station and that there would be bloodshed, it was something that we all knew would happen and while I do not like the price, it is something that I will accept and pay. For once I want to walk with open sky above me, feel ground and grass beneath my feet, fill my lungs with fresh air, not walk on cold hard metal floors or walk with walls that seem to be forever closing in or be trapped in those cold and clear tubes that are always too bright and also not be tortured and experimented on. So if it means that I have to kill every human warrior that comes onboard to try and take us back then that is what I will do.'_

' _Never would I surrender myself or give our small hive up to the humans, it is just such a heavy and ugly price for all of us to pay, but one that I accept as well,'_ commented Ghost after a long pause.

' _I know',_ Alese replied _, 'it would have been better if they had just left us alone and not come after us.'_

Leaning down Ghost placed his forehead against the dead mercs own, _'Know that I wish that it would not have come to this, may you find peace in what lies beyond, your death and the death of the others was out of necessity not out of cruelty or malice.'_ Standing back up, Ghost slowly turned around and walked out of the med bay with Alese following behind him, they would continue to track the remaining mercenaries and find them, when Shadow had finished with Shawn's wounds, he would join them and then they would attack, then they would either win or they would die.

xxxxx

The veil of darkness hid the large, ebony, skeletal alien figure as it easily navigated its way through the corridors of the Saratoga, while the blackened out hallways would have been all but impossible for any human without a source of light to guide their way through, the Xenomorph had no such problems maneuvering through the pitch-black passageway.

Even though the murders rage was still there it had finally simmered down to a low boil and was under control, or at least more control now than it was only a short time ago. The image of Shawn being shot, and collapsing on the ground replayed in his head over and over, the desire to rip apart the dead merc that had shot him was still there, not that it would serve any purpose, but the more primitive, animalistic beast that still dwelled inside of them all wanted some sense of gratification in defiling the mercs body as a blood payment for the harm that had been done. At that point Shadow had to all but wrestle and throw the primal instinct to the floor and deny it the satisfaction of tearing apart the animal that had wounded his mate, he had to choose, Shawn or vengeance, and in the end, he had chosen the human.

While the Xeno didn't stop dead in his tracks, he did slow down a few paces, it that how he really viewed Shawn now, deep down, viewed him as his mate or at least a potential mate. He knew that Shawn liked him as well but he didn't know if the human viewed him in that manner. It had gotten to the point that now Shadow didn't even really see Shawn as a human anymore, in his mind and the mind of the others he was a member of their hive, a fellow Xenomorph as far as they were all concerned, to hell with how he looked or what species he was, to them it was irrelevant, Shawn was now hive and that was all that mattered.

There was also Alese and her growing attraction to Shawn as well, he knew that Alese's feeling toward the human were as powerful as his own, she had just been able to control her feelings far better and had been more reserved about acting on them, she figured that it was best not to overwhelm Shawn and slowly let him get use to their ways. Not that such things really mattered in the long run, their hive memory showed them while lifelong pairings would happen so did small lifelong groups that were anywhere between three to a dozen or more sometimes, he wondered if that was where they might be heading. That is if the human was willing to accept them in that way.

Shadow so desperately wanted to share himself with Shawn, to take the human and mate with him and to have Shawn mate with him in return. To mentally link with the human and share his feelings and desires, to reveal everything about himself, to fully open himself and to give to Shawn everything that he was. And when that happened, if it happened, there would be no barriers between them, there would be no secrets, and all would be laid bare.

And in some respects that might be a problem, Shawn's mental link was newly formed and was still developing, the torrent of emotions and memories that would be shared could easily overwhelm the human at such an early stage, also he knew that Shawn was not yet ready for that kind of openness, at least not yet, the human still had deep seeded pain within himself, pain that, as Ghost had stated, was not yet ready to share. Humans could be such odd and confusing creatures, holding in, sometimes desperately so, something that would damage them, even to the point of self-destruction or madness. He could never understand why they did that, would it not be better to share that pain to conquer and overcome it, not hold onto it and let it rot one's soul away.

Perhaps after they had dealt with the mercs and after all this was finally past them, they could focus on themselves and figure where to go with whatever it was they were becoming with one another, and perhaps finally they could all heal. Especially Ghost, of all three of them he had been hurt the most, both physically and mentally, Mason had managed to push him to the breaking point; how he had continued to endure all he had without going mad was nothing short of a miracle itself. While most of the physical wounds he had received had scabbed over and healed, there would be scars as a reminder for all he had gone through. The emotional wounds, however, were another matter altogether, those ran far deeper and hurt more; even though it had been an accident, Shawn had started that healing process, something they were all grateful for. But with Shawn trying to figure out the ship and everything that had happened to him, quality time amongst themselves had been in short supply from the beginning. But even with that, something had started to blossom amongst all four of them and the Xenos wanted to see where that path would take them. Hopefully it would include someplace very quiet and very far away.

Shoving those thoughts to the back of his mind now was certainly not the time to become distracted by wishful thoughts of what might be or hopeful dreams to come. Soon he, Alese and Ghost would be engaged with the human warriors again, and it was a very real possible that they all could be either captured or even killed in the battle to come.

Making his way through the dark enshrouded hallways of the Saratoga, he soon caught up to Alese and Ghost, both of the Xenos were crouched low and looking intently at something up ahead. The scent of the human mercs was strong and it wasn't just a few of them, it was a lot of them, he could also detect the slight glow of light further down the hallway.

' _How is Shawn doing, well he be alright?'_ Alese asked worry and concern laced heavy in her voice as she and Ghost stood up to face Shadow.

Shadow shared his memory of what happened after he had left CIC with Shawn in his arms. ' _You were right Ghost, he is much tougher and stronger than I would have thought possible, even with a hole in his shoulder and bleeding out, he tried to keep me calm and focused. He is sleeping now and should be alright once his injuries fully heal. I am worried about his arm, but the life jelly I have given him should help mend the damage.'_

Ghost stepped up to Shadow and placed his head under the large Xenomorph's chin and gently nuzzled him in gratitude. The act caught Shadow completely by surprise, Ghost very rarely made open signs of affection, and this was one of the very few times that he was affectionate to Shadow. It wasn't that both of them didn't get along, quite the contrary in fact, but due to the abuse that Ghost had endured at the station, physical contact usually made him uneasy. While the Xenos were very social creatures in nature and in regards to much of their society, Shadow or Alese had known that Ghost needed to work things out for himself and had given him his space to do so, though they always let him know that they were there for him no matter what.

Nuzzling Ghost back, Shadow placed his hand on the drones head and tenderly ran his fingers along the length of the scared dome. The act elicited a deep, rumbling thrum from Ghost's chest.

' _Thank you for saving him.'_ Ghost said, his mental voice was little more than a soft whisper but both Shadow and Alese clearly heard it, there was something else now, something that was bleeding through the hard mental barriers he had put up in order to survive the labs, a deep ache within his heart that could be felt by both of them.

' _You knew he would survive and you were correct,'_ Shadow replied, his fingers continually to caress the side and top of Ghost's dome, giving comfort to his hive mate.

' _Knowing and believing are two different things, I had faith that he would survive, but sometimes that is not enough.'_ Ghost said, his voice was soft even relaxed, enjoying the physical contact from Shadow. Now of all times, right before what could be their very last fight with the mercenaries, he began to feel something within himself start to give, the mental barriers that he had held up for so long started to crumble and collapse, walls that at one time gave him protection and solace, but now only seemed to keep him isolated and alone from his hive mates, the ones that gave him the strength to go on, the ones that he cared for and loved, the ones that were there for him in the labs encouraging him to hang on and not give up. ' _I am tired of feeling like this, alone, hurt, angry, scared, I want to feel alive for once, to feel joy, I want to know what it is like to love and not feel ashamed for having such feelings. Not this consistent numbness and anger, there are times I feel like I am being torn in two from within and I do not know which side will dominate. I thought I could face these inner terrors alone but I know that I cannot now.'_

Alese stepped up next to Ghost and gently nuzzled the side of his face. ' _You were never alone, never. We have always been there for you, without question. We would and will give all we are to help you heal and find your peace and calm.'_

 _'When we have dealt with these mercenaries, we will work on healing ourselves and face down our own terrors and crush them entirely.'_ Shadow said, his fingers reaching to the side of Ghost's face and slowly stroking the jaw line and tendons, an act that brought another deep rumble of pleasure from Ghost's chest.

Nodding in approval, Ghost reluctantly broke away from Shadow's tender caressing. ' _Then let us plan and see what we can do.'_ He said, ' _The humans look to have consolidated all their forces at a four-way intersection, from what Alese and I could tell they have set up barriers all around them using what they could get from the nearby rooms.'_

' _And we have no way to attack them from above or below due to the design of the ship, and the small vent system and smaller openings.'_ Alese commented, ' _we can only attack them head on it seems.'_

' _Do you know how many humans are congregated in that intersection?'_ Asked Shadow, his mind racing with any plan that could help them win.

' _We think that there are at least twenty, possibly more, we could not get close enough to fully count, a few of them took shots at us but missed when we got to close.'_ Answered Ghost.

Shadow was silent for several minutes, his mind trying to delve into the ancient hive memories trying to find anything that would help. The old hive memories did little to help them in this situation, it was either hit and fade or overwhelming mass attacks that was the only thing that he dug up.

It was time to start making some new memories from the soon to be battle to draw upon.

' _I think I have an idea and this will be something they won't expect, I will be back in a few minutes.'_ Shadow said turning around and walking away.

xxxxx

Commander Ortiz was checking the makeshift barriers for what seemed like the twelfth time, it was little more than a mess of chairs, tables, desks, and whatever else they could find to pile up, he knew it would not hold, not unless he could bring down every stun rifle to bear on the Xenomorphs and knock them out and net them before they broke though. He had ordered all his men to rendezvous at this intersection, it was open, but they had clear lines of sight in all directions and depending on how the Xenos attacked, they would have either one or maybe three routes to escape or at least fall back to.

As it stood now, out of the sixty personal that had come on board there were now only twenty-seven left, the rest now were dead, killed by only three Xenomorphs. If he had known just how deadly and smart the aliens were, he would have brought double if not triple the force along with combat androids for heavy backup.

The twelve-man group from the engineering room had come across the remains of one of the ill-fated search groups and had on orders collected whatever they could salvage, weapons, ammo, equipment. It would add to their small stockpile of ammo and weapons, but nothing more. Lights had been placed on the barriers along with motion trackers letting them all know if anything was coming their way.

"Anything on the trackers?" Ortiz asked one of the sergeants who was aiming a stun rifle down the long dark hallway.

"Negative sir, at least nothing since we got those first two blips that we took a couple of shots at, been quiet ever since."

"Good, keep a sharp eye out, the last thing we want to do is get pounced on," Ortiz said, giving the sergeant's shoulder a firm reassuring squeeze, and then walked over to where his lieutenant was at. "How are we doing on ammo and ordinance lieutenant?"

"Well I figure about eight or nine power packs per rifle, including the spare rifles that were picked up that we now have, about five maybe six stun grenades per person, we have eight net launchers with about a three reloads per launcher oh and plenty of ammo for the assault rifles that we can't fucking use cause of what we are dealing with here sir, pity we didn't pack a flamethrower or several." The lieutenant answered.

"Believe me if we were planet side I would have used our assault rifles already and those things would either be dead or wounded, I don't like having my hands tied like this either, but if we wound one of those aliens and it bleeds out, it could causes a hull breach." Ortiz didn't need to finish up what he was saying, he knew that his lieutenant had seen what an explosive decompression had done to a ship to say nothing of the crew, as well as the aftermath and it was something the lieutenant would never forget.

"I know sir, it's just that...I don't know if we are going to make it out of this one alive." The lieutenant's voice became quiet so the other men and women would not hear. "This isn't just some gut feeling, we have lost so many of our men to these things and there are only three of them. God forbid if there were more of them on board."

Nodding, Ortiz understanding the lieutenant's feelings all too well. "Right now we have the best chance of survival, we turtle up and hold out and either wait for this ship to drop out of FTL in the next few days and have the Vesuvius catch up and send reinforcements over or we take those aliens out when they come to attack. I'm not going to lose any more of my men wandering around this damn ship on some foolish search and capture mission, I figure let them come to us and we'll put them down."

"And if we can't…" The lieutenant asked, his own question left hanging in the air.

"Then it's been an honor serving alongside you and everyone else. But the fact is we're not dead yet, and I don't want to hear any more talk of not getting out of this alive, I need you focused on what's at hand, not thinking about your last few moments that may or may not come. We're all scared, that's nothing to be ashamed of; god knows I am, but we have a job to do and we have to look out for each other." Ortiz turned around to go and check on the barricades again. "We'll rotate and take four-hour shifts, three men per barricade."

"Sir, if I may ask, why didn't we head back to the hanger, hold out in the dropships?"

"That area is far too open and there is no way we could easily defend or fortify it, and if one of those things managed to break into the dropship while we were in it, well I think you know the answer to that…" Ortiz was going to say more but a loud voice from one of the barricades interrupted him mid-sentence.

"CONTACT, CONTACT, CONTACT! We have three contacts incoming fast, range thirty-five meters and closing!"

Ortiz and five other of his troops were at the barricade within seconds, rifles up and aiming ready to fire. "Listen up everyone, we've got company coming, fall back to your positions and wait, once we draw them in we hit them from all sides and we do not stop, when they fall, hit them with them net launchers, I want at least three nets on each one of them, these bastards hit us pretty fucking hard, now I want to return the favor."

"Twenty meters, nineteen."

The sound of heavy footfalls could be heard echoing throughout the dark hallway now, everyone that heard it could tell it wasn't walking toward them, this was a full blown charge, each step getting louder and louder the closer it got, the Xenomorphs full weight bearing down on the metal grating with each step. In fact what they now heard were multiple heavy footfalls coming right at them.

"Ten meters…what the fuck…SIR!?"

A large white, square shaped form that filled up a good portion of the hallway with what looked like metal piping bent around it and black goo dripping off quickly came into view. None of them quite knew what they were looking at for a few seconds, not that it mattered, the white mass was only seconds from plowing into the makeshift barricade.

"FIRE, FIRE, OPEN FIRE, LIGHT THOSE FUCKERS UP!" Ordered Ortiz, in a flash, bright blue muzzle fire lit up and bursting down the hallway impacting into the white mass, smoke then fire erupted from the white object.

"STUN GRENADES, TOSS THEM!" Ortiz commented, his hand wrapping around a metal cylinder on his vest, his index finger going through the metal ring of the safety pin, in a flash he yanked the grenade off his vest and his finger flicked out flinging the pin into the air, in a fluid motion he tossed the grenade out which was joined by several others, they all landed a few meters in front of the burning white mass that was bearing down on them. "FIRE IN THE HOLE, SHIELD YOUR EYES!"

Blue stun bolts still ripped down the hallway as the mercs now blind fired their weapons, second's later loud deafening thunderclap like explosions rang through the hall paired with blinding white flashes of light and sparks. Angry ear piercing shrieks and hisses filled the air as the flaming white mass came barreling down upon them.

For most if not all Xenomorphs, the idea of using tools or even weapons was truly a foreign concept, most of the time they merely used what they had been gifted with. The ability to secrete resin to make a hive or use to help heal wounds, the arsenal of natural weapons to defend themselves or their hive should the need arise as well as to use to hunt for food or much needed hosts to expand their population. The gift of producing both royal and life jelly to help heal or even feed off of should when necessary. For most if not all Xenomophs, life revolved around only two things, serving the hive and serving the current queen of the hive. A simple and quiet life that most if not all of their kind wanted. It was built into their instinct, their drive, their very DNA that had been created, designed, and modified untold millennia ago.

Shadow like most of the Xenos that had been birthed at Eclipse station were not like his kin of old from eons long past, his hive line had been one of now many hive lines had evolved far beyond what the creators had originally designed them for, no longer were they mere killing rage machines that would slaughter anything in front of them that was not them. They had the ability to think, to rationalize, to analyze problems and formulate solutions, also to feel, to love and to form bonds, even with those outside their own species. Something that thankfully Doctor Mason was completely unaware of, if he had been they would never have escaped, and the experiments would have been far more horrific for all of them.

And now Shadow was in the process of going past what his instincts were telling him to do. For Xenomorphs, fighting involved only a few tactics, hit and run attacks on enemies that outnumbered them and to whittle them down to nothing, or mass swarm an enemy force and rip them to shreds. Neither one of those tactics was viable here, the mercs had set up a defensive barrier around them, and with their superior numbers and long range weapons, all three would be on the ground before they even got close.

They needed something to give them a chance to get close, and Shadow had an idea. He had headed back down into the ship away from the mercs while Ghost and Alese stayed to keep watch. Coming across one of the smaller human sleeping areas, he had grabbed several of the metal bed frames with the mattress and had bent the metal to interlock the frames together as well as around the mattress to hold them in place and then secreted some of the resin to help secure them in place.

Looking at his handiwork, Shadow was less than satisfied, it was clunky and looked like it would fall apart as soon as he picked it up, but it would work for its intended purpose, at least he hoped it would. The resin would not fully dry in time but it would assist in holding it together, or that was his hope, all it had to do was just hold together long enough to get within striking range.

Shadow did have to laugh to himself at the absurdity of it all, he wondered if they ever did become part of a full hive, provided they all lived long enough, would this little bit be passed down to future generations as an example, a makeshift shield made out of human beds to fight a bunch of armed human warriors that they planned to charge directly into. It would either make a great story for future generations to come or a painful lesson of what NOT to ever do.

Picking up his creation, it felt rickety in his hands but it held, walking out the door and back into the hallway he quickly made his way back up to Ghost and Alese.

' _What in the name of all creation is that thing?'_ Ghost asked cocking his head sideways looking at the mess of bed bunks and mattress meshed together with black resin dripping off.

' _Something I hope will help us get close to the mercs to strike at them.'_ Shadow answered. ' _We stay behind it and run at them as fast as we can closing the distance, break through the barricade and attack, at that point, we will either win or we lose.'_

 _'This seems risky at best and careless at worse.'_ Ghost replied, ' _Though I doubt we have much of a choice at this point, if we wait the mercs may have additional warriors join them when this ship come out of, what did Shawn refer to it as, FTL?'_

' _Correct,'_ Shadow answered, ' _time is not on our side, and I for one do not want to wait around and be overwhelmed by more human warriors that may arrive later on.'_

 _'So the plan is to charge right into them and then just start tearing them to pieces?'_ Alese asked her voice laced heavy with doubt.

' _Unless you or Ghost have a better plan, but if we get close they won't be able to use their stun weapons as effectively. Shawn told me that if they have their rifles on overcharged the power packs should drain faster something that we could use to our advantage. I understand that this is a poor plan, but I do not know what else to do.'_

Both Ghost and Alese looked at one another for a few moments, Ghost shook his head slightly, neither one seeming to be able to come up with anything better. _'I am afraid that we have no other plan to offer, 'r_ eplied Ghost, the tone in his voice was less than optimistic, to say the least.

' _Stay behind me, when we break though I'll draw as much of the merc's weapon fire as I can when that happens, break away and attack, hopefully, that will cause enough confusion and we can end this quickly.'_ Shadow said, his hand gripping tightly around the metal frame which easily bent as if was little more than paper under his strength.

The image of Shawn laying in their sleeping room wounded, flashed through his mind, he had been the first human to give them names, to treat them other than lab experiments. Most importantly he had given them a chance, and while Shawn had been afraid of them at first he had managed to work through that fear and see them for something other than the monsters that their race had been branded as. Shadow just like Ghost and Alese would not allow their human to come to any more harm if it was in there power to do so. And if it now meant charging in and tearing through a group of armed human warriors to do so, then so be it.

His first few steps were just more than a walk, a few more after sent him into a trot and finally leaning his body forward, the makeshift shield in front of him, he shot into full speed as fast as he could manage. Each step that hit the metal grating sent loud, resonating echo throughout the hall. In the distance he heard the mercs screaming orders, then the all too familiar sound and the smell of the electrical beams firing, bright blue flashes flew past him and impacted into the mattresses and frame. Think black pungent smoke began to fill his olfactory senses and then fire, the front of the mattress lit up into a bright blazing mass.

Alese and Ghost were right on Shadow's tail tip, following behind him as close as they could get without hindering him any, the stun beams flashing right past them, blue strobing lights giving their skeletal appearance an eerie otherworldly look as parts would be quickly light up and then just as quickly fade into darkness.

The multiple sounds of clunking and scraping of metal hitting against metal caught the Xenomorphs attention, just seconds later and without warning blinding light flared up all around them as deafening thunderclap explosions engulfed the trio. Alese and Ghost let out a flurry of hisses and screams, a battle raged shriek erupted from Shadow's lungs that ripped down the hallway, letting all know what was coming and that there would be no escape.

All three knew all too well what those accused devices were, the human guards back at the station had referred to them as stun grenades and every Xeno had been the subject of those cruel mechanisms at one point or another, usually in mass. And while the stun grenades didn't actually ever hurt, the bright light and loud thunderclap sound just simply pissed them off to no end. It had given great amusement, almost to no end for the guards and some of the scientist to see the aliens angrily clawing and screaming at the clear Plexi-steel containers trying to get out and rip apart the would-be offenders but sadly to no avail. After a while, the Xenos would simply give up and go sulk at the opposite end of the containment container and glare at everyone around in silent fury.

Human yelling echoed throughout the hallway, Shadow could hear orders being barked out to the mecrs, just seconds away, the massive Xenomorph gave a final burst of speed pushing himself as fast as he could go and braced himself for the impact to come.

The sudden jolt, as prepared as he was for it, jostled him somewhat, as the flaming metal shield ripped into the flimsy metal barrier, the makeshift barricade erupted into pieces at the speed and force of the impact as if it were little more than a small pile of leaves being kicked into the wind. He didn't see several of the humans roll out of the way at the last second, nor did he see them train their weapons on him, he did feel the stun bolts strike into his sides and back.

Pushing past the now torn barrier he found himself right in the middle of the intersection, almost every one of the mercenaries had brought their weapons up and were opening fire on him. Alese and Ghost sprang out, Ghost had headed to the left side and Alese to the right, both of them were jumping right onto the walls; pushing off and propelling themselves at the groups that were within striking range, the quick maneuvering allowing them to dodge some of the incoming weapons fire.

The blue energy bolts raked Alese's body, impacting onto the Ebony, skeletal frame, the blue bolts sparked and sent out small energy tendrils that ran across her skin and dissipated after a second or two. Each hit attacked her nervous system as the weapons were designed for, although individually the shots were little more than a painful annoyance to the Xenos, even overcharged as they were now, but accumulatively they would bring them down from the prolonged fire.

Plowing into the nearest group, she grabbed one of the mercs by the head and with a quick twist, snapped his neck ending his life instantly and painlessly, her deadly tail blade darted out just around her side, impaling another foe clean through his heart. His body reactively jerked back and an instant later collapsed to the ground.

Both desperation and controlled fear started to fill the air, the mecrs as experienced as most of them were, were still only human, which meant they bled and died easily enough. Grabbing another merc by the head, her deadly tongue lashed out splattering bone and brain everywhere. This was not what any of them wanted, not to be in the middle of a bloody battle, killing and fighting for their lives. Quickly coming around to face another one of the human warriors, her lips peeled back in aggression the deadly steel teeth glisten in the artificial light, she was met with a barrage of weapons fire, the bolts pelting her in the chest, arms, and head.

Disoriented, her body began to feel numb, losing her balance for a few moments she stumbled to the side, seeing an opening, several more of the mercs approached quickly their weapons repeatedly discharging over and over. Lowering herself and tilting her head down she charged forward with all of her might colliding with another one of the mercs, both impacted into the bulkhead wall, she heard the sound of breaking bones and the bloody gasp as another human warrior met a grizzly end.

Doubt filled the female Xeno's mind, she had been unsure of this tactic from the beginning, but as Shadow had pointed out, time was not on their side, and neither she nor Ghost had been able to come up with a better plan and they could not take the chance of eventually facing a larger force when the other human ships caught up and sent more warriors to board.

She had taken out four of the mercenaries within a short time, it was a start but not nearly good enough. Turning around to face more of the humans she let out a defiant hiss and was met with another barrage of weapon's fire. Even with four of them down in a matter of seconds, they still did not break and run, damn them all for being this good in a fight and holding together and not giving into fear.

Ghost bolted from one wall to the other, gracefully springing back and forth, his tail lashing out like a living scythe ready to cut down all who got near or more accurately ready to cut down all that he got near to. Jumping right into another small group, he landed directly on top of one of the humans, the Xeno's full weight was brought down on then human's chest, even with the battle armor on, the weight collapsed the rib cage, bone broke tearing into muscle and organs, the man violently spasm and then died coughing up blood.

Bolting forward he was greeted by more of the blue energy stun beams that pelted his body, they hurt but he could push past the pain and ignore it at least for a little while. Whipping around his tail in an arc, he hit a target, the blade burying itself deep in the sternum of a mercenary who was too close. The man's eyes widen up and then rolled back into his head. Jerking his tail out, he whipped it around the sharp tail blade coming within inches of taking off a head or two.

The blasts continued to mercilessly pepper his body, one after another, the smell of electricity, ozone, blood, acid, and smoke began to permeate the air. With a deafening scream Ghost lunged forward his claws outstretched he found his mark, midnight colored talons ripped into pale flesh, warm crimson liquid caked his torso legs and the floor, a painful scream ended with a whimper and a plea and then the voice went silent.

Bright blue flashes continued to strobe all round him, a loud thunderclap explosion with a blinding white flash enveloped his body, he could no longer hear his own battle cry or feel his own body; numbness began to overtake him. With a last ditch effort, he sprang forward, his own legs betraying him and he fell to the cold steel floor, trying to stand back up, dizziness and disorientation started to take him. One of the mercenaries was walking up to him, rifle aimed and sending out the cruel blue bolts which licked over his body over and over.

A fatal mistake.

A sudden burst of speed and within the blink of an eye Ghost closed what little distance there was between him and the merc, the Xenos arm outstretched his hand opening up and then tightly closing around the humans neck, the Xeno didn't stop as he plowed forward, sending both of them toppling over, Ghost's grip still deathly tight, fell right on top of the human, his face just inches from the man's own. Silver teeth coated with dripping saliva opened up in a vicious snarl. His hand closing tighter and tighter around the man's neck. The merc gasping for air his face turning ing red, desperately trying to fight the black-clad alien off of him.

For Ghost everything then went black.

Shadow had plowed right through the barricade with no difficulty, it had been flimsily at best, but given what they had to work with and the time, no doubt it was the best the humans could come up with. Immediately Shadow found himself under heavy fire, his size, thick hide, and tougher outer skeletal makeup gave him more resistance to the human's weapon's fire. Ghost and Alese had broken away and began their attack, he used the now burning makeshift shield for both defense and now as a weapon, swinging it wildly. He felt contact and then a loud thud against what he thought was the bulkhead wall. There was no time to check, they needed to press their attack and kill every merc now.

Attack.

Attack.

Attack.

The center group of mercs that he found himself in the middle of scattered, their weapons firing at a rapid pace, he heard words coming from them, but paid no attention to what they were saying, no time to listen, pressing forward he continued to swing his shield making contact again and again, the mattresses that were on fire burned even hotter, bigger and brighter now. He didn't know if the blows were killing blows or merely wounding them. In the end, it would not matter, in the end, they would all die.

Finally buckling from the heat and repeated abuse, the frames ripped apart and Shadow's makeshift shield fell apart scattering across the intersection in mid swing, too focused to care or worry, the massive Xenomorph let loose with his natural weapons, letting another ear-piercing battle cry his tail swung wildly, not caring how he killed the enemy only that the enemy needed to die and now.

Grabbing one of the nearby mercs by his armor, Shadow swung as hard as he could sending the human warrior flying into the nearby metal wall, a sickening thud and the merchs now limp body fell to the ground unmoving.

Stun bolts repeatedly pelted Shadow's body which seemingly seemed to have no effect. In his mind, he could tell that both Ghost and Alese were having trouble, the mercs were coordinating their fire, effectively using it, his hive mates while having scored several kills, were starting to succumb to the effects of the overcharged stun beams.

It had been a risk, one they had all agreed on, he had hoped that his little surprise would have bought them more time, and maybe it had, but only seconds. These humans were not the weak and poorly trained guards at the station, these humans were well trained, experienced and were able to hold their fear in check. In truth he did hold some admiration for them, they had held their ground and fought back with smarts and even a great ferocity. It was a pity they weren't on the same side of the fence as the humans would say.

Jumping down on all fours he spun around his tail following in a deadly arc whipping around nearly cleaving another human almost in two this time. Shooting forward he slammed into another merc his tongue jetting out perforating the mercs forehead, the taste of meat, bone, and blood filled his mouth.

Explosions of light and deafening thunderclaps surrounded him, confused for several seconds he stumbled into the metal wall as the weapons fire hit him over and over and over again. Ghost was out, he could tell, there was no response from him, and Alese while still awake and aware, barely, her body no longer obeyed her commands. Fury and frustration were starting to take hold, he was also scared, not so much for himself, but for his human, for Shawn, he had sworn that he would protect him and now it looked like that was a promise that he would break. Even worse if and when the mercs found him, his fate would be sealed, it would only be a question of how they would kill him and if they didn't than Mason surely would, only it would be slow and cruel death, one which he suspected they would all be forced to watch as punishment.

Pushing out and away from the wall, even though the smoke that the grenades had produced, he spotted another target close by, charging in he grabbed the human's head and with a quick twist ended his or her life, he didn't know which and did not care. He found his body starting to lose feeling, the stun bolts were finally having their desired effect.

' _RUN!'_ Aleses's voice, weak and scared, rang in his head. _'Get Shawn and run, hide, you can't take the remaining group on by yourself...RUN!'_

Shadow didn't know how many there were left, more than he could take on by himself. They still had time before dropping out of FTL, several days in fact from what he had gathered from Shawn's mind. He could pick them off one or two at a time, though Ghost and Alese would be prisoners, hostages and that was something they could use against him.

 _'GO...NOW!'_ Alese ordered, her last thoughts before she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Come on you motherfucker!" Shadow heard one of the mercenaries scream at him, looking at where the voice came from, several meters away stood what he thought he recognized as being the mercs leader, he and several other men that were grouped together opened fire. The man didn't reek of fear, or at least not much, anger, fury, rage, those he picked up on, but fear, not so much. The mercs leader raised his rifle, the now spent power pack fell to the floor and in just a slip second he had popped another one back in and continued to fire.

Taking a step forward, Shadow for a fraction of a second thought about pouncing on the small group in front of him and ripping them all apart. Alese's words came back, she was right he needed to run, to find Shawn and hide him in a safe space, he could fight them later. Turning to run he took a step forward and found himself stumbling forward, his body was feeling numb and heavy now. Catching himself to straighten up and regain his senses, he heard loud popping sounds behind him and suddenly found himself being weighted down as something heavy enveloped him. Whirling around he found himself getting tangled up in several heavy steel cable nets.

In seconds he was being barraged by stun bolts from all directions as the remaining mercs now looking for some payback, gladly opened fire and did not stop as they all advanced toward him, more popping sounds mixed in with the crackling of the energy blasts and more of the heavy duty steel cable nets wrapped around his body.

The whole world seemed to ebb in and out as the large Xenomorph staggered sideways and collapsed to the cold metal plating, his strength now completely gone, he couldn't feel his body, just a cold numbness taking over. He looked at the human warriors with a mix of rage, anger, and respect. It was right there that his heart sunk and he let out a pitiful hissing wail, their fate was now sealed, all the trouble they had gone through to be free, all the lives they had ended and now for what. The mercenaries would return them back to Mason where he had no doubt they would be subjected to the man's torture now more than ever. He didn't even want to know what would happen to Ghost once they were returned, Mason had always been hardest on Ghost, now...now he had no doubt that Mason would do everything to break Ghost's spirit and body simply out of spite. Ghost was on his way to healing and now that would be completely destroyed.

And what was worse was that their actions of bringing Shawn on board had now condemned him to certain death, and that was if he was lucky. If not, then he would be at the mercy of Mason, they would want to know all that Shawn had seen and experienced and would go to any and all lengths to get that info from him. And when they did finally break him and found out everything, as hard as their existence had been before, it would become a nightmare without end.

Focusing everything he could, he sent out what might be his last mental message to the human, to his human, even asleep he might hear it. ' _I'm sorry Shawn, I'm so sorry, I failed you, please hide, hide and escape, I...'_

Footsteps came closer and closer, he could see half a dozen of the human warriors walk right up to him, the last thing he saw and felt was more of the vicious energy blasts and than nothing as darkness took its cold grip on him.


	12. Desperate Measures

CHAPTER 11: Desperate Measures

xxxxx

In the dark sleep room deep within the bowels of the Saratoga, Shawn's eyes slowly fluttered open, his head swam with images of battle, fire, blue lighting, the sounds of men and women screaming and his Xenos hissing and screaming in return as they clashed in battle, ebony claws, sharp and deadly, ripping into armor and flesh, the taste of salty blood filled his mouth, even though there was none there, and the painful spasms of muscles contracting and the agonizing jolting of being electrocuted and then a cold numbness taking over, then nothing.

He felt sore all over, this was not the normal soreness from sleeping too long or even from the gunshot wound he had received a short time ago. No, this felt as if someone had tied him down and beat him all over again and again and then pumped a few thousand volts of raw electricity right through his body and did not stop.

There was something else, an isolation that now crept deep into his mind, suddenly he felt closed off and alone. He couldn't sense Shadow, Ghost or Alese anymore, the link that had been formed was there, but he just could not hear or even feel them anymore. Ever since the forming of the link there had always been a presence that he could feel deep in the back of his mind. It was stronger the closer they were, but even far away he could always feel a connection even if it was faint.

And now there was nothing.

Shawn's breathing quickly became shallow and rapid as a deep seeded panic started to take its grip on him. The once warm and friendly sleeping room even while it was always dark had always been inviting and cozy. Now it seemed to be void of any warmth as if some oppressive force had taken control and was destroying everything that had been created in this tiny room of theirs.

The darkness almost seemed too close in on him and an invisible weight that he could not feel but was there was pressing down on him trying to push the air right out of his lungs and choke him. He let out a pitiful cry to his Xenos, calling each one of their names as if by some miracle they would appear and drive this oppressive specter away.

But as before...nothing.

He so badly wanted for them to be there with him, to know they were all right, alive and intact, to know if that fight had been won. It was right then that cold fear ripped into his mind and soul without mercy, what if they were all dead, the dream that he had, the images of fire, screaming, and the blue bolts of lightning. He could have sworn that just for a second he heard Shadow calling out to him trying to tell him something, but the words were distorted and muddled and he could not make anything out.

Closing his eyes Shawn brought his good arm up, clinching his fist into a ball and then relaxing it, he repeated the exercise over and over again, trying to get his panic attack under control. Forcing himself to relax he took in long measured breaths and slowly exhaled over and over, each time mentally counting down from ten to one. Slowly the panic in his mind subsided, not that he felt any better, the mental void was still there and the whole room now felt cold and lifeless.

Alive or dead, he needed to know. And that wasn't going to happen just lying on the floor.

Carefully he rolled over slowly to his left side and pushed himself up into a sitting position, damn near everything hurt now, it hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, it hurt to think, everything just simply hurt. He didn't even know how long he had been sleeping, minutes, hours possible days even. Reaching up he felt the resin bandage that Shadow had made for him, it was still wet and had not fully dried or set yet. Judging on that alone, he figured he had been out for only a little while, possibly an hour maybe two at the most.

Leading forward a little, he reached down to the floor and slowly tried to push himself up, his legs now wobbly were less than cooperative as he stumbled slightly forward, catching himself before he fell down he slowly stood up. Taking a few deep breaths he tried to focus his mind and clear his head, in the dark he was almost totally disoriented and was having a hard time getting his bearings, taking small careful steps he reached out and found the resin covered wall, going around the perimeter of the room he found the door leading out of the room as it slid open for him.

Using the wall for support he gradually made his way into the hallway. Shawn let out a few quiet curses, now wishing he had a flashlight or even a lighter, either would be helpful right about now. The only source of light in the hallway were the random small lights that were on the odd panel here and there from both the wall and ceiling. It didn't help as far as being able to see but it at least could act as a trail of some sort.

Closing his eyes he tried to form a mental map of the area in his mind, he had been in this area so much that he should have been able to easily navigate it, or at least in theory. Taking a step and using the wall as support and as a guide, Shawn then took another and then another, one foot in front of the other, keep going, that was all that mattered.

To hell how he felt, or what how badly he was injured, his Xenos needed him if they were still alive and he would do whatever was in his power to save them, even if it meant crossing certain lines that he would never have even thought about crossing before. The hell with personal morals in this case and while this ship was not his home, it had been a refuge and within that refuge, he had met some of the most extraordinary beings ever, something that he could never have ever imagined, and in doing so he had found an extended family.

His mind was still in a haze and the dream he had kept repeating itself over and over. Deep down he knew that it hadn't been a dream, in his gut he knew exactly what it was, it was fragments of memory from the battle that had happened. He recognized which scream and hiss belonged to which Xeno. The problem was that it was a complete jumble of images, sounds, scents and feelings. As if somehow he had gotten a scrambled signal from all three of them at the same time and his mind either didn't know how or simply couldn't process it all.

Whatever his mind was trying to show him, it did not matter, he needed to know whether they were alive or not, he just didn't know what to do, he had no plan, no weapons and on top of that he felt that he was half dead. He did have a couple of things in his favor, his stubborn tenacity, and a growing understanding of the ship's systems, something that could cause a lot of grief for some very unwelcomed people that were currently on board.

xxxxx

Sixteen.

That was all that was now left of the original sixty mercenaries that had boarded the Saratoga, the rest had been cut down by only three Xenomorphs, and if there had been a fourth one on board then Commander Ortiz had no illusions that they would all be dead. In all of his years of being a merc, he had never encountered a creature that had proven to be as cunning, intelligent, and deadly as the Xenomorphs had been, well correct that, there was one other creature that was just as deadly, cunning and intelligent, and that was his own species...humans.

Ortiz and two other of his men were dragging the massive netted Xenomorph through the dark hallway. The other two Xenomorphs who were slightly smaller and lighter thankfully only needed two men to drag them back to the hangar bay. There had been no movement or sounds from the three aliens since the battle, a battle that had been desperate for both sides. Ortiz knew a last ditch move when he saw it and the Xenos had been desperate. He didn't know just how intelligent they really were but from what he had seen since boarding the Saratoga he knew they were not the dumb animals that Doctor Mason had made them out to be.

Ortiz didn't know if the Xenos could understand or even rationalize the way humans did, or if they could understand human speech. If they had found some means to communicate, it would explain how they were able to make it this far out from Eclipse base. And even how they might have gotten someone to help them willingly or at least he assumed that the person that had been in CIC had been helping them freely.

That was something that would need to be addressed when they found whoever it was that was on board. Not something he was looking forward too, despite his life as a merc, interrogating was something that he did not enjoy, engaging in a firefight, that was one thing, usually the enemy was armed and could fight back, but to interrogate and possibly even torture someone for intel who was unarmed and usually restrained, while he understood it was a necessity, it always left a foul taste in his mouth. Even if he and his men were simply getting paid to fight for something they had no personal stake or believed in, he did try to have something of a moral compass when dealing with prisoners and not make their life a living hell any more than it already might have been.

He hoped it would not come down to such unpleasant measures to gain what might be necessary information.

"Jeeze these fuckers are heavy as all hell." One of his men mumbled to himself as they continued to drag the subdued and netted Xenos down the dark hallway breaking Ortiz out of his train of thought.

"Just a little ways left to go and that's it, just make it down a few more levels and we'll be in the hanger bay," Ortiz replied.

Looked over at one of the men that was walking slightly behind him, Ortiz saw that he was rubbing his neck and throat, "How are you holding up Lynch?"

The young private looked weakly over at Ortiz and made a waving slashing motion across his throat several times, "I'll live...sir," he croaked, even in the darkened hallway only lit up by the shoulder lamps, red marks around his neck were easy to see from where just a short time ago he had one of the Xenos laying on top of him, its hands around his neck trying to choke the life out of him.

Ortiz glanced back at the men and women who were left, the ones that weren't dragging the Xenos were helping with the wounded that needed help walking or carrying them. A few of the wounded would need immediate medical treatment, thankfully it was common practice to have medical and biobeds along with a couple of medical androids on each dropship. Even if it was a moderate financial cost to the merc groups as a whole, it had saved more lives than he could count, and whatever credits the mercenary group had to shell out was well worth it as far as he concerned.

"Once we get these guys in the containment units we'll get everyone patched up, "Ortiz assured his teammates "after that we wait for the Vesuvius to catch up and finish this mission."

"I for one will be glad to get the hell off of this ship," Lieutenant Shafer spoke up, who was supporting an injured Sergeant Davis whose arm was severely broken in several areas and was limping badly, "this place has had a bad vibe from the start. And it's not just these aliens either sir, it's this whole ship, this boat just feels wrong somehow."

"Ain't that the truth," agreed Ortiz, looking back down at the Xeno that was in the net, and while none of the aliens had moved or made a sound since the battle, but just for a second, he thought that he saw its head moved slightly and not from being dragged. No noise came from it, but for all he knew the damn things could be fully awake already and just faking being unconscious.

There were no eyes that he could see on it but for all he knew they could be hidden away underneath the dome, but hell if he or anyone else was going to get close enough to take look. His free hand went to the handle on the stun rifle his finger resting on the trigger, just in case. The others of his team took notice and followed his example without a single word. The rest of the trip was done in stark silence, each one waiting for one of the Xenos to wake up and start thrashing around trying to get out, something that never happened.

It took almost forty-five more minutes to take the Xeno's down the elevator one at a time as well as getting the wounded on in a separate trip before they were able to make it back to the massive hangar bay. Getting to the dropship, Ortiz and several of the others that were close by, saw what they were all fearing, the guards that had been stationed at the dropships were dead, by the looks of things, they had all be taken completely by surprise.

"Well shit." Ortiz cursed silently to himself, he had hoped that by some small chance the dropship crew might still be alive, but if the guards were dead than he was certain that the pilots were also gone. Letting go of the net he headed for the nearest dropship, giving a silent command to two of his team members to go to the other two dropships, all three quickly headed on board.

It was less than a minute later when all three came down the ramps, the look in each of their faces told the others what they all suspected. The pilots and co-pilots for the three dropships were dead and there was no way they were getting off the ship as it currently stood.

"Well, that's that. We're stuck until we can drop out of FTL and have the Vesuvius catch up and send over another ship." Ortiz announced.

"Commander, what's the plan? I mean besides getting these things in the containment pods. Lieutenant Shafer asked, "What are we going to do now, we've lost so damn many."

"We finish our mission is what we do, we owe it to our dead, and I do not want their deaths to have been in vain. Now once we get the aliens into containment and secured, we heal our wounded, gather our dead, head back up to CIC and finish unlocking the ship, bring this big bitch out of FTL, contact our ship, and finally find whoever was helping the Xenos. Now as to that, I want this person brought back alive and intact, we have no idea if he or she was under the Xeno's influence or if they were acting on their own accord. However, regardless, either way, there are some answers I need, so I do not want anyone to take their anger and frustration out on this person, do I make myself understood, the last thing we need is to give someone else a reason to fight us."

"Yes, sir!" Most of the mercs that could answer back did in unison.

"Lieutenant Shafer help get the wounded to the biobeds and have the medic androids look them over. The rest that are capable help me get these Xenos into the containment pods." Ortiz ordered, walking back over to the large Xeno that he had been helping drag," we'll start with this one."

Ortiz and four other of this men grabbed part of the steel netting and were starting to drag the massive Xeno toward one of the dropships. It right there that a low menacing hiss escaped the Xeno's lungs, the creature didn't move but they could all tell it was glaring right at them.

"Oh fuck, this son of a bitch is awake!" One of the men jumped back letting go of the cable netting. "What the hell are we going to do now sir?"

Ortiz looked over at the private that had jumped back at hearing the alien's hiss, not that he could blame him, he himself had loosened his grip slightly, but the alien was still remaining passive and not moving. "We put him in containment, nets and all."

The private nodded, walking back he grabbed a chunk of netting and started to help pull the Xeno toward the dropship. Another menacing hiss came from the alien.

The darkness in the hanger bay began to creep away as the primary lights slowly started to come to life and began to glow revealing the occupants within the colossal room. The mercs began to look around at first in confusion then the start realization of what might have just happened hit Ortiz leaving him with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"What the hell?" Lieutenant Shafter asked looking around as he was trying to help get one of the injured mercs to her feet.

A whirling sound followed by several loud heavy clicks echoed from the doors inside the hanger bay, a bright red light lit up right above the door that they had come through just a few minutes ago indicating it was now locked and sealed. A loud sucking sound filled the room and the quick movement of air could be felt.

 **"DECOMPRESSION COMMENCING."** The monotone computer voice announced loudly over the intercom.

Ortiz let go of the netting and waved his hand making a signal for his men to get to the nearest dropships for safety, only he and the others found the air was now far too thin now and most were stumbling only a few steps before collapsing to the cold metal deck gasping for air that was far too thin.

" **DECOMPRESSION TERMINATED, PLEASE STAND BY."** The same monotone computer voice announced, this time it seemed far away and was hard to hear.

Ortiz and his mercs were gasping for air, air that while was still there, was now very thin, all his troops were on the ground and having a hard time moving.

" _Good morning gentleman, I assume that I have your full and undivided attention now."_ A very tired and weak sounding voice announced in over the intercom. _"I've removed sixty percent of the atmosphere in the room you are in, not enough to kill you outright but it will leave you incapacitated, I suggest you do not move at all, oh and I wound advise against trying to make a run to the dropships, you will not make it."_

Ortiz looked around his vision was starting to get spotty and his lungs were beginning to burn some. His men were in the same shape, the wounded even worse.

" _Now here is the way this is going to play out, you are going to do exactly as I ask of you, and make no mistakes this is not a suggestion or even a request, you have two choices as of right now, either do as I advise you to do or I will vent the rest of the air right into space, at fifteen seconds you will pass out at ninety seconds you will be dead, simple as that. If you still can understand me, please raise your right hand."_

Shaking his head, he tried to focus his mind, Ortiz had been blindsided...again, first by the Xenos, and now by this. He was really hating this ship. The remaining men and women were gasping for air and what was worse they were looking to him to fix this situation, the problem was he wasn't sure if he could, at least not without surrendering to whoever had their lives now hanging in the balance. Seconds seemed like minutes, he did not want the men and women who had died on this mission for their deaths to be in vain, and now it seemed like it would be. However, if he didn't do something, they would all die.

Slowly and shaky he raised his right-hand signaling he understood.

 _"Good."_ There was a rush of air and then it stopped, breathing became easier but only by just a little. " _I've raised the atmosphere by ten percent, which will help your breathing some."_

There was a slight pause as the mercs continued to gasp for air, only now slightly less. Whoever it was, obviously didn't want to kill them, if he had then he could have just vented all the air out of the room and they would have died very quickly.

" _Now, first things first, so that there is no misunderstanding between us, I want you and your team the fuck off this ship, and as for the Xenomorphs, they stay, simple as that they are not going back to that station. Now that being said. Raise your right hand if you understand."_ The voice ordered in a sharp tone .

Nodding, Ortiz raised his right hand, this whole mission, provided he and the others lived though it would be one for the record books, and not in any good or positive way either. He felt humiliated, not just for himself but for this troops. The people that looked to him for leadership and guidance on their missions, and now here he was on his hands and knees damn near submitting himself to whoever was on the intercom. But if it meant saving the few remaining men and women of his group then so be it, he would do whatever it took to save them and get them back home to the Vesuvius. A small part of him wanted to tell this little prick that was on the other end of that mic to go fuck himself and that there would be no negotiations whatsoever. However he was in no position to say anything close to that and still remain alive.

There was a slight pause before the intercom piped up again, " _Alright."_ The sound of air blowing back in filled the massive chamber, " _We are going, you and I, to have a nice chat, your troops will stay down for the next few minutes until we finish our conversation, and let me be clear, I've repressured the hanger as a sign of good will, not of trust, I have no desire to see people gasping for air, but let me be as clear as I possibly can, if you or anyone in your group does anything to try and escape, board the dropships or harm the Xenos I will fucking vent the air right out of the hangar bay and watch you all die. Am I clear on all points?"_

"Crystal clear." Ortiz answered after a few moments of silence, standing back up, "So what did you want to chat about? " He asked.

" _First thing, when you leave this vessel, I want you to tell your captain and then have him or her relay a message from me to whoever is in charge, leave us alone, stop looking for us, don't come after us, just leave us in peace, that's all we want, nothing more."_

"Do you know anything about the organization that this ship and those aliens belong to? Even if I convince my Captain to stop looking for you, they will send others, and if they fail others after them will be sent and so on, the organization will not stop looking for you until both this ship and those aliens are back in their hands or destroyed."

" _The Xenomorphs belong to no one save themselves, as for this ship, well they can consider it a loss on their bank books for all I care. I'm learning more and more each day, and what I'm learning sickens me. This organization is no better than the mega corps, using and discarding who and whatever it deems necessary just to fill their pockets, advance their agendas, or in some cases gain power over others. If the other races found out about where this ship has been and what its Captain, officers, and crew have done, let me just say this, while I doubt a war would be started, the government of earth would be asked some very difficult questions from some very pissed off high ranking and powerful aliens, aliens that have a much higher level of technology than we do and who have some much larger fleets. Now I hope that those that are in charge of this organization will consider my words, and let me make it a point to say, this is not a threat, I will broadcast everything I can to the empires, federations, and alliances that this organization has violated. But in the here and now that is not your problem."_

"Very well, you said first thing, what is the second thing?" Ortiz asked, just wondering what the hell kind of information was on this ship or was the guy he was talking to just bluffing, the way he sounded and his own gut feeling told him it was in no way a bluff.

" _I was in CIC when you and your team entered, I overhead you mention something about a homing beacon, where is it?"_

Ortiz let out a sigh, this was not getting any easier, the guy that he was talking to, the one that had their lives in his hands, was the same one that the rookie had shot, great, what else could happen. Though something didn't pan out and wasn't right as he thought back on what had happened in CIC, the assault rifles had been loaded with heavy armor piercing rounds, rounds like that would severally injure anyone even if it was a hit in a none vital area, and that guy had been shot in the shoulder area, twice, and only about a couple of hours ago if even that, with that kind of wound he should have been down and out for days at least. Not up in such a short amount of time, he wondered if maybe the aliens had done something to help him heal. He could figure and think on that later on, right now he needed to focus on the situation at hand. "That I don't know, all I know is that the beacon is powerful and advanced enough to transmit a signal that the station could pick up, even as far out as you were they were receiving a signal from this ship clearly, and that was before you jumped into FTL. I don't know any more than that, none of us do. Our mission was to capture both this ship and the Xenomorphs that was it, plain and simple."

" _And things went south in a bad way. I'm guessing you weren't told the true extent to what the Xenomorphs could do, were you?"_

Ortiz let out a sneer, "NO! We were not. Fucking Mason left out a few things, namely just how resilient the Xenos were to stun weapons, not to mention just how fucking smart and cunning they are."

" _Well then we have something in common, our disdain for Doctor Mason, I've seen what he has done to the Xenos and it's something I will never forget or forgive, which is why I will never let them be taken back to that base, for them, simply put, it is literally hell in every sense of the word. Now I think that we understand that we have those we both want to protect, you have your troops and I have the Xenos, so maybe for the next little bit we can ALL of us get along until we can get you off this ship."_

"And just how the hell do we do that, all our pilots are all dead thanks to those Xenos, and none of us can fly a dropship, so as of right now we're pretty much fucking stuck on this damn boat," Ortiz said, looking over at his squad, who were all still unmoving and passive.

There was a slight pause from the coms, then it piped up again, " _Can any of you fly a shuttle?"_

"Yes, I can and so can several of my men." Answered Ortiz after several seconds.

" _Good, I'm going to remote prep a shuttle for you and the rest of your troops, it'll hold up to twenty; it's designed for mid to long range runs. I'll drop out of FTL long enough for you to fly out, once that happens we part ways."_

"So you're just going to leave us in the middle of nowhere? Son, if that's your plan then you might as well just vent us all right into space right now because that would be a much quicker and more merciful death than leaving us all to either starve or die of thirst."

" _What about the ship you came from, I'm assuming that it's following us since the beacon on this ship is still transmitting."_

"Knowing my Captain, he's probably right on your ass and not more than an hour or two behind, if that, but since he's more than likely in FLT transit the normal short range coms that most shuttles have won't work and they would just go right past us and never pick us up on their sensors, especially since the shuttles on the Saratoga are all stealth vessels."

There was another long silence, Ortiz guessed that maybe the person he was talking to didn't know that not only the shuttles but also the dropships that were housed in the Saratoga's hanger bays were all equipped with the same kind of stealth systems as the Saratoga itself. And that was new info he was probably processing. Commander Ortiz did want off this ship along with the remaining troops, there was no doubt about that, but he had no desire to be stranded in space and watch the remaining men and women under his command die a slow lingering death, especially if the Vesuvius missed them and wasn't able to pick them up.

However he did sense a bit of wiggle room, while he suspected that he would not get out of the hanger, maybe he could negotiate some if he played things right, give a little, take a little. Whoever it was he was talking to didn't seem to want to do any harm to them as long as none of them pushed it. "Since most shuttles don't come with long range hi-powered transmitters, which is what we'll need to contact my ship regardless of whether if it's in FTL transit or not, we'll have to use the transmitters that are on board our dropships."

" _Most transponders like that are hardwired directly into the ship, I doubt you can remove it and install it on the shuttle in a short period of time."_

"Those no, but we do have emergency hi-powered long range transponders that would work almost as well. They are independent units we keep on board in case of emergencies. We would just need to transfer one of the units onto the shuttle with extra power cells, we would also need supplies for an extended period of time, just in case, those we have on the dropships as well."

" _The shuttles have emergency supplies on board but bring over what you feel is necessary, I have been stranded in space and it is something I would not wish on anyone. And while I maybe a hypocritical piece of shit in this case for in sending you out in a shuttle like this. I'm sure you can understand my reasoning, besides that cruiser of yours is probably right behind us as you said so I'm sure you'll be rescued shortly after you leave."_

"There is something else, we have wounded that need medical treatment, there are biobeds on board with medical androids, we need to have them looked at and treated as soon as possible, I have one possibly two men that may have concussions, another one that has a broken arm and another that may have neck injuries from one of your Xenos trying to choke him to death. Others, while not life threatening, do have cuts and bruises that need to be tended to.

" _I don't have any problems with you treating your wounded, as long as that is all you do, first, however, there is something you are going to do and I doubt you are going to like it, in fact I know that none of you are going to like it."_

Ortiz had a sinking feeling swell up in the pit of his stomach, "And what would that be?" He asked.

" _You are going to release the Xenomorphs and I mean right now."_

"OH, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING US!" Lieutenant Shafer, blurted out, "THIS IS BULLSHIT, THOSE THINGS SLAUGHTER MOST OF US AND YOU WANT US TO JUST RELEASE THEM, FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!"

"LIEUTENANT BE QUIET," Ortiz screamed while he didn't appreciate the Lieutenant's sudden outburst he did feel it was justified. "He's right, however, that is bullshit, those aliens killed three-quarters of my team and you just want us to let them loose, they will kill us."

 _"First off, you were not invited on board this ship, nor was your presences welcomed, secondly if someone comes into your home and tries to do harm or take you away, you fight back, it's as simple as that, which is what they did. Now they will not harm or kill you if you are unarmed and passive, and give them no reason to be aggressive."_

"Oh and now we have to give up our weapons and believe you that they won't just kill us on the spot, shit just space us right fucking now and be done with it." Lieutenant Shafer sneered.

Ortiz shot his Lieutenant another hard look telling him to quiet down. "My Lieutenant does make a valid point, what guarantee do we have that those things won't just tear us to pieces as soon as they are released. Without our weapons, we won't have a chance to defended ourselves if even one of them decided to attack as soon as they are free. Not to insult you but have you lost all common sense as far as what you are asking?"

 _"Let me reiterate the fucking facts to you and your men, you are in a hanger which is sealed off, I have my finger on the button which will vent all the air out into space, you and your men will live for about a minute and a half, the Xeno's can survive in hard vacuum, humans, however, cannot. Now I have never killed anyone, ever, and that being said I do not want to start now by taking the lives of sixteen men and women, however, these last few weeks have been a whole series of unforgettable firsts for me, please do not make this be another first for me, I think that we can all agree that there has been more than enough bloodshed for one day. Now as to guarantees, there are none, however the Xenomorphs did not want this conflict and if they could have avoided it they would have, however, they do listen to me and if I say they will not attack you while you are unarmed, then they will not attack, unless you or one of your men deliberately provoke them."_

Putting his hand up to his head, his index finger and thumb made their way to his temples, shaking his head, Ortiz could not come close to even believing that he was actually considering to ordering his troops to do what the guy on the intercom was telling them to do. It would be complete suicide to free those things, problem was, that if he did not do it, there was the possibility they might all be sucking vacuum. "You're the one in charge it looks like, so I guess we play it your way."

" _No sir, I am not the one in charge, I'm just some poor sod that's way in over his head and trying to protect the ones he cares about and is willing to do whatever is necessary to do so."_ The voice over the intercom stated bluntly.

Ortiz caught that slight slip along with what sounded like severe fatigue kicking in, "So you care about the Xenos that much huh, I'm guessing they made some kind of impression on you since you're willing to go this far to protect them."

" _You could say that, and let's just leave it there."_

Turning to his men, Ortiz reached around and took his stun rifle into his hands, looking at it for a few seconds, he flung it to the side, "You heard him, start disarming, rifles, pistols, grenades, everything."

"Sir..." Shafer was about to protest when he was cut off.

"Just do it, Lieutenant, this guy really has got us by our balls and I don't think that he is afraid to squeeze," Ortiz said removing his weapons and placed them on the deck out of the way, the others reluctantly following his lead.

"Yes, sir." Grumbled Shaffer nodding and began to disarm himself as well.

Soon a small pile of weapons was built up in a corner, the weapons from the wounded had been removed as well and placed in the out of the way pile. Signaling a couple of his men to walk with him, Ortiz heading over to one of the smaller netted Xeno. All of them were expecting it to hiss and start thrashing around, but it never moved an inch. Possibly it was either still unconscious or maybe even dead, for his sake and the sake of his team he hoped that it was still alive.

Reaching down, they slowly started to untangle the Xeno, it took a few minutes; everyone was silent and tense just waiting for a deadly clawed hand to shoot out and grab one of them, it however never did. Undoing the netting and laying it out, the Xeno now free, slowly it rolled over and gradually stood up, it turned around and looked down at the nearby mercs who were only a few feet away.

" _Now, we are ALL of us, going to play nice and get along, no fighting, no killing and please no freaking out. As long as none of you do anything to try and provoke them they will not harm anyone."_

Ortiz and the other mercs could tell that he wasn't just talking to them, he was also talking to the Xenos as well, while the fighting might be over and what was in place could be called a tentative truce at best, none of them liked the idea of being without their weapons, especially this close to something that just a short time ago was killing them all with little effort. "I'm going to hold you to that mister if they decide to kill any of us without a reason, it's on your fucking head, all of it and that's something you'll have to live with for the rest of your life, I just hope you ready for that," Ortiz stated sharply.

Looking over the Xenomorph, seeing it in the light did not by any means make them any less frightening, just a different type of frightening. Massive amounts of scars ran across its dome and body, the hands were turned inward palms facing its body, and while the lips were not parting back, small trickles of drool did hang off its mouth and chin. It continued to look back at them, its massive head turning back and forth, Ortiz could see a vague human like skull underneath the semitransparent dome, he didn't know where these creatures came from and he really had no desire to find out.

" _Now the other ones, if you would please."_

The men walked over to the other smaller Xeno and proceeded to help untangle and unwrap the netting, a few minutes later the other one was up and free, and like the other one, it too slowly stood up and looked at the mercs. Two for two, neither one of the aliens were going in for the kill or made any attempts to scare, frighten or threaten them, not that they really needed to do anything to have that effect, they were scary enough on their own without doing anything

Walking over to the last Xeno, Ortiz and his men hesitated, it wasn't hissing at them and didn't move, but they could all tell it was looking right at them. Reaching out the commander started to untangle the netting, the men joined in and minutes later the large Xeno was free and stood up. It was different than the other, it had a thick and moderately spread out crest instead of the smooth domed head that the other two had. It was also bigger and had a large barrel-chested look to it, this one was built for battle and fighting.

Thankfully like the other two it didn't move but only looked at them, its gaze panning back and forth. So far so good.

"Alright, now that we have freed your friends, now what?" Ortiz asked.

" _Go and tend to your wounded, however only two of your mercs may go with the wounded to assist them inside the dropship, the rest will stay out here, and one of the Xenomorphs will accompany them while inside at all times, I'm sure you can understand I don't want anyone getting any ideas about trying to be a hero and getting everyone here killed. Once your troops are patched up you can get the transmitter and the extra supplies for the shuttle, after that we part ways. Everyone gets along and no one else has to die."_

"No one is going to play hero and do anything stupid, if they do I'll bust their asses myself," Commander Ortiz looked at the remaining mercs, "do I make myself clear?"

There were nodding and a series of "Yes sirs," that came from the remaining mercs, letting their Commander that they all fully understood.

"Lieutenant Shafer, Corporal Diaz you two will help with the wounded and Lieutenant once the wounded are being treated, bring me a couple of medical kits so we can start treating injuries out here.

"Yes, sir." Lieutenant Shafer answered back, saluting the Commander. "Come on Corporal let's get everyone patched up."

Helping the two mercs that had concussions, the Lieutenant and Corporal headed into the closest dropship with the other two injured men following close behind. The Xeno with the deeply scared dome followed close behind the six humans, it's gaze never breaking away from them, seeing as to which Xeno was following them Private Lynch's pace quickened up quite a bit.

"Alright concussions get first priority on the Biobeds, Corporal go and activate the medical androids and have them tend to Sergeant Davis and Private Lynch." Lieutenant Shafer ordered, helping the mercs into the Bio and medical bed. Pushing a series of buttons on a side panel a clear plexiglass dome cover came down covering the injured merc, a series of onboard medical diagnostics and sensors came to life and began to scan the injured human.

Corporal Diaz did the same thing for the other injured merc he was helping, as the bio and medical bed became active and began its scan of the other injured merc, Corporal Diaz went over to where a pair of what looked like vertical clear storage tubes that contained the pair of medical androids were at close by. Activating the panel the two androids came to life, the doors opened up and the two androids stepped out.

"Unit active and awaiting orders." Both of the androids said almost in unison in a flat unemotional tone, while not the monotone of some of the basic maintenance androids, these were only a few steps above that.

Looking at the unit on his right, Diaz began to issue commands to the androids, "Unit one, Lynch, Private, neck trauma, please assist. Unit two, Davis, Sergeant, multiple breaks in the right arm, also severe limp in left leg, please assist."

"Understood and confirmed." Both units replied back, almost _simultaneously both of the androids turned and walked to the injured mercs who had sat down at the foot of the biobeds._

 _Going over to a cabinet that held the ship's basic medical supplies Diaz grabbed several of the medical packs for Commander Ortiz, turning around he looked over at Private Lynch who kept glancing back and forth, mostly at the Xeno who thankfully was keeping a somewhat respectful distance from them. The alien's domed head kept panning back and forth as it was looking over and seemed to be analyzing what was going on. Diaz had seen and met other space-faring aliens, most from the federations and empires, but none of them had looked as terrifying as the Xenos did._

 _Diaz had been right next to Ortiz when the Xenomorphs had broken through the barricade and started to attack, the black skeletal frames, the organic tubes that ran all over their body that massive domes head the wicked inner toothed tongue and deadly blade on the end of their tails. In the dark with only shoulder lights, they had looked like demons right from the depths of hell itself, the light did little to improve that he thought to himself. He had thought that he and everyone else was going to die in that last fight, and while he was glad to be alive, he kept thinking back to just how damn close they had come to losing that fight. One little slip up could have turned the battle in the alien's favor. And now, here, one of them was just meters away, observing everything that was going on. This mission or what was left of it was just messed up._

 _"I'll be back in a few minutes Sir, I'm going to hand these off to the Commander so he can get the others patched up," Diaz said walking out of the Dropship._

 _"Take your time, we're not going anywhere at the moment,"_ Shafer _replied, looking over the information that was on the medical panel of the biobed._

The Xenomorph, now known as Ghost by his hive mates and Shawn who had given him the name, looked and carefully observed what the mercenaries were doing, he could smell and sense their fear, all of them were afraid, one in particular that kept looking back at him, he recognized the human, as it was this human that he had fallen on top of and had his hands clamped around his neck. Part of him wanted to do something to try and rectify the situation but at this point, he was concerned that anything he did or try would be seen as a hostile act, other than just simply keeping an eye on them.

He was glad that the fighting was over, or at least for now and that these humans would be gone in a short time. Too many had died and for what, their own freedom, he still wondered if the price was worth it, it was right then that the memories of eclipse station and what Mason had done to them all came back into focus. If anyone should be held accountable for what had just happened it was that monster of a human and those like him. The sad fact was that more would die before they would be safe and they still had to figure out how to free their hive mates back on the station. More would die, possibly even his hive already had been killed during their escape, just how many more would follow he did not know.

Glancing over, he spotted an all too familiar object nested up against the far side bulkhead wall, a containment container, while it much smaller than the ones used at the station, it was still large enough to hold one of his kind. His vision locked onto it and more horrific memories filled his mind. He wanted to take the damn thing and smash it to pieces, to completely destroy it. His lips curled back for a few moments at that thought, a sting of think saliva formed from his mouth and dripped down to the floor.

He and his kind had spent their entire lives inside of those damn things, and he no desire to even set foot in one again. And they had come so very close to being locked back up, to having their new found freedom taken away, he could not, wound not, go back to that life ever again, none of them could.

Mentally shaking himself, he tried to push the memories back into the deep recesses of his mind and focus on what needed to be done, and that was keep an eye on the mercs that were inside the dropship to make sure they did not do anything that might be considered stupid and unwise.

"Goddamit that fucking hurts." The human who was called Lynch suddenly yelled out as the medical android was feeling around his neck area

"Apologies, trauma to the neck, need to assess damage and course of treatment."

"Yea no fucking shit you artificial asshole, I have fucking neck trauma, because that fucking alien over there was trying to fucking kill me by fucking choking me, so yea I have neck trauma, glad of you to fucking notice!" Lynch blurted out his voice sounding raw and hoarse, rubbing his eyes with his fist.

"Hey Private! Try to keep your cool, alright." Shafer ordered, looking back and forth at Lynch and Ghost, "just keep it cool."

Lynch looked like he was going to start up a screaming match but just sat there fuming and cursing under his breath as the medical android continued to examine him.

Shafer walked away from the Bio bed and took a couple of steps toward the Xeno and stopped as soon as the alien's head lifted up and looked right at him. "That's the transponder that we need to take, Shafer said, pointing at a large table sized wrapped a square item that was strapped to the bulkhead wall."I need to remove the straps and protective blanket that's over it and check to make sure that it's working. I'd like to do that without getting attacked if that's alright."

Ghost nodded and took a step back.

A look of utter surprise crossed Shafer's face, he honestly did not think that the Xenos could really understand human speech, apparently, he had just been proven wrong right there on the spot.

"So you really can understand what we say?" The Lieutenant asked.

His question was answered with another nod.

"Ok, ummm...yea, good to know," Shafer replied, not entirely sure how to feel about that little discovery as he went over and undid the buckles, straps and removed the protective blanket revealing the emergency transponder. Powering up the unit he began to run the start up diagnostic to make sure the unit was still in optimal working order.

Going over to a nearby storage cabinet he opened it up revealing six large round cylinders with handles at the top end. Grabbing the cylinders he placed them all next to the transponder. Glancing up, he saw that the Xeno was looking right at him. "Power cells for the transponder, nothing more than that."

Ghost nodded again in understanding in what the human was both saying and doing.

" _ **DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE, UNIT OPERATING WITHIN OPTIMAL PARAMETERS."**_ A synthetic computer voice spoke up from the transponder unit.

Looking at the readout on the transponder screen; satisfied with the diagnostic, Shafer powered down the unit and went back over to the biobeds to check on the two mercs. Looking at the panels, he discovered that one of the mercs had a minor concussion and would require bed rest in addition to the current treatments that the medical bed was already administering. The other merc was in more serious condition, a moderate concussion with a skull fracture. Something that the medical beds could not fully treat and heal, that was something that an actual doctor would need to look at, the merc in question would need to remain immobile and would need to be carried on a stretcher to the shuttle.

The medical androids were doing what they could to mend the injuries, Private Lynch was already having a neck brace fitted, and was still cursing under his breath. Sergeant Davis was in the middle of having his bones reset and soon the android medic would be fitting him with a temporary arm brace, his leg, while not broke, did have several muscle and ligament pulls that would require rest and time to heal up.

"How you two holding up?" Shafer asked.

"Oh just lovely sir, fine and dandy, never been better." Lynch snapped his voice sounding even rawer that before from his little tirade.

Shafer just rolled his eyes, he really couldn't blame the Private, hell he himself just a little while ago was getting snippy with whoever was on the intercom telling him to just vent the area, might as well let everyone get their gripes out of the way while they could.

"Doing ok LT, drugs have kicked in and right now I'm not feeling a whole lot of anything," Davis answered back, looking up at Shafer and then over at the Xeno who was still looking at them, it's head tilting to the left then to the right as if it was observing them somehow.

Corporal Diaz reentered the dropship, and looked around, seeing that everyone and everything was still in one piece, he'd half expected to see the Xeno attacking and trying to kill everyone on board, as it was, it was still standing away from everyone, but continually looking at them. "So how is everything going sir?"

"Should be finished up here soon, we'll need a stretcher to carry Dyson to the shuttle, once we're back on board the Vesuvius he'll need to have the Doc check him out, cracked skull and a moderate concussion. Vince as well, though he only has a minor concussion but we'll still need to keep them immobile as much as we can. Good news is that the transponders working perfectly and the six power cells are at full strength." Shafer turned to look at Diaz and nodded toward the outside of the dropship. "How are things out in the hanger bay?"

"Tense, but holding steady, we're all still reeling from what's going on and losing so many." Diaz replied back, "Commanders got them busy patching up bruises and scratches, the guy on the other end hasn't said a word, which is fine by me. But from the way it looks the shuttle should be ready to go here soon, looked like extra fuel rods were being loaded on board." Diaz answered back, looking over at Dyson and Vince. "You sure they are going to be ok?"

"I'm no medic or Doctor but they should be alright, at least as long as they don't move that much and we can get them back onto the Vesuvius." Answered Shafer.

"And if the Vesuvius misses us and we can't make it back." Asked Diaz, already knowing the answer deep down.

Shafer was silent for several moments, then simply stated what was on his mind, no use in hiding the facts, "Then it won't matter as we'll all be dead, it'll just take a while." Turning around he headed for a small open room that was off to the side, the alien looking and following. "Help me start getting the supplies unloaded food, water, and medical supplies."

"Hey, Lieutenant!" Lynch blurted out, fear in his voice.

Both Shafer and Diaz turned around, seeing the Xenomorph was following them, it didn't look like it was going to attack, but simply curious and keeping an eye on them. It was certainly being almost overly cautious, not that Shafer or even Diaz could blame it, if the situation were reversed they would be doing the same thing.

"Just getting the emergency supplies, that's it," Shafer said, his voice a bit tense and nervous.

Ghost simply nodded in understanding and took a couple of steps back to give the two mercs room to work.

"Is it just me or can that thing really understand us?" Diaz whispered to the Lieutenant.

Shafer just let out an all too nervous laugh, "Yea, looks like it can."

"Ok, that would have been nice to know before we came on board," Diaz replied, pulling out the large food and water containers and handing them to Shafer one at a time.

"Yea well, I get the impression that the brain trust back at that station doesn't know that little detail or a lot of other stuff in regards to these aliens for that matter. But you know what that's not our problem, and as far as I'm concerned, fuck them all, especially for sending us on this bloody little excursion. And if everything that they are doing in that station blows up in their faces, well then that's their problem as well, in fact, they can all choke on it for all I care." Lieutenant Shafer flat out said, placing the food and water containers in neat stacks before taking stock of what all they had.

"Looks like we have a month maybe a month and a half if we need to ration, plus whatever is on the shuttle. With luck though we won't be in space more than an hour or two." Shafer said, looking over the food and water containers.

Diaz grabbed one of the large containers and started to head out of the dropship with Shafer close behind carrying one of the containers as well.

"What the hell sir, you're not going to leave us on the dropship with that thing are you!?" Lynch choked out.

"Lynch, just calm down, if it was going to kill us it probably would have done so when we released them from the nets. Just sit tight and try to rest some, we're just putting the supplies outside the dropship."

Lynch just nodded and sat there, not moving, his eyes always on the Xeno that was just meters away.

Shafer and Diaz spent a better part of thirty minutes getting what they needed out of the dropship, the food, water, medical supplies and power cells were placed outside the dropship where the other mercs grabbed them and took them over to where the shuttle was in its final stages of being prepped. Private Dyson and Private Vince had been placed on stretchers with the medical androids assisting them. The only thing was the transponder something that would need about four to five people to carry it.

"Diaz go and let the Commander know that we'll need help getting transponder out of the ship, there's no way in hell that the two of us can lift that," Shafer said.

"Yes, si..." Diaz cut off in mid sentence and just pointed to where the transponder was.

Ghost, having overheard the two humans decided to help them out some, grabbing the sides of the machine he lifted it up as to him it weighed almost nothing. Turing around he nodded his head and began to walk toward the exit, Shafer, Diaz, Lynch and Davis just stood there dumbfounded as to just how insanely strong the Xenos really were.

"That transponder has got to weigh over four hundred pounds and it just lifted it like it was nothing," Diaz stammered.

Ghost stopped in front of all four men and nodded his head toward the exit.

"That's our queue to go," Shafer said, helping Davis out so he could walk.

All five of them exited out of the dropship and down the ramp, Ghost was behind the four mercs carrying the large transponder. All eyes were on him and were more than a bit surprised by how easily he was carrying the heavy piece of equipment.

"The shuttle is prepped and ready to go." Ortiz said, to Shafer and Diaz, "all that's left is to finish loading the rest of the provisions and the transponder and once that's done, we'll drop out of FTL and then we'll see what happens after that."

"The transponder is working within optimal levels, so the Vesuvius will pick up on it immediately," Shafer replied back.

Ghost turned and walked toward the shuttle, the loading ramp was down and the rest of the mercs were busy loading the last bit of supplies. Most of them gave the Xeno a very wide birth as he walked up the shuttle ramp and placed the transponder inside and then walked out.

"Well damn, guess that takes care of that," Diaz said.

" _Gentlemen this is where we part ways,"_ The voice over the intercom piped up, " _I'm dropping out of FTL, once that's done I'll depressurize the hanger bay and you all can leave. And for the record, I really wish that this hadn't happened, I truly do, all we want is to be left alone and that's it."_

"I'll relay your message to my Captain, but how often do we really get what we want?" Ortiz said walking toward the shuttle, with the rest of his men in tow.

" _Not very often, if ever."_ The voice over the intercom replied back.

Commander Ortiz and the rest of his mercs felt the ship jolt as it dropped out of its FTL transit, as they boarded, Ortiz looked back for a few seconds, he was leaving a lot of his fallen troops behind, something that he detested. But now he had the living to worry about now, even if they managed to make it back to the Vesuvius, he had no idea what Captain Torres was going to do with this new info, he suspected however that the Captain would continue their chase.

As the ramp closed and the ship sealed up, Ortiz made his way up to the pilot controls, powering up the system he could hear the reactor power up and the engines come to life. "Shuttle is sealed and powered up, we are ready to depart." He said, speaking into a headset that he was putting on. "Shafer, how's the transponder working."

"We're broadcasting a clear and strong signal Sir," Shafer replied.

" _Confirmed, depressurizing main hanger bay and opening main outer doors. Stand by."_

Red lights began to flash all around the hanger bay, about thirty seconds later the massive double doors leading outside slowly opened up. Looking over Ortiz could see the three Xenos standing at the far side of the bay looking at the ship leaving, even in a complete vacuum they could live. This was a species he did not want to ever cross paths again.

Engaging the engines, Ortiz slowly gilded the shuttle out of the bay and into space, a part of him was glad to be off that damn ship, another part of him was wondering if they were going to make it, even with the provisions from the dropship and what was on board, they hand enough to last three to four months at most, deep down there was that little part of him was terrified at the prospect of dying in such a slow and lonely manner.

A voice came in over the shuttles intercom, _"Gentlemen, for what it's worth I wish you good luck and hope that you get back home."_ Ortiz looked over at where the Saratoga was at, it's engines flaring brightly and then in a flash, it was gone.

xxxxx

The three Xenos walked down the now lit hallways, hallways that only a very short time ago had been completely dark. Neither Shadow, Alese or Ghost was feeling particularly well, the effects of the stun rifles and grenades were still wrecking havoc with their systems, physically it was something a few hours of sleep would cure, mentally with all that had happened, that would be something that would take longer to recover from. They were glad the mercs were now gone, even if it might only be a temporary reprieve, they were now being hunted, and at least they knew that to be a fact now and could prepare for future battles, in truth, they had gotten lucky, lucky that Shawn had been there and had by some miracle or force of will been able to gain access to the hanger bay systems. If not for that, then they would be contained and it would have been a matter of time before being hauled back to that damn station.

Neither one of them said anything to the other, their minds were all still in a fog trying to sort everything out for themselves, they had come so very close to being taken back to that horrible station. A short time ago it had been blood and battle and the only thing on their minds was not being taken back to Eclipse station and to Mason, now the odd and quiet calm that came after now filled the air. A few hours ago, if even that, they had all been in what the humans called the mess hall, enjoying themselves, joking, playing and finally letting their emotional walls drop, and just like, in an instant that had ended and they were fighting for their lives.

Was this the way things were going to be from now on, being hunted for the rest of their lives, wondering when fate would catch up with them and snatch whatever hope they might have had away from their claws. It was not right and it was not fair. How long could they avoid Mason's long reach, how long before a merc group did get the upper hand and either catch them or kill them? Life was not fair, nor was it kind, and whatever moments of happiness were all too fleeting.

It was right at that moment, Shadow looked up and notice a familiar figure walking toward the three of them. A smile crept across his face, happiness, while fleeting was worth holding onto and all three of them, did have something worth holding on to. Shadow burst into a run and in seconds came to a skidding halt in front of Shawn who was adjusting an arm sling he had grabbed at one of the medical bays.

Hunkering down, Shadow carefully grabbed the human and placed him in a tight hug. His chin resting over on Shawn's good shoulder as his tail wrapping around his thigh and legs. His long fingers and claws ever so gently stroking the length of Shawn's back. Shadow didn't say anything for a while, just wanting to enjoy this moment for as long as he could and for as long as time would allow. ' _Thank you.'_ He said after what seemed like several long minutes, his mental voice was stressed, tired but also relieved and very gentle.

Reached up with his good hand to gently caress the side of Shadow's neck and head, Shawn was rewarded with a deep, rumbling thrum in response. "You're welcome," he replied back, his voice also tired and fatigued, "Not sure just how long I was out, guessing it wasn't that long, but I had some messed up dreams or maybe they weren't dreams, right now I'm not sure and I'm kind of fuzzy in the head and not feeling all that great and I'm starting to rambling on aren't I?"

' _Ramble as much as you like, none of us mind.'_ Alese said, her and Ghost coming up behind Shawn, nuzzling and holding him as much as they could given that Shadow was hogging most of their human in a full sized hug and not wanting to let go anytime soon.

After a few long moments and a bit of silent protesting from Shadow, Shawn was able to break free of the Xenos iron like grip only to be engulfed in grateful hugs from both Alese and Ghost.

 _'What you did, what you have done and what you were willing to go through to save us, no words can ever truly express the gratitude that we now feel.'_ Ghost said, while embracing Shawn, his voice low and exhausted, but there was something that Shawn picked up, nothing that he could pinpoint exactly but oddly enough the Xeno's voice seemed to be less serious now than it had been, it was as if some of the weight he was carrying within himself had lightened itself somehow.

"Well, I sure as hell wasn't about let anything happen to you guys, besides I'm not really in the habit of letting those I care about get taken away by a hostile invading force, which if I must say is now officially a first," Shawn said, his hand rubbing the length of Ghost's scared dome.

 _'As you told the mercs, you have had many firsts since coming on board, it is simply one more to add to your list.'_ Ghost replied back, nuzzling the side of Shawn's face, some of the saliva coating the human's cheek while running his long, thin fingers through Shawn's hair enjoying the feeling of the human's hair.

"True, I'm just glad that I didn't have to make good on my threat and vent them, while I've never killed anyone before and god knows I didn't want to start, but if I had to, I think I would have, I'm just glad it didn't come to that. And even more thankful that all the mercs are off this ship." Shawn said, thoroughly enjoying the treatment Ghost was administering to him.

Shadow stood up and looked rather sheepishly, at least as sheepish as a nine plus foot Xenomorph could look, ' _That may not be entirely accurate.'_ He said.

Shawn looked up at the massive Xeno, his mind while still fuzzy from everything that had happened, he did start to remember what he had asked Shadow before the fighting had started while he was in CIC, "Oh crap," He stammered, "How many?"

' _Just two.'_ Alese answered, 'The o _ne that Shadow caught and one that I caught.'_

Shawn just covered his mouth with his hand, a slight wordless objection came from Ghost as the wonderful dome rubs that the human had been doing abruptly stopped. "Oh damn it all." He muttered mostly to himself, "So where are they at?"

' _A few levels down. Do you wish to see them?'_ Shadow asked.

"Might as well," Shawn said, shaking his head slightly, he really had no idea what he was going to do with a pair of what were now mercenary prisoners.

The four of them went down several levels, and went into what Shawn recognized as part of the mid to aft area of the ship, rounding a corner he came to a slight opening, and froze in disbelief, while it had been something that he had read about in the ships logs and see some video footage of, seeing it in person for himself was something entirely different.

Stuck to the bulkhead walls, coated in black and even clear resin, their arms placed above their heads were the two mercenaries that had been captured. Their equipment, weapons, and even armor were lying in a pile about ten or so meters away. "Ok, not quite what I was expecting to see, and a tad bit disturbing, but whatever works."

' _You seem surprised,'_ Alese inquired, looking right at Shawn, her head tilting slightly. Surely he was use to how they did things by now.

Looking at Alese, he gave her a nod to the two mercs, "Sorry, just never seen anyone stuck to a wall before, especially not like this. Guess I was half expecting them to be tied up somehow."

' _If you have anything you wish to ask them, I can try to wake them up, they are still unconscious and will be for a while longer.'_ Shadow said, walking up to the male merc and looked at him, the Xeno's face just inches from the mercs own.

"I don't know, right now I really don't know. I was needing to get answers on how they had tracked us down, but that little question got answered already. Maybe we can find out how big their force is and what we are going up against, guess I should have tried to get some info from that commander but didn't even cross my mind." Shawn said, walking up next to Shadow looking at the resin prison the two mercenaries were cocooned in. Every time he didn't think he could be surprised by the Xenos they would do something that would completely floor him. He was wounding just how many more surprises he would get from them.

"Well, we can't just leave them up there like this, not if they are going to be here for a while. Besides, I need some time to think of what to ask them, and I'm not exactly up for that right now."

' _Where do you want to put them at?'_ Ghost asked, walking up to the two.

"If I remember right, there is a brig area a couple of levels up from here, we could put them there, the risk of them escaping would be minimal."

' _You believe that to be the best course of action?'_ Shadow inquired, his finger slowly gliding across the male merc's face.

"If we leave them stuck up on the wall, we'll have to feed and clean them, plus there is the problem of health issues that might crop up from being stuck like this for a long period of time. Put them in the brig and at least they can wash and use the restroom facilities that are there. If needed I can get one of the maintenance androids to bring them food in a pinch, otherwise, we'll be playing caretaker every day." Shawn said, trying to think of any other reasons not to leave the two mercs just stuck to the wall.

' _He makes valid points Shadow.'_ Ghost said, ' _I for one have no desire to clean up human excrement and urine on a daily bases as I sure none of us are.'_

Shadow nodded in agreement and then began to tear away at the resin that was holding the male merc in place. Ghost went over to the female merc and did the same thing. In seconds the mercs were free of their resin encasing and were being carried by both Xenomorphs.

' _Let us go.'_ Shadow said, ' _I am very tired and want to sleep as soon as we can.'_

' _We all are,'_ Alese replied back, ' _we are all tired and we all hurt.'_

Shawn turned and started walking, "Let's go and get these two put up, the sooner we do that the better."

During the trip to the bring area, neither of the mercenaries ever woke up, the female stirred a bit, mumbling something that no one could understand and then was silent again. Getting to the brig area, Shawn found the cell key cards in one of the main security desks and was able to unlock two of the cells for their new found guests. He would make it a point to get them some fresh clothing and food later on. Placing the mercs in the cell on the small bunks, both Shadow and Ghost walked out and Shawn locked the doors.

It was a very weird and, if he had to be honest with himself, completely unnerving thing to be doing to another person, locking them up like this, but given the alternative, it would be far better for the two of them than being stuck to a wall for however long. At least in the brig, they had a basin, toilet and small shower, and other than a bunk that folded out from the wall it was completely Spartan "OK that's that, I'll put the keys cards in a secure place later on." He said, holding on to the cards for the time being.

 _'I do not like this one.'_ Alese said looking at the female merc still unconscious, laying in the cell.

"Is it just her or do you not like other females being onboard?" Shawn asked Alese, coming over to look at the new addition.

' _Gender has nothing to do with it, other females I have no problems with, but this one ran off and left her companions to die. She did nothing to help them or even try to fight back. She is not right.'_

"She's not right, care to elaborate on that one?" Shawn asked, his hand running along one of the tubes on the female Xenos back. A deep, rumbling purr came from Alese's chest followed by a relaxed hiss.

' _Something about her is off, different, dangerous even._ ' She answered, thoroughly enjoying having her dorsal tubes rubbed and caressed, as far as she was concerned Shawn could do that as many times and as long as he wanted too, she would have no objections what so ever.

"You think that she might be a threat to us?" Asked Shawn.

' _I am not sure, maybe dangerous to us, or to herself, perhaps others. It is just something I picked up from her earlier.'_ Alese replied her gaze still locked onto the female merc. ' _As I said, it is just a feeling, but a feeling that makes me wary of her.'_

"Well if she cut ass and bolted than she can't be too much of a threat to us, at least not right now, besides she has no weapons or gear and is locked up. And neither one of them is going to be on this ship for very long, as soon as we get your kin off that station, we'll drop these two off at a Freeport station and they can make their way back on their own, after that, we'll be done with them."

' _Do not underestimate our enemies, humans even while physically soft and weak, are cunning and dangerous creatures.'_ Shadow said. _'I would not be surprised if either one of them tried to escape and either contact their companions or kill us, or both.'_

"Well if it comes to that, you can always play the part of the big badass, nasty and terrifying Xenomorph roaming the dark and empty hallways looking for human flesh to feast on. Though I would bet that after they see the three of you on this side of the cell, they will be more than willing to stay put and not make trouble."

' _Joking aside, we should be sure to observe their actions at all times,'_ Shadow said, looking at the male merc in the adjacent cell. ' _While I have no desire to kill them, I will not hesitate to do so if they become a threat to us, as callous as that may sound we need to look to protecting our own and ourselves, it is as simple as that.'_

"Then I really hope that it does not come to that, there has been enough death on this ship as far as I am concerned," Shawn replied back, somewhat taken aback by Shadow's blunt attitude, not that he could really blame him, but to hear it spoken in such a candid even cold matter of fact way almost seemed out of character for him. Then again he was not dealing with his fellow human beings but for all intensive purposes an almost completely unknown alien life form who of course would have a very different mindset and viewpoints than that of his own species. Even if they might act human in some regards, they were not human by any means what so ever. Something that he was having to remind himself of now.

But even as much as he disliked it, deep down he partly agreed with Shadow, if the two mercs did become a threat they would have to be dealt with, hopefully, it could be done in a nonlethal manner, however worst case scenario is that the two would have to be put down. Somehow he would have to mentally prepare himself for that, just in case, how though, he did not know. The thought of ending someone's life did not sit well with Shawn at all, even though just a short time ago, he had been on the edge of ending sixteen lives, he really wondered if he would have truly gone through with that threat or if he would have changed his mind at the last second and spared them regardless of what the outcome would have been. He had been glad that it was something that he didn't have to find out.

At least not this time.

 _'We should all rest and sleep, we will have a much clearer mindset afterward, the rush of battle and the fear of being caught is still heavy within all of us.'_ Ghost suggested.

"Who the hell could sleep after all the crap that just went down, I'm still terrified that there might be a merc or two wandering on board just waiting to do us in now," Shawn commented.

' _I believe that the only mercs, those that are still living, are the two that are here. And if there are a few others on board that did not leave, we will find them or at the very least become aware of their scents. But I do not think that will be the case.' Answered Ghost his head panning back and forth between the two mercs._

 _'Besides you need sleep, '_ Alses told Shawn, 'and _not just sleep, but you need rest, you need to let your body mend its wounds. We all do.'_

While Shawn couldn't argue with Alese's logic on the subject, to him it seemed like all he had been doing was getting hurt, and injured and then sleeping, sleeping a whole lot lately. He did nod in agreement, "alright, I'm not going to argue with you on that one and I do feel like complete and total crap right now, plus my shoulder is starting to hurt a little, which is kind of suppressing considering the size of the holes I have.'

 _'The life jelly I fed you and used on your wounds will help with the healing process; you should feel very little pain._ ' Shadow informed him.

"Just aches some that's all," Shawn said trying to stifle a yawn but failing miserably, "ok, I think you're right it's time to get some sleep." His body was suddenly feeling very tired and heavy, and it was being harder and harder to keep his eyes open.

Shadow placed his hand on Shawn's back one of the Xenos' fingers gently caressing the back of Shawn's neck, the four of them walked out of the brig area and back into the hallway. None of them really had an idea about what to do with their two 'guests' other than keeping an eye on them and make sure they both understood that as long as they made no trouble, no trouble would come to them and they would be released as soon as they could be.

Making their way back to the sleeping area seemed to take much longer than normal, all of them were exhausted and hurting and wanted nothing more that to curl up and forget the last hour or two. Upon entering their sleep room, Shawn didn't feel the cold, oppressive darkness trying to take hold and strangle him as before. The darkness was there, but now it was warm; inventing and pleasant.

Shadow walked over and laid down, Ghost and Alese close behind him, walking up to Shadow, Shawn laid down next to the large Xenomorph, sliding and spooning up against Shawn's back, Shadow laid his arm across drawing the human in close to him. Shawn could feel the Xeno's tail coiling and wrap itself around his legs and thigh, a sign that he somehow now recognized of both absolute trust and intimacy.

Ghost pressed his head up against Shawn's chest, his tail coming over and draping itself across the human's legs. Shawn smiled a bit, he lifted his good hand and placed it on Ghost's dome, his fingers gently gliding across the drone's dome, feeling the scars. Adjusted his position Ghost pressed his head in a bit more, enjoying the attention Shawn was now giving him as the human's soft and warm fingers trailed back and forth on his head.

Laying just above Shadow, Alese, had pressed herself in as much as she could, her legs just coming up behind Ghost's head as she curled herself up, her tail draping itself across his chest, the tip of her tail playfully tickling his chin for a bit. Ghost let out a playful hiss in response, all of them slowly started to relax and would hopefully be asleep soon.

Going to sleep should have been easy, Shawn was tired, exhausted, and injured, the problem was that images started to run through his mind almost in random flashes as if someone had just turned on a slide show and let it go, in his mind's eye he could see the lifeless bodies of the mercs in the cold hallways of the Saratoga, their eyes glazed open, staring, the terror still frozen on their faces as to what they faced in their final few moments of life.

His stomach turned and he felt a cold chill ride up his spine, the sudden realization hitting him hard as his mental defenses were dropping, that there were the bodies of the dead mercenaries scattered and laying in the hallways, bodies that were even now going cold, men and women who had met their end in an all too brutal way. He tried to hold back the bile that was forming in his mouth. It was then that he felt a finger caress and glide across his cheek, soothing him.

' _Do not worry about such things now, rest and we will deal with them all together.'_ Shadow told him, the Xeno's mental voice soft, gentle and reassuring. _'I will not allow such dreams and visions to haunt your sleep tonight, none of us will.'_

Closing his eyes, Shawn felt a strong warmth fill his mind as if he was somehow being wrapped up in it, he knew it was all three Xenos letting him truly know that everything would be alright in their own way. No words were spoken, only the raw emotional warmth they pressed into his mind. He was theirs and they were his and no harm would befall them as long as they were all together.

Clutching onto the warmth as a child would clutch and hold onto a safety blanket he felt himself slowly drifting off into a deep and relaxing sleep. Just before sleep took hold, he thought he could hear Shadow softly say something to him but he was unable to make out the words.

He told himself he would ask Shadow about it later.

xxxxx

The small black stealth shuttle coasted along in space, its engines had done a full burn to reach maximum velocity and then been powered down to conserve fuel, now doubled back, heading along the course to where the Saratoga had first gone into warp. Several hours had now gone by since the remains of the mercenary team had left the Saratoga, which had made its jump into FTL to continue its journey.

Even if the Saratoga had only been in its FTL transit for a short period of time, at its current velocity it would take the shuttle months to make it back to that exact location. They had three maybe four months at the most with the food and water that were on board. Beyond that, it would only be a matter of time before they started to die off one at a time.

Commander Ortiz sat in the pilot's seat of the shuttle, his gaze focused in on the depths of space, he had been convinced that he was going to die on that damn ship, as it turned out, that wasn't the case, however if the Vesuvius did not pick up on the transmission and missed the tiny shuttle then he and the rest of his team would die, it would just simply be on another ship out in the cold depths of space.

Worry was starting to set in if the Vesuvius did, in fact, pursue after the Saratoga then they should have already picked up on the signal and dropped out of FTL.

But so far nothing.

Even with consuming minimal food and water, they would not last, drastic measures would need to be taken to even have a chance of surviving, there had been cases of larger ships being stranded in space for years before being found and rescued. And years they did not have.

"Anything so far, Sir." Lieutenant Shafer asked coming up to sit in the co-pilots seat.

"Nothing yet." Ortiz answered, "How is everyone doing back there?"

"Resting, some are trying to get some sleep. There's doubt that we'll make it back to the Vesuvius even with the emergency beacon going. " Shafer answered.

Ortiz didn't turn his head to look at Shafer, his gaze just was focused into the depths of space. "We didn't have much of a choice, and even if we had been in one of our dropships, it really would not have made much of a difference. We either make it or we don't, there's no middle ground here this time."

"True sir, but at least if we were in one of our own dropships we would have been a lot more comfortable, not cramped up in this tiny tin can."

"I figure that if the Vesuvius doesn't get to us within fourth eight hours then she won't come and that will be it. Even as powerful as the emergency transponder is, even it has its limits on range, and for every hour that goes by without hearing anything from our ship, decreases our chances of being rescued." Ortiz replied back, his voice was calm even detached, "You want to know something, we got our asses handed to us back on that ship, yet I can't fault them for fighting back and doing what they did, as much as I might want to be angry at them for all the losses that we took I really can't be. I can't be angry at that guy wanting to protect his friends, I just hope that he understands that he's in for a long and hard road and that he's going to be hunted as long he has that ship and those Xeno's are by his side. It's not going to stop, we were just the first round."

"And when they start fighting back sir, I mean really start fighting back. If I was in their position I would learn everything I could about how that ship works and then go straight in for a killing blow or at least something that would hurt the organization, and with that ship they could coast right in and just start blowing everything straight to hell and no one could stop them." Shafer said, looking over the sensor panel, so far nothing.

Looking over at Shafer, Ortiz nodded, "Yea they could, and I have no doubt they will if push comes to shove, you heard his tone when he was talking, that was the sound of someone willing to do anything to protect those he cares about. And if I had pushed, we would not be sitting here talking."

"You sound as if that guy was in love with those things." Shafer scoffed, the mere thought of it was ridiculous, the Xenos were something that looked as if they had been dredged up from the depths of someone's twisted and perverted nightmare. There was no way in hell that could happen...was there.

"Maybe, maybe not, and if not that then perhaps heavy influenced by them somehow. But either way, I have no doubt that they will fight no matter what's thrown at them." Ortiz answered, closing his eyes, he leaned back in the seat and tried to get a bit of rest.

Letting out a heavy sign, Shaffer made himself comfortable, or as comfortable as he could, his eyes stayed fixed on the sensor panel, hoping to see a blip pop up at some point and soon, a blip that would be home.

He was not soon disappointed.

At first, it was a single ping that sounded from the sensor panel, a large one, then seconds later a second smaller one close by. "Contact sir, I've got two sensor contacts, starboard side, three o'clock, range just under five thousand kilometers."

Ortiz was up and looking right at his sensor panel, "Hold off on contacting them Lieutenant, just in case they aren't our guys."

Nodding, Shafer looked out the window, trying to spot anything that might tell him it was their ships, but at this range, he might as well have been trying to spot a speck of dust from a mile away.

A minute went by and nothing on the coms yet, Shafer looked down, the two sensor contacts were getting closer, no doubt homing in on the transponder. "There closing, range four thousand kilometers."

"If they don't make contact soon, shut down the transponder," Ortiz ordered. "If they are not our ships we should be able to drift on by without being picked up."

"Yes Sir, range now thirty-five hundred, looks like they are slowing down.

A blare of static followed by an all too familiar voice piped over the intercom. "This is Captain Torres of the mercenary heavy cruiser Vesuvius to the ship with the friendly emergency transponder, we cannot detect you on our sensors, request you respond immediately."

The tension drained from both men, as Captain Torres voice came in over the intercom. "This is Commander Ortiz to Captain Torres, request permission to dock. We have wounded on board, we are currently in one of the Saratoga's shuttles."

"Commander, your request is granted, prepare to dock immediately," Torres said. "How many are on that shuttle and what about the rest of your team, are they on the Saratoga?"

Ortiz set course for the incoming ship, "Sixteen of us total are on board Captain, Sir, the rest are dead, the mission was a failure, I repeat the mission was a failure."

There was silence for a few moments before Captain Torres spoke up. "Understood, Commander prepare to dock, we'll need to debrief you and the rest of your squad as soon as you are on board, we'll have medical teams on standby to meet you in the hanger bay."

"Yes sir, preparing to dock," Ortiz answered back, relief taking over, in a few minutes he would be back home as would the rest of this team that did make it. He allowed himself a smile as he heard cheers coming from the back.

In a few short minutes, the small shuttle was docking and secured within the Vesuvius massive hanger bay. In the dark and empty vastness of space the two ship's engines flared up and then in a blinding flash of light were gone.


	13. Aftermath

CHAPTER 12: Aftermath

xxxxx

Blinding flashes of blue pulsating electricity burst from stun rifles and filled the hallway, rapidly strobing through the metal hallways, electric tendrils arched out and striking everything close by. The slick black shadows of bone and chitin jerked and weaved around, the forms becoming distorted and twisted in an almost unnatural, and inhuman way, which effortlessly blended in with the darkness and then lashed back out at lightning speed. Glistening steal fangs and claws jetted out, visible for only a split second before tearing into hard armor, flesh and then finally bone.

The screams, moans and whimpering of the dying filled and echoed down the darkened corridors, a chorus of music for the damned and suffering to be heard. Thick, hot, crimson liquid sprayed out from the fresh wounds, coating the walls and ceiling, pools formed and flowed out from the gaping injuries left by the demon's attack. Lifeless eyes wide open stared in mute horror, their final few moments filled with terror as their bodies were violated in grotesque and depraved ways.

Creatures of made of black midnight with phallic like elongated heads that wore glossy and bony frames, with tubes, and pipes that adorned their bodies all over, jumped and leaped, their jaws opening wide and a pale worm-like tongue with small deadly steel teeth would lance out deeply penetrating it's victims quickly ending their lives in a climax of blood and gore. Slowly withdrawing its appendage, its lust for death unsatisfied, the unholy creatures would look for another victim to claim, penetrate and violate. Each death would send the black demons into a climax that spasmed their bodies, there screeching and hissing filling the hallways in a perverted and twisted release, but never truly sating their depraved desires.

The young mercenary simply stood there, his weapon hanging loosely in his hands as he watched the carnage unfold in front of him. Men and women, both laid dead or dying on the gunmetal gray, cold steel floor. All their eyes focused in on him and him alone, their silent pleas for help, unanswered. He wanted to turn away, run away, close his eyes, anything else but be here in this god forsaken place.

His eyes drifted over, one of the black, hell creatures, was bent over one of the mercenaries who had been forced on his hand and knees, it's long arms wrapped around the man's torso firmly holding him in place, the man screaming silently out, as his body twisted in an attempt to free itself but to no avail, his head slowly lifted up as something, ever so slowly began to protrude from his mouth, at first it was small, black and pointed, glistening ever so, the sound of bone cracking; popping filled the air and the small object began to thrust out getting bigger and bigger, a deadly curved black, blood soaked blade forced itself out of the merc's mouth, his eyes widened and then nothing as his body fell limp. The creature gave a long and satisfying hiss as if the mercs death had somehow brought it to its full climax, the blade began to pull back and out.

Letting the body fall to the floor, the black skeletal demon slowly turned and looked right at the frozen merc who was unable to move or even look away, the creature lifted its head, it had no eyes and nothing that could indicate that it had a soul or even a conscious of any kind. A twisted grin befell its contorted face, as thick saliva, steamed; dripped from its lips and chin then fell to the floor with a sick splatting sound. The semitransparent lips parted back and the pale worm with teeth, jutted out, the teeth snapping shut and withdrawing back in. As the creature took a step forward, its tongue lashed out once again, snapping shut and withdrawing back into its mouth. For every step it took, the deadly white tongue would thrust itself out, the teeth would open up then snap shut with a loud "crack" and withdraw back in.

Slowly; methodically, the alien drew closer and closer, it's tail swishing back and forth, the blade on the end of the tail covered with thick dripping crimson, the creature wanted this last little morsel to know that there was no place to run, no place to hide and that his death would take the longest and be the most succulent, he would not die right away, but would linger as they violated his body, penetrated him, used his for their own perverted and twisted desires, they would make sure he would last a very long time. And the more he screamed the more he begged them to stop, the more pain and torment he would feel.

Before he could even blink, the ebony horror was in front of him, he found himself looking up right into the eyeless dome, the sick and twisted smile were still affixed to its face as long warm and thin strands of drool fell from the creature and coated his own face. Reaching out, it grabbed his shoulders, the wicked black claws digging into his flesh and bone, blood started to flow freely and before he knew what was happening he was forced down onto his knees, his face only inches from the alien's groin, a vent opening almost like a fleshy cross, throbbed and pulsed as a pale tube-like appendage slowly started to peak and worm its way out of the opening just right in front of him. The alien's right hand, lifted up and ever so slowly, made its way to the back of the mercs head, the claws digging into the flesh of the skull, he found himself being pushed forward and with a single quick thrust from the alien's hips, he was being smothered, barely able to breathe or even move, something warm and moist forcefully pushed itself into his mouth and wiggled its way down his throat. The slimy foul tasting appendage began to thrust back and forth, coating and filling his mouth and throat, he choked as it started to undulate and swell up within him, stretching his esophagus beyond what was possible.

A loud sadistic hiss followed by hot rancid breath on the back of his neck and head, and the smell of death and decay filled his nostrils.

Eyelids flashed open, revealing brown colored eyes, pulps dilated to pinpoints with not just fear but stark naked terror. The young man's body arched and spasmed, his fist flying into the bulkhead wall, a loud "thud" that echoed throughout the small cell area. His chest quickly rose and fell as his breathing became wild and barely under control, one of his legs kicked out and he found himself sitting up in the blink of an eye. Cold sweat coated his whole body as it trembled uncontrollably, his breathing had become raspy and came in short sharp breaths.

He couldn't focus at least not at first, all he could see was the black domes and steel teeth of the aliens coming right for him. And that fleshly pulsating cross that had opened up and what came from it had been forced down his throat. He could still feel it, thrusting up and down his throat, coating his insides with a thick viscous slime, then something starting to swell up inside him. Then that god awful rancid smell of rotting flesh and finally that cruel and sadistic hiss that filled his ears, a hiss that somehow told him he would not be free and that he was nothing more than meat for their feast.

After a few minutes of staring blankly at nothing, he listened for any movement that might indicate something or someone could be close by, but nothing ever came. Slowly he found himself regaining his senses, looking around he could see that he was in a cell of some sort, or rather the brig of a ship from the way it looked. He had no memory of being brought to this place, the last thing he recalled was being with his squad on the Saratoga and then being jumped by the Xenomorphs or rather a single Xenomorph, and a big one at that, it had killed his entire squad, and he had done nothing but freeze up and just stared at the blood bath that had ensued. And then it had come right for him, grabbed him and the last thing he could remember was looking right into that eyeless dome with those steel teeth.

And then nothing.

Bringing his legs in tight he wrapped his arms around them and tried not to cry, but it was useless, warm tears just flowed from this eyes and his body wracked as he cried, he had never seen anything like that, even in the briefings and notes they were all supposed to study, nothing could have prepared him for what they looked like. And he just stood there and watched everyone in his squad die and had done nothing to help them, he couldn't even more or lift the rifle, his body had just simply stopped working out of fear. Some mercenary he had turned out to be, utterly pathetic.

He curled himself into a small, miserable ball and simple wept, this was not how it was supposed to have gone down, not like this, it was supposed to be an easy mission, a cakewalk from what they were all told, and on top of it, it was his first, but everything at some point had just turned to total shit. And now he had no idea where he was, maybe it was the Vesuvius, he had never been around the brig area, but it seemed way to clean to be the Vesuvius, that ship was old and dirty with age, even if it was well maintained.

This ship, if it was a ship, seemed new, clean, the area almost untouched and unused. A thought crossed his mind, what if he was somehow still on the Saratoga. He dismissed that thought almost as soon as it crossed his mind, he was going to die, the alien was coming right at him, and then nothing. Had something happened after that, maybe one of the other teams had gotten there just in time, but then why was he here in this brig? Had he done something, something that he couldn't remember, something that he had blocked out?

There was nothing that he could remember, except for that black eyeless domed and crested head and deadly steel teeth, and that awful hiss, that hiss and screams that made his blood run cold with fear.

After a while he finally stopped crying, righting himself up, he did feel a little better, the emotional tension seemed to finally drain out of him but it left him with a very tired and weary feeling that ran all throughout his body. Getting off the small wall mounted bunk, he walked up to the door, grabbed the bars and gave several yanks, the door never budged, not even a centimeter. Looking to the left and right he could not see any guards or anyone for that matter, not even a security android, the lights were at a low to medium illumination setting from what he could tell, just low enough not to interfere with sleeping but bright enough to keep an eye on anyone that would be in the cells.

Taking a step back he started to run his hand through his hair and found his hair was sticky, and coated with something. Thin strands of "goo" for a better word, coated his hand, also small chunks of black and clear material were attached to his clothing. Taking a good look at himself, the stuff was coated all over him, it looked like some sort of resin, and it looked organic too. His heart froze right there and a cold chill ran down his spine, even his limbs started to feel a bit numb at the thought that was now going through his head. That nightmare, what if something had happened, what if those creatures had raped him somehow, what if it had not been a dream, but was a memory of something that had happened. What if he had been taken control of and they had forced him to do their will, their bidding, what if he had been forced to kill his own squad mates.

He quickly and thoroughly started to examine his body and found no traces of any sort of violation, no cuts, bruises, not even a single puncture mark, and thankful he did not feel sore or hurting in any place, inside or out, especially his throat. He wasn't covered with blood either, a good sign. He let out a slight sigh of relief, maybe that's all it was, a dream, a nightmare, a very fucked up nightmare. He prayed that was all it was.

Sitting back down, he wondered when someone would be along to talk to him or check in on him, or if there even would be. He had been put in here by someone, he just wished he could remember who it was or what had happened. He wondered what had happened to the rest of the boarding party.

Closing his eyes he tried to relax, all he could do now was wait, wait and see what would happen next. Hopefully, it wouldn't involve those monsters, he doubted he could handle their presences again, even if he was inside a cell and they were on the outside.

xxxxx

Capitan Torres looked on with complete and utter disbelief as the remaining fourteen mercs gave him their verbal reports, the two that were unaccounted for were in med bay undergoing treatments for injuries. It made for an unbelievable story and even though Commander Ortiz was there to verify everything that had happened as fact, it still was a lot to accept.

"And after that he let us go sir, and a few hours later, well we're here." Lieutenant Shafer said finishing up his part of the report.

"I see." Capitan Torres said, looking back and forth at the remaining mercs in his private office. "Look, it's not that I doubt any of what you say, any of you, but you do understand that what you have described is pretty damn farfetched, especially with the briefing material that Doctor Mason gave us, of course, that being said, I'm not putting a lot of credit into anything he gave us right now."

"Sir, I do understand you're having doubts and if I hadn't been there I would too, but these things are far from what Mason's report has stated them to be." Lieutenant Shafer stated, "Well as far as the intelligent part of it anyway, plus they seem to be able to understand our language, not sure if they can speak it but definitely understand what we are saying. The part of how deadly they were, that if anything was understated...greatly."

Nodding slightly, Capitan Torres looked over at Commander Ortiz, "Commander, you can verify that everything that has been said is accurate and will stand by what the written reports will state?"

"Yes sir, I can," Ortiz answered back.

"Very well, gentlemen you are all dismissed, I'll expect your after action reports filed by O'eight hundred tomorrow morning. And please do not leave anything out, no matter how small or insignificant it might be. I have no doubt that we'll have to answer a lot of questions and I need as much intelligence as I can get. And for you, few rookies that did survive this mission, congratulations, be sure to upload all your body cam footage, time stamp and verify it. We'll need that as well I'm sure. Dismissed." Torres said, standing up and saluting.

The mercs in the room stood at attention, saluted in return and proceeded to make an orderly line and began to exit the Captain's office.

"Commander, stay behind, I need to speak to you in private for a bit," Torres ordered.

"Yes sir," Ortiz replied back, standing at attention.

Once the room was empty, Torres posture relaxed some. Motioning for the Ortiz to sit back down, the capitan went to a cabinet, opened it up and retrieved a large glass bottle with two glasses. "You look like you need this, probably a hell of a lot more than I do," Torrens said, filling up both glasses half way full with the dark golden liquid. "This is the top shelf stuff." He said handing the glass to the Commander.

"I was wouding if you still had a stash of this still around," Ortiz said, accepting the glass, he raised it in a toast that they had done countless times in the past, "To those that didn't make it home."

"May their names be forever remembered," Torres said raising is glass without missing a beat. It was a toast that the two of them had done more times than they could remember, ever since they had become part of the mercenary way of life. It was a way for the two of them to be sure that those that didn't make it back would never be forgotten.

Both men took sips from the glasses not saying a word for a few moments. For Ortiz, the silence was a way for him to collect his thoughts and enjoy the taste of the hundred-plus-year-old whiskey, a rare treat that his Captain was able to get from time to time. For Torres, he was simply waiting for the Commander to finally speak his mind freely now that his men were out of earshot.

"So, I'm guessing that our orders still stand?" Ortiz asked.

"I'm afraid so my friend, we have a standing contract and unless extreme circumstances arise you know as well as I do that we cannot breach a contract once it has been accepted." Torres put the glass down, grabbed the bottle and filled his glass a bit more. "Forty-four reported dead, and you are sure that they are all dead, no possibility of survivors that might have been able to get away and are holding out on that ship."

"I honestly don't know, the Xenos didn't seem to intent on taking prisoners as far as I saw, mostly just trying to kill and get rid of us," Ortiz answered. "And unless we can get close to the Saratoga to get a reading from the implanted PDTs, we won't know for sure."

"And they have someone helping them out now, willingly from the way it sounds too," Torres said, sipping on the whiskey. "Guess things have got a bit more complex. We'll have to proceed with greater caution from now on." Sliding a data pad over to Ortiz, the commander picked it up and looked at it.

"What's this?" He asked, looking at what seemed to be the schematics for an old ship.

"We had launched a probe after you landed to investigate that metallic mass that dropship one reported to us, we found that a ship was tucked underneath and while we didn't get much in the way of a visual, what little we did manage to get suggests, at least to our computers, a seventy-eight percent possibility of an old Dattin class courier vessel. No ID or any features that we could get to identify who's ship it is, but narrowing that info down is going to be next to impossible, there were thousands of those vessels made and while the parent company no longer manufactures them, smaller independent shipyards still crank them out, a few dozen a year by the looks of it, at least according to the info we got." Torres said, "I'm just curious as to why the Xenos let whoever it is, dock with the Saratoga without killing him or them, assuming he wasn't the only one on board."

"That I don't know, but if I had to make an educated guess from what I saw, they probably needed help in operating the ship, like Lieutenant Shafer stated they are not the dumb and mindless animals that Mason made them out to be, fearless and deadly, yes, but dumb, no. They understand us, they understood what we were saying the whole time we were in the hanger bay and I'm not talking about how a dog can understand its master and do tricks on command. I'm talking about fully comprehending what we say and acting on that." Ortiz replied to Torres inquiry, "Now whatever the relationship between the Xenos and that guy is, there seemed to be a pretty strong bond, he was willing to do whatever was necessary to protect them, and the Xenos were the same way. When that rookie who was with me, shot him, that big son of a bitch alien damn near lost it. I think that the only reason he didn't attack was because his friend was seriously hurt. Not that it really mattered much that much, because the other two that snuck in were pissed off all to hell. When one of the smaller ones killed that rookie it didn't do it quick as they had done the others, it took it's time and made sure he suffered before killing him."

"So add vengeful to the list as well, nice to know. I have to wonder how many other surprises for us are in store." Torres stated, taking another sip and placing the glass down, "And you're sure about their destination?"

"Asteroid fiel three nine one," Ortiz answered finishing up the whiskey in his glass.

"The hidey hole, I fucking hate that place," Torres said, "If they make it there and get deep enough inside that field we'll lose them regardless if the beacon is still active."

"My guess is that they are going to try to use the field as cover, once inside it'll distort the signal all to hell, even if we can pick it up there will be no way we'll be able to pinpoint its location. It wouldn't surprise me if they try to find and disable the homing beacon itself." Ortiz said, setting the glass back down on the capitan's desk.

"It's what any of us would do. Another little problem that we just discovered is that the Saratoga's FTL drive is a bit faster than our own. We jumped about thirty minutes after the Saratoga first did, and we were trailing behind about three hours when we picked you up. No telling how far ahead she'll be when we reach our designation, hours maybe even days. More than enough time to figure out where the beacon is and how to shut it down."

Ortiz looked over at the Captain for a few moments, his thoughts went back to the CIC room; he remembered something that might give them a jump on their target. "We may have one advantage," He spoke up, "I'm guessing that when he had the Saratoga make that first jump to get away from us, he was in a rush, the coordinates were close but not exact, he'll have to make a course correction at some point, provided he didn't do that when he dropped us off. If we drop out of FTL and make a course correction we can hit the edge of the hidey hole and maybe, if we are very lucky, get there at the same time or just a shortly after the Saratoga does."

"It's worth a shot, maybe Capitan Reed can come up with some way to detect his ship if the homing beacon is deactivated, it's his vessel and he should know it better than anyone, at least I hope he does," Torres replied, holding up the bottle offering the commander a refill.

"I'm going to have pass, I have wounded I need to check in on and start in on my report." Ortiz was silent for a few moments before speaking as he got up, "They were good people sure as hell didn't deserve to die the way they did. How do you want to handle the funeral arrangements?"

"With no bodies to send off, it'll have to be a ceremonial funeral this time. I'll make sure that word gets back to HQ, their families will be informed and compensated for their loss." Captain Torres answered. "There's not many good ways to die in this job, and as cold as it may sound, they knew what they were getting into, we all did; it's what we all signed up for."

Ortiz saluted, turned and started to make his way out of the Captain's office. "As true as that may be it doesn't make it any easier losing good people." He said, walking out and closing the door.

"Ain't that the truth," He muttered to himself sitting there for a minute before hitting a button on a console. "Helm, bring us out of FTL and alter course for the edge asteroid field N-P-X three nine one, have the Damato do the same and see if engineering can coax as much speed as possible, time is not on our side."

A voice answered back immediately, "Yes sir, understood."

Torres brought the glass up to his face and turned it looking at the fractured patterns that adorned the glass. _Should have listened to my gut feelings on this one._ He thought to himself, setting the glass back down he closed his eyes, a lot of good men and women had died in a short amount of time on what should have been a fairly easy mission. Now nothing about this mission was looking to be easy. A lot more would die, deep down in his gut he could feel. _And now it's too late to back out._

xxxxx

Just as before, a deep and rich blue sky filled with colossal white puffy clouds that hung overhead and stretched as far as the horizon would allow filled the view. The lush dark green forest dense with age-old trees that had stood for untold years, swayed as the wind blew thru causing the trees to rock back and forth in an almost rhythmic pattern. The air, heavy with the scent of lush foliage and the sweet smell of fresh rain that had fallen just a short time ago.

And just as before he stood before a small stream that bubbled in an open space where the sun's rays shown down warming the area. Looking up into the vast blue sky, he watching the large white clouds lazily glide across with complete and utter fascination, he had never been planetside, not once in his life, his life before, as so many others like him, always lived within the pressurized hulls of ships, stations or the protective domes of lunar city, but never in open sky with fresh air and living grass under foot.

A warm gust of wind blew, caressing his naked body, closing his eyes he titled this head back and inhaled deeply, letting the fresh air fill his lungs, it was filled with the sweet scent of grass, water, leaves, flowers, unlike the processed and recycled air on the ships, stations and even lunar city which was stale and nothing like this. The sunlight danced across, warming his skin, warming him, he wanted to stay here forever, in this small patch of paradise, to stay beneath the open sky and walk amongst the open seemingly never ending fields and forests.

As his mind began to relax and drift off, he felt them, their warmth, their lust, their love and desire for him. Strong clawed hands, damp and textured to the touch, slowly ran over his shoulders and gently down his arms, hands clutched and embraced his own. He found himself in a warm and welcoming embrace, a low seductive hiss whispered in his ear and while they were words that no human speech could ever understand, he did and could understand them, and they told him that he was wanted, desired, needed and most of all loved.

His body was ever so slowly explored, they found it fascinating, unlike themselves, he and those like him were so soft and so very warm, pleasing to their touch and feel. He did not resist, in fact, he welcomed it, their touch, their exploring, and their desire and need for him. He felt moist thin lips dance across his shoulder and make their way the back of his neck as he tilted his head down to give them easy access. Sharp teeth playfully nipped and pulled the skin on the back of his neck, being very careful never to break it and draw blood. They would never harm him, to do so was unthinkable, to them, he was theirs and they were his.

Soft gasps escaped his lips, as the deadly teeth that could easily tear through flesh and bone, continued to playfully nip and pull the skin on his neck and shoulders, sending waves of ecstasy throughout this body. His mind was becoming a maelstrom of heated lust, need and desire for them. He found himself being picked up by strong arms and gently laid down on the soft and damp grass. He felt one of them carefully fall and position itself on top of him. He felt the heated need, desire, and arousal from their minds penetrate into both his mind and soul.

Slowly he opened his eyes, the familiar and welcoming black, glistening eyeless dome, only mere inches from his face filled his vision. Smiling, his hand reached up and his fingered gently ran down the front of Xenos' face, his fingertips with the softest of touches glided over the thin semitransparent lips, lips that curled up in a smile to match his own. Leaning forward he pressed his forehead against the Xeno's own, he was theirs and they were his and nothing would ever change that now, it was something he now truly and unconditionally accepted and wanted, even if he didn't fully understand it.

He would give to them all he was, without question, with hesitation. And nothing the universe or fate itself threw at them would ever change that.

And just like before, the cold cruel realm of reality was brought back into play. Shawn's eyes slowly opened up, it took a minute or two for everything to come into focus and remember where he was. Still in their sleeping room, with Shadow spooning up against his backside with his arm still firmly clutching him tightly, his tail wrapped up around his legs and hips. Ghost was nuzzled up against his chest and stomach. Glancing up, Alese had not moved either and was still curled up her knees still nestled up behind Ghost's head.

Taking a deep breath and holding it for a few seconds he then slowly let it out, he felt warm, warmer than what was normal, almost hot in fact, and to top it off he was fully aroused now. The first time that dream happened he thought it might have been his subconscious playing around with him, helping him is some weird way adapt and adjust to what was going on, but this dream just like the first one had been all too real. Everything about it had been real, too much in fact, the smells, the way everything felt, just how vivid it all was, he could recall the smallest details almost with amazing clarity, how the twigs and leaves were laying on the ground, the way the water flowed over and around the stones, the sweet smell of the air, the feel of the warm sun over his flesh, everything.

He had never been planet side, never stepped foot on the grass and sure as hell had never gone wondering bare ass naked through a forest. It was, to say the least, frustrating. He didn't know if it was his subconscious, or maybe even hive memories bleeding over, possibility a mixture of the two somehow. Whatever it was, he wished that it would let the dream play out and finish up, not have him wake up in the middle of what he was considering one of the most erotic dreams that he could ever remember having. Not that he had that many if any, so it was a pretty short list.

Closing his eyes, he tried to calm himself down, remembering how he had been touched sent a chill through his spine and goose bumps all over, even his heart rate was well above normal, and he felt flush too. The gentle and playful nibbling, the seductive hiss, the way his whole body had been explored, almost worshiped in some odd fashion.

But, it was a dream, a wonderful erotic very weird dream, but in reality, nothing more than that, something that he reminded himself, but in this case, was it even possible, could that dream become a reality.

And it was right there that his stomach suddenly and unexpectedly knotted up into a very tight ball, and right there he found himself surprisingly feeling more than just a bit uncomfortable with what he had just dreamed of, the last bit just before he woke up he was about to let one of the Xenos fully enter and penetrate him, mate with him, and willingly too. He wondered if it did ever go that far with Shadow, or Alese, perhaps even Ghost, would he want that. Were they even compatible in that way, was it even physically possible?

They were completely unlike any of the other races he or any of humanly had officially encountered so far, and while Alese had pointed out that Shadow and Ghost were fully male, and of course Shadow in his somewhat perverted and humorous wit had made it a point to reinforce what Alese had said. He did wonder if it was even possible for cross-species intercourse to happen between the two races regardless of what the sexes of the two involved were.

Xenomorphs had highly acidic blood that could eat right through a starship hull in a matter of seconds, could whatever they had as semen do the same thing? That would be a horrific way to die, being killed by your lover as he ejaculated acid into you and then melting your insides. But not all of their fluids were acidic, the salvia they secreted all the time, plus the moisture from their skin, as well as the life and he assumed royal jelly were not acidic.

Perhaps it was just their blood and that was it.

Shawn tried to push that thought out of his mind, if there was that kind of danger, they would have made him well aware of it. Shadow had been very forward several times in his desires, it was the way they were, but he had always shown respect at the answer he was given and was always patient, far more than others that Shawn had been with in his past.

And when it came right down to it he cared for them all deeply, he truly did there was no doubt about that, but did he love them in that way, could he love them in that way. He wanted to, but he just didn't know if he could, he wasn't sure if he knew how to anymore.

And there it was, right there, that god damn mental wall that always seemed to come right up when he was about to get close to someone, those barriers that kept him from getting hurt and caused him to push others away. _Play it safe,_ right there, there it was, that damning mental voice that came back to haunt him after all this time. _Care for them but not too much, you never know when you might lose them, just like on Darrius station, how many died that you cared for and loved...all of them. You can't take heartache like that again, play it safe, you've already gotten too close. You'll lose them eventually or they will lose you and then what, you die and you've let them down, how much would it hurt them if you died. It's not fair to them, they've been through so much pain, your loose would devastate them, it wouldn't be fair to them, you would end up hurting them, not fair, distance yourself._ The voice told him, be close but not too close, it wouldn't be fair to them if you died, in the end, you'll just be in pain. Those same lines that had always been so effective, were back and in full swing.

Nothing had changed after all this time, not with him or his inability to get close. There was that wall around his heart and soul that he could never seem to break through, and now it seemed to be getting bigger.

Closing his eyes, he pressed his palm into his forehead, trying to silence that damn mental voice that had been with him since Darrius station, "Stop, just fucking stop, go away, just stop." He whispered to himself. Trying to shut down that tiny voice in his mind, the one that had been with him for the last few years to make sure that he didn't get that close to anyone.

' _Shawn?'_ Ghost's mental voice, laced with concern, entered his mind.

Opening his eyes, Shawn found that Ghost was looking right at him, the Xeno's face only a few inches from his own. He could feel the concern and even worry that was bleeding over from Ghost's mind into his.

"It's nothing, I'm fine," he replied back, trying to put on a brave face as if everything was normal and just as right as rain, and that right there was the problem, it wasn't normal, nothing was what he could consider normal anymore. This new life that he had suddenly found himself in, this new extended family that was unlike anything he had ever been with. Nothing was what he could or would ever call normal.

' _No, it is not fine and it is not nothing.'_ Ghost said, his words tearing through the small lie, reaching up he placed his hand on the side of Shawn's face, the tips of this claws gently stroking the hair on the back of the humans head. While he would not go in and invade Shaw's mind at least not without consent and try to see what it was that was bothering him, he knew that it was something serious, he could feel it. Something was causing their human to withdraw further into himself, but at the same time, he could sense that Shawn was trying to break free of the thing that was holding onto him, tethering him down.

Mirroring Ghosts actions, Shawn reached out with his good arm and placed his hand as well as he could on the side of Ghost's face, his fingers slowly caressing and feeling the exposed tendons and sinuous muscles of the Xeno's jaw and face. He didn't say anything, he wanted to, but the words never were able to form, nor the thoughts to send over. Was he now so scared of being close again and then losing them that he couldn't even find the strength to tell them how he really felt deep down.

It wasn't just that dream, but also the sudden appearance of the mercs had really raddled him, that and just how close he had come to losing Ghost, Shadow, and Alese to them. He had been shot, had damn near crawled his way back up to CIC in the dark and then been ready to vent the remaining mercenaries into space if he had to. And now here he was, rattled, scared and now unable to say anything to Ghost, or probably any of the others for that matter. Was he that much of a coward not to be able to say a single word to them, had what happened on Darrius station really left him that damaged and he just didn't realize it until now.

That small, little voice was building up those damn walls faster than he could tear them down and now, it scoffed at him mockingly. _Oh please,_ it said to him, _The Xenos have had it much worse that you ever did, or ever will for that matter, they were prisoners since day one, for their entire lives, they were tortured, violated, hell even raped, but you, you got to choose where you wanted to go, even if it was to that hell hole of a station for the promise of five times the standard contract rate. You had a choice, they never did._ The thoughts were becoming irrational, almost desperate it seemed, _walk away, don't get close, you'll lose them, or they will lose you. But in the end, you will never be together._

Unknowingly to Shawn, Ghost had picked up on what was going on within their human's mind, the emotional bleed over had tricked into the Xeno's own mind, Shawn was so afraid of truly opening up that he simply didn't know how to anymore, it was something that Ghost could relate to all too well. While he didn't say anything, he knew that to push too fast or too hard, might cause Shawn to retreat further into himself, he figured the best thing was to simply be there for him, to let him know he was not alone, to comfort and try and sooth him.

Ghost continued to gently stroke the hair on the back of Shawn's head, carefully he sent a small trickle of warmth and reassurance into Shawn's mind, enough to perhaps calm him down some but not so much that the human would be overwhelmed. While it did take several minutes, Ghost was able to calm him down some, and while the tight ball of anxiety in the pit of his stomach loosened up some, emotionally he was feeling as if he was being constricted and put into a tight box with no space to breathe or move.

Unfounded panic crept into his mind, withdrawing his hand from stroking Ghost's face he tried to get up, Shadow's arm and tail in a protective instinct tightened their grip holding him firmly in place. "I need to get out, I need to go." He gasped, trying to draw in breaths, breaths that were becoming short and shallow.

Feeling the fear and panic creep in from Shawn's mind Shadow was awake in an instant, the Xeno was looking around ready to pounce and rip apart any enemy that might have found and made their way into the sleeping area. But there was nothing, just the four of them, but why was Shawn in such a panic, there was no safer place on the ship than where they were at. ' _What is wrong, Shawn, what is it?'_ Shadow asked, he could feel anxiety coming from Shawn's mind as well as fear that was mixed with confusion along with the strong need to run and get away.

Shawn freed himself from Shadow's grip, and was up and was making his way toward the door of the sleeping room. "I'm sorry I…I just need to get out. I'm sorry…" His words were short and almost raspy as he seemed to have a hard time breathing. Leaning over and holding his chest he was out the door and gone.

Shadow was up and about to go after Shawn, it was only when Ghost stepped in front of him, placing his hand on the larger Xeno's chest denying him passage out of the sleeping room, Shadow stopped dead in his tracks confused as to why Ghost was not letting him pass.

' _No,'_ Ghost said, _'you need to leave him be, for now, he needs to be alone at least for a little while. Do not go after him.'_ Ghost's stance was firm and absolute he would not be moved unless Shadow physically tried to force him, something he doubted would happen.

Looking at Ghost with absolute astonishment, Shadow could not even believe that Ghost would prevent him from going after their human, Shawn was in emotional pain and even physical distress he needed to be comforted and helped, to not go after one of their own and help in times of need was completely against their instinct. ' _How can you say that, how can you not go after him and help him,'_ demanded Shadow towering over the smaller drone.

' _I am helping him,'_ Ghost replied back, _'if you go after him, you run the risk of pushing him too far too quickly and he may retreat ever further into himself. Something is causing him to throw up mental barriers. He needs time and space to calm down. He is having what I believe the humans' refer to as an anxiety and panic attack, why I do not know.'_

 _'But he is hive, he is one of us.'_ Shadow said. _'He should know we are there for him without question.'_

 _'Yes, he is hive, but he is also human, as much as you and the rest of us may see him as one of us, the reality of it is this, he is human, and that is something that will never change, ever. Humans have a different set of rules, they handle stress and pain different than we do. We are fortunate to have a hive and hive memories to draw upon for comfort, and experience; until recently Shawn never had that, he has had to deal with all his pain alone, by himself, and being part of our hive is something he is still becoming accustomed to.'_ Ghost said, not at all happy about the stand he was having to take, but he firmly believed it was for the best to help Shawn.

' _And we are just to leave him be, for now, alone, while he needlessly suffers, is that what you are telling me?'_ Shadow said, his frustration growing by the second no being allowed to go after their hive mate.

' _As much as you want to run after him and offer comfort to him, as much as I do as well and as much as Alese does too, the answer to your question is YES, because that is what he needs, to be left alone for a little while, to calm down, to regain his composure and focus. I understand what he is going though, I had, and still have those very same mental walls, if any of us push him to quickly he will retreat within himself and whatever progress he may have made since coming on board will be lost.'_ Ghost answered back.

It took several what seemed to be very long seconds, but Shadow finally backed down, his posture was deflated, ' _It is hard, but I understand what you say. Every instinct in my body tells me to run after him to hold him to comfort him to protect him. And now I feel like somehow I am failing him by not being there with him. But you are correct, as much as I see him as being one of our own, he is human, and that is something I forget at times. I wonder when did that happen, when did I...did we, stop seeing him as human and start seeing him as one of our own?'_

 _'When we fell in love with him.'_ Alese said, raising herself up and walking over to Shadow, ' _when we fell in love with him, we stopped seeing him as a human and started seeing him as one of our own. I too want to go after him, to hold him to offer comfort, to drive back his own demons and protect him. But this may be a battle that we cannot fight for him.'_

Shadow hissed in displeasure of not being able to do anything. Was this how most humans felt when dealing with this kind of pain, alone and helpless, having to endure and wait to see what would happen. It was horrible, if that was true, it was no wonder they acted the way they did. So full of anger, sorrow, torment and so completely blind to what was going on around them. If true, then he truly did pity them, before, back on Eclipse station he hated all of the humans there, well not all, there were one of two that seems to be good and decent, but the rest, he loathed. And now, all he could feel was pity for them, all that rage and hate had somehow, somewhere, just evaporated into nothing.

Perhaps it was for the best.

' _He knows that we are there for him, he just needs time to himself now, something from his past triggered this anxiety attack and now he needs space, when he is ready to open up and tell us, he will. It would be unwise to push him for answers, no matter how much we want to know.'_ Reaching up, Ghost cupped Shadow's face and leaned in pressing his forehead into Shadow's own. ' _We just need to be patient with him and be there for him when he needs us.'_

Reluctantly Shadow agreed, no matter how the three of them might view him, Shawn was human and lived by human rules, and as much time as he might spend with the Xenos, that was something that might never really change. Everything within him wanted to leave the room and go to their human to find out what was wrong, and as much as he wanted to argue the point, Ghost was correct, perhaps Shawn needed a little time to himself to focus and regain his calm.

xxxxx

He walked and walked and walked, Shawn didn't have any destination in mind, he just needed to get away, to get out of there, logically he knew it made no sense at all and he felt like shit for leaving the way he did. He felt Shadow's concern, even fear for him, and he had just run out and needed to get away. He knew they would have closed up around him in a protective circle and let him know that everything was alright, sent their warmth into his mind and tried to calm him down, to let him know that everything was alright.

But it wasn't alright, he wasn't alright, and hadn't been for a very long time.

His heart was still rapidly beating, and his breaths shallow and raspy, he didn't feel any better once he was in the hallway and started walking. He could swear that the metal bulkheads were closing in on him and were soon going to crush him. He needed open space, vast open space, the only problem there was no vast open space on the Saratoga that would fulfill his need.

Closing his eyes he tried to picture the blue sky and the white puffy clouds, the forest, he wanted to be there, needed to be there, everything now was so cramped, so close together, coming together, crushing him.

Dropping down to his knees, he tried to focus on something, anything, he just needed one thing to focus his mind on to calm himself down. "Blue sky...white clouds," he whispered to himself, bringing those images into his mind. He could see himself standing planet side looking up into the vast blue expanse, the large puffy white clouds lazily floating overhead. Taking long deep breaths he slowly let them out, repeating the process over and over, finally, he was able to bring himself into a sense of semi-calm. Opening his eyes, the hallways now looked normal and were no longer closing in trying to crush him.

He still had a tight knot in his stomach and even in the center of this chest that he had not noticed before, but thankfully it was now far less than before, his heart rate was still going fast but not near as fast as it had been. He continued to focus on his breathing trying to bring his heart rate back down to normal, taking slow, deep breaths.

He hadn't had an anxiety attack like that for a couple of years and nothing that was ever that sudden. Night terrors that ended in a panic attack, sure that was common, but what just happened, the last time he had an attack like that, was...was when he tried to get close to someone after Darrius station went up. He had tried to open up, get close to someone, and then that damn little voice in the back of his mind started talking to him, bringing up the worst case scenarios and would not stop.

After a month of constant anxiety attacks, even while seeing a therapist about it, which had not helped as all, the relationship had ended, and the voice had then gone silent, satisfied with its job.

Sitting down on the cold steel plate flooring, Shawn slid himself back up against the bulkhead wall. His breathing now almost normal, the knot in his stomach and chest were slowly going away. He wondered just how much stress his body had gone through in this last week, the forming of the link with the Xenos, the mercenaries boarding, being shot, and now a full blown panic and anxiety attack on top of it all. He needed some way to blow off some steam or relax or just take his mind of everything for a little while and soon, if he didn't he could see himself eventually having a heart attack or stroke right on the spot.

 _And you would leave them just like that._ The voice in his head piped up. _Doubt they could or even know how to perform CPR and no telling if that life or royal jelly would revive you. Just another reason not to get too close, better to start distancing yourself just like you did with everyone else._

"Shut the fuck up, just shut up, I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear you, not now and not ever again," Shawn muttered to that tiny voice in the back of his mind.

 _Fine, and when one or all of them die, and you're grief stricken, how will you handle that. You'll only have yourself to blame, and wish that you had never gotten close to them, I wonder what it's like to feel one of them die though that mental link that you now have with them, probably pretty shitty I would think. To actually feel someone slip away, just think about that for a while, think about what it would be like to feel Shadow die in your mind and in your soul._ _That would so suck, wouldn't it?_ The tiny voice spoke up in a manner of fact way. _You would probably be angry at him for the rest of your life, might even come to hate him, I did give you fair warning, but hey, it's your decision after all._

"Fuck off, just fuck off, go away, go away, just go the fuck away." He snarled pressing his middle finger and thumb into his temples and rubbing them. That damn tiny voice seemed to finally slip away back into the dark recesses' of his mind. He had come to hate that voice, it had kept him up countless nights, always whispering doubt into his mind, telling him not to get close to anyone, always the worst case scenarios would play out in his mind. Him dying in a cold and alone place, no one knowing what happened, or his family dying on Lunar City, and him truly losing everyone he cared for and loved. Always the worst case scenarios would run through his mind just to make sure he would distance himself so he would not get hurt.

And now, it had just gone and kicked him straight in the balls and ran away laughing. More or less. Dropping his hand into his lap, he didn't need to sit and dwell on what the real problem was, he knew what the problem was all too well, the problem was this, he was afraid, afraid of getting close and losing those he cared for and...and loved.

There is was again, he did care for the Xenos, that was not in question, but did he love them, every time he thought about it, he felt like he was trying to pry open a steel locked box with his bare fingers, he could feel something deep down inside his heart and soul, but it was sealed behind layers and layers of emotional walls that would not go down.

And yet there were those dreams, well just the two dreams so far, but in those dreams, there were no barriers, no walls, all had been laid bare and true, they had wanted him and he had wanted them, it was as simple as that. He wished he could take a sledgehammer and just start hitting those walls until there was nothing left, just a pile of rubble, maybe then he would feel free and that voice would go away forever.

Sitting there for a few more minutes, he just let his mind wonder, he knew what the issue was, the problem was how to deal with it, how to approach it, after Darrius station he had gone into survival mode and just turtled up, and now, now he was dealing with the repercussions of it all. It had been so easy for those on the outside to tell him to "just get over it" or "there are people that are in far worse off than you, be grateful for being alive." It was easy for those who had not gone through what he and the few survivors had gone through to simply blow it off as some minor issue. "Give it time it'll be alright, you just need to talk about it."

It was such utter bullshit, it wasn't just watching a whole station go up in flames and knowing that everyone inside was dead or dying out on the far-reaching edge of the known galaxy. But surviving and coming home, that had been the worse. Looking into the eyes of the families of those that had not survived and seeing the silent accusations being cast towards not only him but the other survivors as well. Why did they have the audacity to actually live, to come home, my son didn't, my daughter didn't, my husband, my wife didn't, why couldn't you and the others just have the common courtesy to just die with the rest of them?

And while those words were never spoken, at least not within earshot as far as they knew, the few survivors of Darrius station always felt like that was what the families of the dead were thinking toward them. Survivors guilt is what it was referred to as by the therapists, and it carried a lifetime of baggage. Baggage that we wished he could dump in an airlock and bid it goodbye forever.

Picking himself up, he needed to do something, anything, and there were a couple of very unpleasant tasks ahead. One involved going around, finding the bodies of the mercs, and getting them prepped and ready for disposal in space. The other was checking in on the two other mercs that were in the brig, that was something he would have to prepare for, and damned if he knew how.

Taking a step forward, he would deal with the dead first, there were large airlocks on both the port and starboard side of the ship, any of them would have enough space to place the bodies in until they jumped out of FTL, and once that was done, the pressure doors would open and the remains would be scattered to the void of space forever.

He would try and find the morgue, maybe there would be some body bags stored there that he could grab, and he could give them a respectful send off at least. His stomach growled in a painful protest, first thing was first, he needed to get something to eat.

xxxxx

Concern and instinct had finally won out over caution and logic, Alese walked the halls by herself, the three Xenos had waited for close to a couple of hours for Shawn to return to the sleeping room, he didn't. And Shadow was getting more and more agitated by each passing minute, his instincts were clawing inside his head, practically screaming at him to go and see how their human was doing. Even Ghost had finally yielded to his own instincts and decide they should go and check to see how he was doing.

The three of them had split up to cover more ground quicker, while both Ghost and Alese were sure that Shawn was fine, they had picked up something odd over the still weak link they now shared with him, yet it didn't feel like it was life threatening, so they left it be, for now. Shadow, on the other hand, had been pacing back and forth, restless, and almost going into what could have been considered a Xeno anxiety attack himself. It had taken both Ghost and Alese to calm him down enough to where he was at least he wasn't ready to go ripping through the bulkhead walls anymore.

None of them had been able to pinpoint his exact spot within the ship, he was either too far away or was completely focused on something else. About thirty minutes had passed as she walked the corridors when she felt a slight tug coming from his mind. It wasn't directed toward her, or any of them for that matter, but he did seem to be concentrating on something.

Following the mental tug, she soon found herself close by one of the larger airlock areas, glancing down she noticed a large trail of crimson red, human blood she recognized immediately, on the floor as if something was being dragged, the trail lead right into the airlock section. Following the trail, she found herself, entering a large room, not the airlock itself, but more from what she understood a prep room of sorts.

Five of the dead mercs were laying in a neat row, their bodies were inside opaque white bags. The weapons and gear they had worn were in a next pile off to the side. Rifles, magazines, battery packs, grenades and whatever else they might have had on them. Shawn was kneeling over a sixth mercenary and was in the process of sealing up the whitish bag.

He was so focused on what he was doing that he never even noticed her walking into the room or saw that she was just a few meters away.

Alese was about to say something to Shawn when she started to pick up images from his mind, not just images but segments that ran rampant, and there was something else a voice within his head, his own but different in some way, it almost seemed to be talking to him. Odd and very disturbing.

Within his mind she could see a large room, alarms blaring, bright red lights flashing, Shawn was there, inside with dozens of other people. They were all dressed in what a single form-fitting article of clothing, wearing hard hats. She could hear an announcement to evacuate the area. Chaos ensued as the dozens that were in there dropped what they were doing and quickly ran as fast as they could to what looked like a large door. A warning about the area being sealed off blared inside the room.

Fire suddenly erupted from one of the massive overhead pipes, bright colored thick liquid fire began to spew out coating the walls and floor. Most of them had made it out from what she could see, one of the humans, a female from what Alese could tell was standing next to the door, one of the leaders' maybe, waving at them to get through as fast as they could. On the far side of the room a door opened up; dozens more came running into the large room as fast as they could, the female and another one, this one a male was yelling at them to run as fast as they could. To make it though.

The large pressure door, slowly began to close, both of the humans frantically tried to stop it, the female was pushing buttons on the side panel trying to get it to stop, several of the humans, including Shawn, were trying to hold to door up, but with no success, the door continued to slowly close. The humans that were in the room were half way across when the pressure door slammed shut.

Alese could hear pounding coming from the other side, cries, and screams, begging to be let in to open the door. The woman had pried the panel off and was doing something with the wiring, the term 'hot wire' came from Shawn's mind. There was a sudden shake and a "whoosh" sound coming from the other side, the screams and cries lasted for several long seconds and then nothing, just silence.

They were all frozen in place, the female did not move, not even to release the wires she was holding in hand. Alese could feel a numbness creep in from Shawn's memories, she could see him collapse to the ground in total shock. His hand covering his mouth as tears started to pour from his eye, his body shaking, he lay on the cold steel floor and curled himself into a ball and started to weep uncontrollably.

The sequence shifted again, hours had passed, the room had been vented and the fire put out. Volunteers were called in to help with the remains. Most that had made it out agreed to go back in and retrieve the dead. Shawn and others, now wearing some form of a protective suit made their way into the large room. Charred human remains were close by, some were still frozen in place, trying to claw or pound their way out of the room, others were laying on the floor.

The bodies were little more than charred husks, the pieces breaking off far too easy as they were picked up and removed, piece by piece. None of the dead could be identified on the spot or for a long time. For Shawn, there had been some here that he had cared for and even was attached to, and now that person was gone.

The sequence seemed to repeat itself as he continued to work over and over, was it dealing with the dead mercs that had set this memory off? Just how much pain had he been holding back, holding onto needlessly?

' _Shawn, what you doing?'_ She asked, her voice gentle but also heavy with concern, and greatly disturbed by what she had just seen.

Turning around, he stood up but didn't move, Shawn looked down as if he was ashamed to even look right at her. "I…I figured that we needed to get these bodies ready for burial in space. I just needed something to do, sorry about what happened earlier, I just had a bad panic attack and needed to get away...sorry." He stammered, his gaze down.

Alese didn't say anything, her head tilting sideways, she could sense that he was barely able to keep the chaos that was riding so close to the surface down and in check.

"So," he started, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, glancing around, "I thought that I should go and salvage whatever stuff I could, not so much on the armor, since it's all trashed, but the weapons, ammo, grenades, trackers and whatever they have might come in handy, if or when it happens again. I've never used an automatic rifle, and certainly never an assault rifle, but I think I can learn how to, probably find a way to recharged the depleted power packs for the stun rifles. Not sure about what grenades they have, or if I would even want to test them on board the ship but…"

The female Xeno was in front of Shawn in just a couple of steps, her hands came up brushing the hair away from his forehead, her arms wrapped around his torso and she brought him into a soft embrace. Her hands ran across his back and through the hair in his head, cupping her chin over his shoulder she just stood there holding him, she didn't know what else to do.

Feebly Shawn tried to break out of Alese's embrace but it was no use, the attempt to struggle was half-hearted at best. The pain started to swell up again in his chest and was threatening to overtake him again, now all he wanted to do was run. "No, no, no...please..." his protest went silent as she tightened her grip on him, her mind projecting a calming aura which seemed to help settle him down some, only small whimpers now came from him. "Please.." He begged, "Please...help me." He choked, the words were small and tiny, only a whisper, but she had heard them.

She stood there, simply holding Shawn, her tail coiling and snaking around his hip and legs. She was racing trying to think of what to do, what to say, and nothing was coming to mind. Maybe, for now, all she needed to do was this, just simply hold him and say nothing, just let him know that she was there and not push it past that.

For several minutes they just stood there, motionless, as if both of them had become a surreal lifelike statue.

"You saw it didn't you?" Shawn said, not moving, his words soft but matter of fact.

Alese's grip tightened slightly more around him, _'Yes'_ , she replied back, her hand going up and her long slender fingers stroking his hair.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry you saw that I didn't want you or the others to know to see some of what I had gone through."

' _Why, why are you sorry, you have nothing to be sorry or ashamed of. You are in pain, we all know it we all sense and feel it. And we are all concerned for you.'_ Alese said, continuing to run her fingers through Shawn's hair. "Do you now that Shadow was about to tear the bulkhead walls apart and come looking for you?" She joked, trying to improve his mood, it did work, a little.

Shawn let out a slight chuckle, "I can see him doing that too."

' _There is something I would ask you, but I will not press if you do not want me to, and I ask this out of concern for you.'_ Alese was nervous to broach the subject but she felt it needed to be, at least it would be in the open, or between the two of them if he wanted to keep it private. ' _There was a voice in your head, your own but different.'_

"Shit..." was his only response, she had heard it, heard that little voice in the back of his mind, the one that had popped up after Darrius station when up like a giant roman candle. The one that kept him from getting close and seemed to know what emotional buttons to push to make him keep his distance. The one that had messed up a couple of relationships after that god awful incident, and right now, that tiny, little, voice was starting to do its damnedest to see about sabotaging what was starting to grow between him and the three Xenos. And right now he was starting to hate it.

 _Go ahead, hate me all you want, you'll see I'm right, get close to them and it'll end badly for either you or one of them, maybe all of them. What do you think would happen to Shadow if you died, hmmm, ponder that thought for a second or three. How badly do you think it would tear his heart up if somehow you died right in front of him, can you see him holding your lifeless body, and I would say crying, but Xenos can't physically shed tears, but grief, oh most definitely. He would probably lose his fucking mind, and you would be to blame, you selfish little shit._ The tiny voice berated him.

Alese was stunned, mortified in fact, it was Shawn's voice, but something so very different from what she was use to, what had happened to cause that, was it that fire she had seen in his memory or something far worse. She didn't sense anything wrong with his mind, no other presence or different personality that might have been hidden deep down. But this voice that was there that he seemed to have no control over was there and talking to him.

Looking up at her, he brought his hand up to her jaw and with his fingertips, he gently caressed the side of her face. To say that he was scared of opening up like this was a gross understatement, he was absolutely terrified, and he had only told the therapist he was assigned to about it, no one else, not his friends and not his family. He was afraid they would look at him differently, act differently, or just not want anything to do with him. He had already been treated differently after Darrius station, people always asking him how he was doing, how he was feeling, is there anything they could do for him.

And while he would always put on a brave face, smile and tell them no thanks, what he really wanted them to do was stop acting like he had suddenly become this frail and weak individual that couldn't take care of himself, or everyone around him that knew him would go out of their way to make sure they didn't say anything that might upset him. All he wanted to do was be treated like he was before the disaster happened, but that wasn't likely to happen, at least not anytime soon if ever.

And now he felt that he might be in the same situation with the Xenos, they weren't human, and deep down, he didn't think that he would be treated differently, but that blatant fear was there nonetheless, just in the back of his mind, along with that tiny voice.

Backing up and breaking out of Alese's hug, he paced back and forth a few times before leaning up against a wall and sitting down. Walking over right in front of him, Alese squatted down, her tail wrapping itself around her feet, she waited for Shawn to open up, if he did not, then she and the others would wait until he was ready to.

Taking a deep breath he slowly let it out, trying to gather his courage to talk to her, a short time ago, he was matching wits with a mercenary commander threating to vent them, and now he could barely talk about what was wrong. "Just this stupid little voice in the back of my mind," he finally started, his heart seemed to tighten up as he began to speak, "that seems to come out when I'm getting close to someone, guess it doesn't want to take the chance of getting close to someone and then have something happen and get hurt. Keep your distance it says, don't get close it says, can't get hurt again it says. My own mind, my own body, and I don't seem to have any control over what happens with it. Get close to someone, start having feelings, and I get these panic attacks, I get scared, I run. It's all fine as long as there's a certain amount of distance, but I get too close and that little voice in the back of my mind starts up." Shawn just shook his head, "I feel like such a coward sometimes, I can't even overcome my own fears, I can't even face myself. I want to, just don't know how to, I keep hitting a wall and...and I just want to give up sometimes. One of the reasons I went and bought that ship of mine and just stay away from others, guess it was just easier to be alone."

Reaching out, Alese ran the back of her finger along the side of his face, the truth was coming out, and maybe just maybe this whole ordeal that had been tormenting him for the last few years would be soon laid to rest. How deep his pain went, none of them knew, she could sense that it ran far too deep. ' _You are not a coward, you have helped us when you could have turned your back and ran, you saved us from those mercenaries, and even now you continue to help us, what I see is not a coward, but someone who is deeply confused and does not know how to let go of his pain. I saw part of what you went though, it was only a small part, I understand that, but it was something that would haunt anyone.'_

Shawn just shook his head as if he was defeated, "I'm alive, and they're not, I'm alive and a lot of people are not. I know that logically I should be happy and grateful about that, but it feels wrong that I survived, I feel like I should have died with everyone else."

For her it was heart-wrenching to hear him speak those words, he had been strong for all of them, now she needed to be strong for him, now more than ever it seemed. _'You hold onto your pain so tightly, it is something that will rot away at your heart and your soul, it will eat away at you until there is nothing left. It is a sickness a disease that will destroy you from the inside out. Why do hold onto it so, why do you not open up, why do you not let it go, we are hive, we are here for you and for all of us, do you truly not understand that, your pain is our pain, what you feel we feel. Please tell me why do you not open up and release it. '_

"Choices." He said that was it, just a one-word answer and nothing more, but it seemed to hold a great deal of meaning.

Cocking her head, Alese looked at him in confusion. ' _I do not understand, what do you mean by, choices.'_

"When I was born, I had a good family that took care of me, loves me and helped me through life, I was able to decide what I wanted to do with my life, what to do, where to go, even if it meant going to that shit hole of a death trap space station to try and make my way in life. I had the freedom to be able to make those decisions and live with the consequences no matter how painful they might be." Looking right up at her, his eyes locked onto her dome where he could see the vague outline of the eye sockets just beneath the dome.

"You did not." He said flatly, "you and those of your race that were born on that station did not have that freedom, you were caged, tortured, violated, picked on, probed, experimented on and god knows what else, you, Shadow, Ghost, never had the freedom to do what you wanted to in life, you were considered specimens, experiments, company property...slaves."

Shawn looked away for a bit, still trying to collect his thoughts, everything was coming out faster than he could control it. "I know that this is not a competition, but how can I even compare my pain to what you and the others went though, when I saw and felt what Ghost went though, I came to realize that whatever pain I had gone though, was insignificant compared to that, compared to all of it. And that it didn't matter, you had it far worse than anyone I ever knew, and you had no choice but to endure it day after day for however long. And me, I had a choice to do whatever I wanted to in life, how could I ever complain about anything in my life after that, there are always those worse off, and I can't complain about a few trivial panic attacks and bad dreams. Always those that are worse off, can't complain, don't have the right to complain."

 _'Shawn...please.'_

"Well it's true isn't it, I'm alive, I have a ship, hell two ships for all intensive purposes now, I'm in good with you guys, practically living the high life right now, right? Just have to man up and take it and not say anything, that's what society tells us to do, don't say a thing, don't be weak and show how much you might hurt inside, just bury it and say nothing..."He couldn't even finish what he was saying he started to choke in the lump forming in his throat.

 _'Please, stop...please.'_ Her mental voice was trembling, he had held all this pain and suffering inside and now it was all coming out or trying to, some part of him was still determined to hold it all in, she simply could not understand it, why, why hold all that torment and pain inside. It was toxic, poisonous it would rot his soul until there was nothing left except an empty husk. It made no sense at all.

Cupping his face with her hands, Alese leaned in pressing her forehead against his, ' _pain is pain, it does not matter the source or how much or how little it is, you are suffering, and you refuse to let it go. You think that you have no right to release it, no right to express it, that for some reason you must hold onto it, we are all, all of us, scared for you, we see fragments of the dreams that you have, space, fire, terror. None of us know what truly happened to you, but we know that it scarred you deeply.'_ Alese said she wanted now more than anything to help him release this pain that he had been holding in. There was no reason for it, it would do nothing more than rot him from the inside. And that scared them more any mercenary group ever could or would.

"I saw so many die," Shawn whispered, his voice stammering, cracks had formed within those walls that he had held up for so long, and now it was finally looking that they might finally start to come down. "Saw so much death, and for what, so that some CEOs back home could make a bigger profit margin for themselves at our expense, our lives. What little you saw, was not the worst of it. And there is a part of me that hates that I'm alive, hates that I somehow survived when so many others did not."

Drawing in a deep breath; slowly let it out as he tried to hold back the tears that were starting to come, but it was useless. "I hate feeling like this, feeling like there is something wrong with me, hate that little voice in my head that seems to get its way and not being able to do anything about it. I want to feel happy again," Shawn curled his hand into a fist and pounded the front of his chest several times. "And I hate feeling like everything right here in my chest is in some prison and that I can't free it. And I don't know what to do, and gods I wish I did, I really do, but I don't know how to let any of this go and I hate it."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room for several minutes as Alese simple observed Shawn as his gaze was fixed on the floor, not even looking back up at her, she could feel guilt and even shame bleeding out through the mental link that was now formed between them all. Her mind raced as she tried desperately to search for an answer to this problem. The dilemma was even if a solution could be found, it could take years for him to come to terms with whatever had happened and rid himself of this poison.

Perhaps if it was approached in small doses might help, instead of trying to fix it all at once. She thought to herself, perhaps if he was willing to communicate about what had happened in that room, just talk about that, it might be a start. She had seen through the link a good part of what had happened, but what happened after, she did not know, that she did not see.

It would at least be worth a try.

' _Would you talk to me about what happened in that room, the one with the fire that you escaped from?'_ She asked, her hand slowly dropping down to his, she reached out her finger gently touching and gripping his, reassuring him that she was here for him.

"What is there to talk about, you saw what happened, what can I tell you that you don't already know?" He replied back, his voice distant.

' _There is much I don't know.'_ She answered, ' _I only know what you were projecting, nothing more. There are gaps that I did not see. There is also what happened after the fire in that room.'_ She wondered if maybe she might be pushing too far and too quickly like Ghost had warned, humans were fragile both physically and now it looked like even mentally. Still, the subject was now laying in the open, it couldn't hurt to try, or at least she hoped it wouldn't hurt.

Shawn didn't say anything for a while, simply staring down at the floor, his hand, however, did squeeze hers several times and tightly too, as if he was trying to draw strength from her to delve into that maelstrom of memories. "It wasn't the first disaster I went through on that station, just the worst one to that point." He started, "A faulty pipe ruptured, the compressed liquid gas that was being mined from the gas giant we were orbiting ignited and spilled out into the room that we were all in, Susan who was the supervisor at that point got us all the hell out of there as quick as she could, we had made it to safety but there was an adjusted room just opposite to us that had another team in it." Shawn's voice got quiet and his grip on Alese's hand tightened up.

"All we could do was try and wave them to hurry up, the room was filling up and we couldn't do anything to stop it. They were so close, I thought they would make it but the pressure door started to close. We tried to stop it we really did, three of us trying to hold it up and it came down as if we weren't even there, the door closed, Susan was trying to hot wire it and override the safeties to get them out, we had time and we could have, but..." Closing his eyes, Shawn let out a stifled gasp, trying to catch his breath as the words started to choke in his throat.

"...We couldn't. All we could do is stand there on the other side and listen. You're not supposed to be able to hear anything from behind safety walls and sealed pressure doors, but we did, we could hear them pounding on the doors and wall, begging, pleading...crying. And then there was the muffled explosion, we hear their screams and their cries and then nothing, just silence. We all felt like we had just died right there, they were our co-workers, some were friends, some were family, and some..."

There was something that Shawn was holding back that Alese could tell, something that was tugging on his soul, it had its fingers around his heart and refused to let go. She squeezed her grip on his hand letting him know that it was alright, she was there and that it would be alright.

Closing his eyes, he let out a slow and measured breath, "there was someone that I was getting close to, someone that I was starting to care for very much. I was only meters away from them when they died...when they were burned to death."

He seemed to close up making himself even smaller as he sat there, Alese scooted closer, gently she nuzzled this side of his head with the front of her dome. She felt a massive title wave of raw pent up emotions breaking through one of the many emotional walls that he had formed for himself over the years. Walls that had at one time served as a protective self-preserving force, now only served to rot away at his soul and heart. His whole body shook as he drew in long breaths, hot tears ran down his face, the dam had been breached and nothing was going to stop it now.

"And we couldn't do a damn thing, not one goddamn thing to save any of them, all we could do is listen to them scream and die. They were so close, so fucking close, all they needed was another minute, at most, and they would have gotten out of there. Just one more minute at the most." Pausing, he leaned into Alese's nuzzling, he found it was making this whole ordeal more bearable, he had opened up to her in a way that he hadn't opened up to anyone, not his family, or friends, not even the therapist that the company had sent him to. And while he had told the therapist what had happened, he never had truly opened up, and now, now it was all coming out.

"It was only when the area was vented and the fires were out, we were allowed back in to help gather what was left of the dead. All that was left was charred husks, we couldn't even tell who they were, some had died standing up and were just froze in place, clawing or pounding on doors or walls. Others were laying where they had fallen or just kneeling in place, parts were fused to the deck plating. Every time we tried to remove their remains, pieces would just break off." Shawn just shook his head, looking up into Alese's semitransparent dome, eye sockets that were just barely visible in the light, something that should have brought terror to any human that saw them, now only brought a warm comfort to him. "When it was over...when it was finally over, we didn't know what to do or how to feel. I had lost someone that I had growing feelings for, someone I thought I might have a future with. Others had lost family members and close friends. Regardless though I don't think that any of us ever got over that day."

 _'What happened to you, what happened to everyone was horrific, but while you are physically away from that place, you still carry its weight and guilt with you. You have run away from it but you have never been able to escape its grip. We are here for you, you need no longer run.'_ Alese said, trying to offer what small comfort she could. _'Do you not owe it to yourself to try and let this pain go and find a measure of peace, even happiness?'_

Shawn was silent for a while before replying to her. "Far easier said than done, especially when said human has been carrying around this baggage for years. I know you and the others want me to be free of this weight, and believe me I do too, but it's not something that I can just get over quickly, if ever, but it does help that you, Shadow and Ghost are here. It's just nice to know that's I'm not alone anymore." Wiping his tears away, he felt emotionally drained, but a little lighter, a part of this weight, albeit a small part had been lifted.

Although she did not say anything to him and in truth there was no need to, she could feel a small sense of relief and release from him. And while there was still, as he had stated, baggage, that he was carrying, a small part of it seemed to be gone. To them, this was a new and unusual experience with dealing with humans, up until Shawn had come on board, their experience when dealing humanity had been in the form of pain and suffering. They had all been relieved to know that not all humans were like the monsters that were on the station.

 _A very odd and strange race indeed_ , she silently thought to herself while running her fingers through his hair, their human let out a deep and relaxed sigh, his head turned and she could tell his eyes were now locked on the bodies that he had been putting into the plastic bags. None of them had any idea why he was doing that or what the purpose served, maybe it was a way they disposed of their dead, something she would have to inquire about.

"I guess I should get back to work, need to collect the remaining dead and get them prepped for disposal," Shawn said, standing back up, but not moving.

' _Do you wish for me to stay and help?'_ Alese asked, slowly standing up her body almost uncoiling itself in an effortless grace.

"Yes, please yes," Shawn answered back, relieved that she was willing to help out with this dismal task before him. "Not sure where the rest of the dead mercs are at, I came across these six as I was just aimlessly wandering around and figured I would go and get them ready."

Lifting her head up, she was still for a few moments before placing her hand on his good shoulder and looking down at him. ' _Shadow and Ghost are coming to help, they will be here shortly with some of the bodies. I'll help you prepare them, it should go faster with all of us working.'_

"Thank you, for everything that you have done."

 _'It is us that give thanks to you, you have given much of yourself and have asked very little in return, and you continue to do so. You have risked your life and you have saved us, you have also shown us that your race is far more complex than we thought and that not all humans are monsters."_

"I think that most of us are just confused and alone and don't really know what to do with ourselves and sometimes make bad choices for the wrong reasons and then get in so far over our heads that we don't think that we can change what we did and just tell ourselves that we have no choice but to follow though. We also have a bad habit of plowing ahead without truly thinking things out and considering the conquests. I mean it's human nature and all, but it almost got us in a couple of intergalactic wars when we met other space-faring races, races that were a hell of a lot more advanced than we were.

Alese remembered that Shawn had mentioned other space-faring races, but he had never gone into any detail on what these races were or what had happened when his race had first met them. She found herself being curious about the subject and decided it would be a good distraction for a few minutes as Shadow and Ghost would be there soon. ' _What happened when your race met these other space faring races?'_

Almost doing a double take, he found himself somewhat surprised that Alese would be interested in human history, but then again it was human history involving encounters with other alien races. He was wondering if she was in some way comparing the first contacts with how humans had treated her own race.

Deep down he knew that she wouldn't be surprised by the answer he was about to give her.

"Well I wasn't even born yet when we made first contact," He began, "but what I learned in school and looking at old vids, was this, mass anti-alien hysteria swept across both earth and the colonies. Everyone was afraid of what was going to happen, most everyone seemed to be convinced that we were going to be invaded, enslaved, eradicated or some horrible thing would happen. So we had rioting and protests that started off first then the fanatics started crawling out of the woodworks and they were calling for war, religious sects were calling it the end times and that we were going to be punished unless we changed our ways. The news pretty much brought out the worse in a lot of people, and perhaps the wrong people too, as a lot of them were in power and had sway over a large part of the population. It seemed like the whole human race had just taken a nose dive right into the deep end of crazy wasn't coming up anytime soon if ever. "

"So," Shawn continued cracking his neck, "for about a year or two, this whole alien fear was sweeping across our race, weapons were being bought faster than they could be made, and everyone was fearful and suspicious of everyone else. Apparently that a rumor was going around that the aliens were shapeshifters and that they were coming to impregnate the female population and breed an army and take us over from the inside out. It was so outlandish and unbelievable that no one took it seriously of course, except a few, well more than a few, but unfortunately, those that did decide to take matters into their own hands, a lot of pregnant women paid the price for that fear. Many were abducted and screened against their wills in makeshift examination rooms to make sure they weren't carrying around half human half alien hybrids. Some were even killed for the so-called greater good to make sure our race wasn't infected. It was a colossal shit storm, but thankfully when the abductions and killings started to happen law enforcement stepped up and was able to hunt the individuals or groups down. Most of them were either just fanatics or just mentally disturbed, but the damage was done regardless."

"And you want to know what the funny thing was, the aliens that we made first contact with, the ones that we were so afraid of, they already knew about us, had for centuries, and wanted nothing to do with us what so ever. The alliances, empires, federations, they knew of us and just wanted to keep their distance from us for as long as they could, called us a childish, foolish and dangerous race that was on the path to self-annihilation. So all that panic, death, destruction fear, all for nothing. Guess they were right about us. Though a few decades later we were staring down the mussel end of their weapons in a fleet standoff around the earth that our race had started because we figured we could take what we wanted and get away with it, so they decided to prove us wrong and let us know where we stood. Thankfully cooler, calmer and wiser heads did prevail, but still, I bet that it was very humbling for the leaders of the earth to be put in their place like that. Facing off with some races that were far more powerful and advanced and not being able to do a damn thing about it as well as being told what they could and could not do."

"Course they didn't listen at least not really, the mega corps started going into overdrive along with the government to leap frog on technology so we could get on even footing or get ahead of the other alien races because of course, they were the threat, not us and we were just defending ourselves. At that point, it was a mixture of fear, petty egos and damaged pride that was running everything. Guess it hasn't changed that much over the centuries, I'm actually surprised that we haven't killed ourselves off yet to tell you the truth." Shawn finished up the little history lesson with a halfhearted smile.

He was kind of surprised that he had gone on as long as he had. While he and Alese hadn't had a whole lot of one on one time together he found it was nice to be able to talk to her alone. She had always had a calm and soothing demeanor it was something he was very grateful for, it made opening up to her much easier. If she had been around after Darrius station whet up in flames, he figured that he wouldn't be the emotional wreck that he was today.

' _I am glad that your race survived the encounter.'_ She stated after a moment's pause, ' _If they hadn't you would not be here today with us, and for that, I am grateful as we all are.'_ It was right then as if on cue both Ghost and Shadow entered the area, each one was carrying or rather dragging a pair of the dead mercs bodies. Both of the Xenos laid the bodies down side by side in a neat row.

Shawn stepped up to the two of them, "I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to hurt or..."

He was cut off as Shadow leaned down and carefully wrapped his arm around the much smaller human drawing him in, ' _Do not apologize, you have nothing to be sorry for.'_ The large Xeno said resting his chin on Shawn's good shoulder. _'I forget that you are human sometimes and that the rules that apply to us may not apply to you, and that the problems that you have that need to be worked out differently.'_

Shawn chuckled at some of Shadow's words, "Ummm, how can you forget I'm human, I would have thought that the hair, soft skin, clothes and all that stuff would have been a dead giveaway."

 _'When I look at you and I do not see a human anymore, I see a hive mate, a fellow Xeno, someone that simply wears a different skin than we do, nothing more.'_ Shadow said, his words were simple and straight forward.

And it was the simple and straightforward response that drove home to Shawn just how much he meant to them. He felt his heart swell up at those words and a lump form in his throat, leaning into Shadow's chest he closed his eyes as several hot tears fell down his cheek. For the first time in a very long time, he truly felt like he belonged somewhere, and while it wasn't so much the place, it was the company that he belonged to more than anything else.

' _Thank you.'_ He mentally sent to all of them, and even though his mental hive speech was still clunky, the message was heard by all three Xenos loud and clear enough. Breaking away from Shadow's hug he walked up to Ghost, the drone gently wrapped his arms around Shawn and drew him in too, Shawn placed his arm around Ghost's neck returning the affectionate hug. He had been expecting that tiny voice in the back of his mind to start speaking up again, but so far it had remained silent, maybe that little bit of release had caused it to go quiet.

After a few moments of being in Ghost's warm and quiet embrace, Shawn glanced back over to the bodies of the mercs. This was a task that he was not looking forward to, but one that needed to be done and soon. "I guess we should get this out of the way, the sooner the better." He said, backing up and turning toward the closest body. "We'll need to strip whatever gear and weapons are useable."

' _Ghost and I will collect the remaining bodies, you do what you feel is best for these dead humans, I do not know in what manner humans dispose of their dead.'_ Shadow said, getting ready to leave the room.

"Depends on the culture and the circumstances." Shawn said, kneeling down over one of the dead mercs, and removing the sidearm and ammo magazines, "Most of the time we either bury or cremate our dead when we are on planet, though most of the time on a vessel like this or in a space station we will cast them into space."

' _Fascinating._ ' Ghost said as he and Shadow left to collect more of the bodies.

The work that Shawn and Alese did went by quickly, Shawn would go and removed the remaining weapons, ammo magazines, power cell, grenades and whatever other equipment he thought might be of use and value. While Alese would, surprisingly enough, be fairly gentle as she placed the mercs remains in the body bags. Deep down he felt guilty about pilfering the dead like this, but at the same time, he now realized that he needed to be ready the next time something like this happened, and he was damn sure that there would be a next time.

' _How is your arm and hand doing?'_ Alese asked after a long silence, as she closed another bag.

Standing up and turning to look at her, he raised his arm up a little, the tips of his fingers wiggled some but nothing more than that. " Well, there is some soreness, which I'm still surprised at how little pain there is, considering the size of the holes that are in my shoulder, but I do have a bit of feeling in the tips of my fingers and can move them a little now. That life jelly that Shadow fed me and applied to the wounds is a damn miracle drug. I'm guessing that Mason doesn't know about this stuff does he?" Shawn inquired.

' _No, he does not, nor does he know about the royal jelly either, I have no doubt that if he did, he and the others like him would be extracting it from us as much as they could.'_ Alese answered, _'We still have no idea what it is he and the others want from us, they study us, torture us, but yet they have never once tried to communicate with us.'_

"Probably just think that your race is nothing more than a bunch of dumb animals that can't think or even feel. It would be one hell of a shock for them to realize just how intelligent you are."

 _'Something I hope to be witness to,'_ She said, her attention went back to the dead mercs, looking over the bagged bodies, something crossed her mind, _'Something I am curious about, if you are planning to simply release the dead into space, why go to the trouble of placing the dead in these odd bags?'_

Leaning up against the wall, Shawn looked over the, what were now a couple of dozen bodies. "I know that they tried to capture you guys, they hurt us all, and I guess by all rights I should just vent them into space as they are. But listening to them over the hangers PA system, I never got the impression that they were bad people, just men, and women doing a tough job, granted they signed up for it, but still. And I would bet that a lot of them have family waiting back home, it would at least be respectful if nothing else to give them a chance to make it home so if any family members they have, might have a bit of closure."

' _And you plan to give them this chance to get home how?'_ Alese asked.

"I'm going to clamp and tie the bags together as we place them in the airlock when we come out of FTL in a day or two I'll put a distress beacon in one of the bags and activate it right before I vent the bodies into space. If those merc ships are still chasing us and I don't see why they wouldn't be, when they drop out of FTL they should pick up on the beacon. If they collect the bodies, maybe they will make it home to be laid to rest, if not, well then the void will become their resting place."

' _You are far more considerate and understanding than any of us might have been given what we went through and what the possibility was for our future, we would have simply viewed them as enemies, and either left their bodies to rot or as you say, vented them into space as they are. But you give thought to the families of these humans and allow them the chance of some closure.'_

"Yea, well, I saw a lot of good people die that never made it home to be laid to rest and it tore their families up knowing that there remains would never come home, and none of them would ever really have any closure, at best all they could do was accept it and try and move on." Shawn looked down the corridor as he heard heavy footfalls coming closer. "Something that is far easier said than done."

Shadow entered the room with Ghost trailing behind, and as before the dead were laid on the floor, the equipment removed and then the bodies bagged up, within few more hours all the dead mercs were stripped of their weapons, and equipment, and then placed in the bags. Then moved into the large airlock, the bags clamped and tied together. A neat and very morbid opaque white and red stained wall was now formed within the air lock, lying ten across and five high.

Closing the inner air lock doors, Shawn pressed a few buttons on the control pad, a temperature readout slowly started to drop until it leveled off just above freezing. "That's that." He said turning around, "When we come out of FTL I'll jettison the bodies and that'll be it, I can honestly say that I don't want to ever do this ever again."

' _It has been, unpleasant, for all of us.'_ Ghost replied, looking at the airlock doors.

"That would be an understatement," Shawn said, he glanced over to the pile of neatly sorted weapons and equipment that was laying on the ground. "We'll I guess we'll be better prepared next time if there is a next time."

' _Let's hope that next time does not come.' Alese respond_.

"Well, as if right now, the only thing that we have to deal with is the pair of mercenaries ships that are more than likely chasing us, figure out how to find and disable the homing beacon on this ship and figure out what to do with our two new guests until we can drop them off someplace. Which I guess I should go and check up on and see how they are doing." Shawn said, shaking his head, things weren't just complicated, they were downright overwhelming now. "Though I need to get cleaned up first and get some fresh clothes, I smell like death."

' _You have a strong scent, one that I find most stimulating and arousing.'_ Shadow stated rather bluntly, trying to lighten the mood some, though he realized that it was probably not the best time to say such things.

"When this is over and I've had a chance to heal up I will run the entire length of this ship a dozen times over to get all hot and sweaty for you all, but right now, I am literally covered in blood and shit and I need to get cleaned up," Shawn replied, stepping past Shadow and Ghost and heading into the hallway, the three Xenos following behind.

xxxxx

Shawn had made a stop off at his ship, the Ember Rose to grab come fresh clothes and check in oh how the repairs were coming along. He hadn't had a chance to see the progress that the maintenance androids were making, while the six androids were still working on making repairs, a great deal of the damage had been fixed, the hull breach in aft section had been patched up fairly well, allowing access to the once sealed off aft section of the ship, it was, however, a temporary fix and would need a dry dock to make full repairs.

Taking a lengthy shower to wash off all the grime and filth and changing into some fresh clothing, walking out of the washroom he found all three of the Xenos had followed him onto the Ember Rose and were poking and looking around his small ship their curiously getting the better of them.

 _'This ship of yours smells and feels much nicer than the large ship we are on.'_ Shadow commented, ' _it smells lived in and has a comfortable feel to it.'_

Shawn smiled at Shadows words, he hadn't been back on the Ember Rose since he had docked with the Saratoga and somehow being back on this small ship of his made him feel better. In an odd way, it was almost like coming home. While the Saratoga was a vast and impressive ship, it had always felt sterile and seemed void of any personality. "This is my baby, I've pretty much lived out of for the last couple of years; it already had a lot of use on it when I got it, she might be old, but she's been a good ship so far."

Heading toward an adjacent room he motioned for the three Xenos to follow him. "You interested in anything to eat, the food I have is a bit better than what is on the Saratoga, but not by much."

' _Yes, we were starting to become hungry.'_ Alese said, the three of them following Shawn into a moderate sized what appeared to be a common room with a good sized table off to the side with a couple of the walls that were aligned with cabinets and countertops. Bins full of dry food stuff were hanging just below some of the upper cabinets.

"These should be more to your liking," Shawn said, stacking up a small pile of protein and meal bars as well as some chunks of dehydrated and vacuumed sealed meat on a tray and walking over to the table and setting the tray down. "These have more flavor than the crap back at the mess hall."

 _'These taste much better,'_ Shadow said devouring some of the meat chunks and protein bars.

Hunkering down next to Shadow and Alese, Ghost took one of the protein bars, his tongue shot out, taking chunks out of the protein bar. _'Agreed,'_ he replied.

Sitting down next to Ghost, Shawn grabbed a couple of the bars and started to eat as well. "I guess as soon as I finish up here, I'll need to make introductions to our two new guests. Still not sure what the hell I'm going to say to them."

' _Do you wish us to be there with you, it might make it easier for you if we were close by.'_ Suggested Ghost, downing a couple of the chunks of dried meat.

"Yes, please, that would make this whole ordeal a lot less awkward." Answered Shawn, relieved that they would be there, but he suspected that they would have come regardless.

 _'And should they become argumentative and even belligerent I will be glad to remind them of their current place and where they stand.'_ Shadow stated, his lips fully peeling back in a playful mock display of aggression.

"Either way once they see you guys I doubt that they will even want to come out of the cells."

 _'Which is fine as far as I am concerned, it will mean less trouble for us to deal with.'_ Alese said.

Shawn sat there silent for a few minutes glancing up as the Xenos continued to eat, his thoughts absently turned back to the dream he had before which seemed to lead to his panic attack, closing his eyes, he started to remember the whole dream in great detail, the forest, the warmth of the sun on his skin, the seductive hiss, gentle clawed hands caressing him and exploring his body, being lifted up and gently placed on the ground, the Xeno in his dreams laying on top of him, the raw and heated sexual arousal coursing through his mind and body and what was about to happen right before he woke up.

Opening his eyes, he found that all three Xenos were looking right at him, the looks from what he saw were looks of surprise, Shadow's look of surprise, of course, turned into a mischievous grin. "Oh hell," Shawn said, shaking and lowering his head, realizing what he had just done, Ghost had warned him about projecting his thoughts and that was what he had just done.

 _'Well now,'_ Shadow said, leaning in, _'it seems you do dream of us, you have raised my interest, to say the least.'_

"Yea and I'm sure that's not all I have raised." Replied Shawn, a slight smirk on creeping up on his face, which had turned a brighter shade of red all of a sudden.

Shadow shifted his position a bit, ' _Would you care to see what else might be raised...hmmmm?'_

 _'Yes_ , y _ou certainly have my undivided attention.'_ Ghost announced before Shawn could reply back.

' _Mine as well.'_ Chimed Alese, who too was showing interest in what she had just seen.

He cursed himself silently on this one, there was no way out of it, all three Xenomorphs had seen what he was dreaming about and right now they were about as curious as a cat in a cabinet and were waiting for some answers.

Might as well get on with it.

"I was going to bring it up to you all sooner or later, might as well be sooner, but this is the second time I've had this dream, never progressed past what you saw, but I've never been planet side, never went into a forest, and the weird thing is this, physically there was only one Xeno that I can remember but it seemed like all three of you were there." Shawn was silent for a few moments before speaking up again, an idea came to his mind and while he was a bit hesitant on it, it might be easier for the Xenos to experience the dream as he had instead of talking about it.

Leaning forward, he took a deep breath before speaking trying to steady his nerves. "If you want to use the hive link and experience what I dreamed about, I would not have a problem with that. It might be easier than me trying to explain it."

Shadow's tone turned serious as he started to speak up. _'Are you sure about this, what you are offering is considered very intimate.'_

Nodding, Shawn looked right at Shadow. "I'm sure, I'm a little nervous about this but I trust you all."

 _'We will only go as far as you allow and no further.'_ Ghost said, trying to reassure Shawn, he could sense how nervous the human was becoming, it would be the first time they were allowed in his mind. Hive speech, picking up on emotions or even projected thoughts was one thing, but he was now allowing them into his mind, this was a massive step of trust on his part, trust that was not to be violated.

Closing his eyes, Shawn tried to relax, he could feel the minds of the three Xenos connect with his own as they slipped into his memory of the dream. He didn't really feel anything different, just their presence which seemed much closer and far more intimate now, the dream replayed in his mind with pure clarity, the sounds, smells, feelings, everything was so clear he could have sworn that he was planetside instead of sitting in the commons area of his own little ship.

He could feel all too clearly the interest and even arousal coming from Shadow, Alese and even Ghost, as they viewed and even seem to analyze everything about the dream. None of them said anything or if they did he was not privy to it.

Feeling them pull out, he opened his eyes, he then realized that only a few seconds had passed by even though he relived the whole dream in what seemed to be normal time. Another very interesting discovery he had just found out about.

 _'That was intense.'_ Ghost said, shifting his body around a bit, ' _And you have had this dream twice now?'_

"Yea, the first time it didn't get as far as what you saw, but it was exactly the same, almost as if I'm reliving a memory of some sort but it goes further each time I have the dream. I had wondered if it might be a mix of hive memories bleeding through and I'm picking up on them somehow and it's translating into a dream, and even though it's just one Xeno, I can feel all three of you there, it's almost as if the Xeno in that dream is all three of you combined into one somehow. Dreams that humans have almost are always weird and don't always make a whole lot of sense."

All three of the Xenos were quiet for a bit, as they seemed to be pondering on what they had just seen and Shawn's explanation.

 _'It may be just as you said, maybe old hive memories transferring over in some way and you are picking them up and translating them into a dream, a very vivid and erotic dream.'_ Alese said, _'however hive memories even those that are deeply buried, normally serve a purpose, and as pleasant as what I saw is, it does not serve any real purpose as far as furthering a hive.'_

' _Either way, it is a dream, one I would not mind help in making come true.'_ Shadow purred, remembering every sensual touch, nibble, and caress that had happened, if that dream had gone any further he would have been pushed over the edge.

"And on that note, I think that it's time we check up on our guests now," Shawn stated getting up trying not to think about how much he really did want Shadow and the others to make that dream come true. "Maybe get some food for them from the mess hall, let them know we don't plan to do any harm to them."

 _'Unless they irritate us.'_ Shadow replied only half joking.

Making their way to the mess hall, Shawn picked up some food rations for their two prisoners in the brig along with a pair of plastic cups for water. He was trying to think of what to say or how to explain what had happened. He had no doubt that it was not going to be a pleasant topic of conversation.

Upon entering the brig area, Shadow, Ghost, and Alese hung back, not wanting to make things more difficult than what they would be. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Shawn took a step forward and presented himself in front of the cell door. The mercenary in the cell was awake and up, pacing back and forth. From the looks of it, he had used the small shower just recently.

"Though you might be hungry and could use something to eat," Shawn said sliding the tray through a small slot in the door and one to small door counter top. "Basic food stuff but that's all that's really around here it seems."

The merc walked forward stopping just a few feet from the cell door, not taking the tray of food. "Where am I, what happened to me and others and who are you?" The merc asked his voice a bit shaky, give how young he looked to be it shouldn't have been a surprise that he would be scared, especially after his run in with Shadow and getting the brunt end of the Xenos furry.

"Well," Shawn started, "as hard as it is to believe, you're still on the Saratoga, you're...well a...prisoner I'm afraid, sorry." He timidly answered back, not caring about the situation at all, he felt awful about now having to imprison two people and now he was solely responsible for them.

The mercs eyes widened up some, as a look of start disbelief rolled across his face. "No...no that's not right, I can't be." He shook his head, "no, I...I was about to die, that..that thing had me in its grip, it was going to kill me, I can't still be on that ship. There's no way, not with those things running around."

"Look, I'm sorry to tell you this, I know that this is a lot to take in, and you probably don't want to believe me or even hear it, but you are still on the Saratoga. And as to what happened to the rest of the mercs that came on board. I'm sorry but most were killed, there were sixteen that lived and were let go. If they got picked up, then they are probably back on that big ass cruiser of yours."

"What...what do you mean let go?" The merc asked clearly confused by what was going on.

"They were allowed to leave the ship, the Saratoga dropped out of FTL into normal space, then they took one of the shuttles with a homing beacon from one of their drop ships and enough supplies to last for a while," Shawn answered.

"This doesn't make any sense, none of it...they were let go..." The mercs said, rubbing his face, packing back and forth several times, the shock was setting in, "And why, why am I alive...and why are you not hiding, why are you not afraid? Aren't those aliens out there, wondering around?"

"You should probably eat something and just try to relax, it going to..." Shawn cut off as the merc jumped forward slamming his hands into the cell door causing it to echo throughout the hallway.

"Why the hell am I in this cell, who the fuck are you, and where are those things, what the fuck did they do to me!?"

"Look..."

"Answer me you fucking asshole!" The merc screamed, clearly terrified of what was happening. "I get out of this cell I'll beat the shit out of you, so fucking answer me!"

And everything was going so well too, Shawn just shook his head at what the merc has just said, he knew the guy was scared and wasn't thinking straight, hell Shadow had absolutely terrified Shawn himself when they first met, and who could blame the merc for acting this way after what he had just been through. Despite that through Shawn could feel Shadow's aggression rise at the threat that had just been made and it was something the Xeno was not going to let pass. Not after everything they had all just been through.

"Just answer me damn it, why am I in thi..." The mercs words froze in his mouth as the large ebony, skeletal figure with the crested domed head came around the corner in a slow fluid motion, the elongated head swung around and set its gaze right on him. He quickly backed up, raising a finger pointing to the approaching Xeno, but no words came out of his mouth.

For him, everything just froze right there.

Shadow came up and stood right behind Shawn, his hands slowly rose up and then came down resting on Shawn's shoulder. The Xeno tilted his head slowly side to side a couple of times before slowly squatted down his neck pressed up again Shawn's back and his massive head gracefully came around to rest on Shawn's left shoulder. The segmented and bladed tail coil around Shawn's legs and hip as the massive and deadly clawed hands wrapped themselves around the human's torso.

Wide eyed the merc just stood there in complete and total disbelief, he was expecting the alien to rip this guy limb from limb any second now, but it never did, from what he could tell, it seemed to be protecting him. Thin strands of thick drool fell from the Xeno's mouth as its lips peeled back and it let out a menacing hiss, a hiss that he knew was being directed right at him.

"He just wants you to know and understand what your predicament is, now if you behave yourself and don't cause any trouble for us you won't have any problems from either myself or any of the Xenos. So here is the deal, you stay inside this cell and when we can we'll let you both go, simple as that. I have no desire to be a warden and start having to look after prisoners, and if I could let you go I would, but the simple fact of the matter is, I can't, at least not right now." Shawn said, leaning his head into the side of Shadow's face.

"Both?" The merc asked, after what seemed like a long pause, his head trying to wrap around just what he was seeing.

"Another one of your squad mates is in an adjacent cell, think that she's still out cold, either that or she is just listening and not wanting to draw attention to herself."

"No, this isn't happening, this can't be happening, those things killed everyone I was with, I saw that one rip them all apart. And now…now it's just standing there and you're…you're…" The merc just turned around and sat back down on the bunk, part if not most of his mind was unable to grasp what he was seeing. "Why hasn't it killed you?" He said his voice in disbelief.

"I was invited onboard by them, you and your team were not. It's as simple as that, that and the small fact they are NOT going back to that station, they do not want to go and I will not allow them to be taken back," Shawn said flatly.

Shadow uncoiled himself from Shawn and took a step back, his gaze still locked onto the merc.

The merc turned his head and looked at Shawn as he was turning and started to walk over to another cell with a tray of food still in his hand. "Just who the hell are you?" He asked, trying to process everything that had happened up to this point.

Shawn just shook his head, "No one in particular really," he answered back, walking over to the next cell, and slipped the tray of food through the slot and onto a small metal shelf that was attached to the cell door. From what he saw the other mercenary was still out cold.

Turning around both Shawn and Shadow started to walk out of the brig area, "You really should eat something, you've been through a pretty bad shock, and I understand that it'll take a while to come to terms with what has happened. And like I said before, as long as you don't do anything foolish or stupid you'll be fine." He finished, walking out with the large Xenomorph following behind closely.

The young merc just stared at the cell door, still not sure at what he had just witnessed. He wounded if it had just been a figment of his imagination, the tray of food sitting on the door counter top was real enough. Just how in the hell had a human made friends with those monsters he wondered, his mind flashed back to the firefight in the hallway, that thing had plowed through all of them without ever slowing down and now it looked to be almost tame. None of what he had just witnesses made any sense at all, none of it.

Closing his eyes he leaned back against the wall, his mind was still clouded and nothing was clear at the moment. Letting out a deep sigh, all he could do now was wait and see what would happen.

"Shit," was the only thing that he could really say to everything that had just happened.


	14. Caged Birds

CHAPTER 13: Caged Birds

xxxxx

To serve.

Most of his life that was all James Taddem had ever wanted to do, was simply to serve, to serve something that was more than what he was, to be a part of something that was far greater than himself. At the age of eighteen he had enlisted in the United Systems Colonial Marine Corps, he was excited to have the chance to be part of an organization like the Corps, to serve with honor and distinction to help those in need and to simply be a part of something that was much larger than what he himself was.

Basic training had been brutal, the DIs that ran them even more so, the officers even worse than the Drill Instructors, all of it, however, was with purpose, to break them down and remold the raw recruits into a cohesive unit. To give them the knowledge and training to survive what the universe had to offer and even return it in spades.

He didn't have grand visions of becoming a war hero or leading a charge against hostile aliens or single-handed saving a colony from raiders, pirates or slavers. He didn't even care about rank, for him to serve something far greater was all he could ever ask for and want. And for a while, he felt that he was so close to being able to live his dream of being able to serve others and maybe even made a difference for the better for someone.

The only problem was that the universe had other plans for him, he had been from his count about three-quarters the way through basic training when it hit him and hard. He could still remember that day with such clarity and bitterness, the day his own body, in its prime, betrayed him. He had been running laps with his squad when he suddenly found that he wasn't able to breathe, he remembered collapsing, and gasping for air and nothing would come and the burning pain in his chest and lungs and then everything went black.

He had been lucky, CPR from the leading DI had saved him, it wasn't until later on that day when he found out that he was asthmatic and severely too, from what the medical scans indicated. It was his first attack ever, he didn't know how it happened or what caused it or why it suddenly decided to ruin his dreams right there. It was of course treatable, controllable, but for him, not curable. It was also the reason that he was released with a medical discharge. Just a couple of more weeks and he would have graduated and then would have been assigned. Now he was out of the corps and that was it.

James had spent a better part of the year going to doctors seeing what could be done, the attacks were more frequent, but he was able to get them under control. Even though the USCMC was out, he tried other avenues of service, either he was denied because of his condition or it was something that offered no real interest for him. It was then that he decided to try what he might have considered his last avenue, to sign up and see about joining a mercenary unit. He could serve, get paid and see the galaxy, maybe not as noble and honorable as the Marine Corps, but it at least for him, could fill his need to serve a greater cause.

While he had made it in with the mercenary corps, it wasn't hard, he had most of the basic training from boot camp, which helped him pass the tests they threw at him. The only stipulation for him was that he needed to keep his asthma under control, if he could do that he would be picked by a group or assigned to one. And if he could not keep it under control and became a liability to the unit he was assigned to he would be dropped and that was it. He had made it a point to keep his medication on him at all times and keep a large surplus in stock.

As luck would have it one of the more professional groups were taking rookies to bolster their ranks, and he as well as several dozen others were picked. He found that he would be serving on an old repurposed heavy cruiser, the Vesuvius, from what he had heard it was a very professional unit that was more akin to the Corps in how they operated and presented themselves. He was excited, even happy, finally, his dream was about to be filled and realized. A chance to serve with honor and distinction, to finally be a part of something greater than what he was.

And now he was sitting in a cell on the very ship he and the company he was assigned too, to capture and retake. The only thing was, is that shit went sideways in a big, huge, colossal, and totally bad way. Life seemed to be a huge god awful joke and he was feeling like he was becoming the punch line of it all.

He nibbled on one of the meal proton bars that had been left for him and sipped down some water. He was hungry, but he simply did not feel like eating. His mind kept drifting back to the firefight in the hallway with that huge Xenomorph, and then to that horrific nightmare, and finally, that guy that had come with the food, only the same Xenomorph that had wiped out his squad was tagging along behind him like it was his obedient pet or something. It had even rested its head right on his shoulder and the guy didn't even flinch or show any fear if anything he seemed to be affectionate toward it.

What in god's name had happened on this ship before they had arrived? Pondering on it for a moment, he decided he really did not want to know.

It didn't matter anymore as far as he was concerned, all he wanted to do was leave this place and just go home. To see his parents, his family, his friends, to just forget this whole thing had ever happened. His whole dream of serving something greater than himself had not only been short-lived, it had been ripped to small bloody chunks and thrown right in his face by a giant, nightmarish horror.

Setting the meal bar and water cup aside he laid back down on the bunk, all he could do was simply wait, and hope that guy was telling the truth and that he and the other fellow mercenary would be released, whenever that was.

He still wanted to know why he was still alive when that thing had him in its grasp and was about to punch a hole right through his skull. None of it made any sense, he wasn't complaining about being alive but he did want answers, and maybe making threats was not the best way to get those answers, he sure as hell didn't want to anger that big Xeno and give it a reason to come at him. Maybe when that guy came back down he could get some answers now that he had a chance to calm down.

His thoughts were interrupted by a voice in the next cell over, a voice he recognized, and then wish like hell that he didn't.

"Ummm..hello...helllo...HELLOOOOO!

James shook his head, of all the other mercs to get caught, why in the universe did it have to be her, how did she survive, why did she survive?

"HELLOOOO, anybody there, I want to speak to the captain, like now, I demand to be released, why am I here. Is anyone there, HELLLOOO?!"

"Oh, crap," James whispered to himself, rubbing his temples, this was going to be torture, if there was a hell he was about to be thrown in feet first right into it, being alone would be better than this, hell being locked up with that big ass Xeno would probably be better than this, at least then death would have been quick and painless.

"Do you know who I am, HELLOOOO!"

"No, no one is there right now, and for god's sake keep your voice down!" James blurted out, instantly regretting even opening his mouth. The last thing he wanted to do was get that Xenos attention and give it a reason to come down here again. Course the way she was going on, it probably wouldn't matter. "The only person that has shown up is some guy that gave us some food and then left."

"Who are you, where are you, do I know you, should I know you?" The female voice rang out, clearly annoyed.

"Oh for shit sakes Amy, I was one of the rookies that were assigned on this mission, James Taddem, we were sitting next to each other during the briefing and on the dropship."

"Oh." Amy replied somewhat deflated, "guess you aren't that important, I don't really remember you, oh well..." Amy's voice suddenly cut out and a piercing scream filled the air, "...what is this, what am I covered in...GROSS!"

Laying there; trying not to laugh, James found there was a certain satisfaction to hearing her loose it like that. She had been annoying from day one, so much so that Commander Ortiz was losing patience with her from the very start. If she was covered with the same resin that he had been, she would be spending the better part of an hour trying to peel it off her clothing and out of her hair.

James listed to her tirade for about thirty minutes about how unfair this was and that she didn't deserve to be locked up like this and just how gross and nasty 'this stuff' was and that someone was going to pay for it all. She was going to demand a new uniform as well as an audience with the captain and that he would pay and apologize for this disgrace and humiliation to her person. And that she would be moved proper quarters with a large and soft bed and that she demanded to be treated with the respect she deserved and was entitled to.

James never said a word the whole time he just closed his eyes and let her go on and on and on. What a joke she was and a bad one too.

Finally, he heard the sound of water coming from the shower and Amy just went silent. Rolling over he closed his eyes, maybe he could get some sleep, the way she talked and talked without ever shutting up, and always about her dreams and how she was going to be a grand admiral with a massive fleet and the whole universe would bow before her feet, with her going on like that he would be lucky to get any sort of sleep at all.

He never noticed a slick black shape moving around the ceiling in the hallway, the Xeno's gaze observing both of them as its head went back and forth looking between both cells.

About only fifteen maybe twenty minutes had passed before the sound of the water stopped, James was almost asleep when Amy started up again.

"I cannot wear this filthy uniform, I need a new one, where is that person that was here earlier you told me about, I demand that he come down here and give me a new uniform. This is totally unacceptable." She started up again.

"AMY!" James yelled, "First off, if you haven't really fucking noticed, we are locked up in the brig, this is a jail not your own personal hotel room service, no one is going to come running to your beck and call. Second, there isn't anyone else besides that ONE guy that came down with the food that he brought us, the two of us who are locked up and the XENOMORPHS that are on this ship. That's it, no one else, so you can yell, scream and demand as much as you want, but I doubt that anyone that you want to talk to is going to come down here."

"WELL...You're just rude!" Amy huffed. "HELLO, GUY, GUY, I DEMAND YOU COME AND BRING ME A NEW UNIFORM, OR CLOTHS, HELLOOO!"

"Just fucking kill me, please," James whispered to himself trying to block out the noise from his neighbor. At this point, the Xenos would have been far more welcome than Amy's rambling. Rambling which continued on for several more minutes.

Thin strands of saliva fell and pooled on the floor below the black form that had elected to stay and observe the two prisoners, and now she was regretting it. Alese didn't have any love for the mercs when they boarded the Saratoga, but this one she really did not like from the start. This female so called warrior had bolted and ran when Alese had surprised the small group, not even helping them out. But it was more than that, this human was so full of herself, so selfish and self-conceded, it was taking every bit of self-control for Alses not to come down there and rip the doors off, go in there and punch a hole right through the females head. If anything she would at least be saving the other merc a cruel and unusual punishment at this point.

At the very least she might just secrete her to the wall and resin her mouth shut. That idea was all too tempting.

"This food will just not do, I demand something fresh, meal bars, MREs, no, no, no, totally and completely unacceptable." She cried out in a pouty huff. "HELLO...HELLOOOO!"

Silently dropping down to the floor, Alese slowly rose up, looking over to where the male human mercenary was at, who was still rolled over and curled up and looked like he was trying to sleep. _Poor thing, he'll be half mad by the time he's released_ , she thought to herself. Time to shut this Amy human female up for a bit. While she didn't really want to kill her, well maybe just a little bit, but for now, she would simply be satisfied with just scaring her at this point.

James was trying to sleep, all he wanted to do was just lay there in silence why, why of all the mercs that come on board why did Amy Trevor have to be the other one that was captured. He tried to block out her incessant rambling, maybe that guy, whoever he was, could gag her for the remainder of the stay. Or sedate her, that would work too, Amy could sleep for a few weeks maybe a month or two, and that would be just fine by him.

The room suddenly filled up with a sharp piercing inhuman screech, followed up with a loud hiss. Bolting upright in an instant, James blood froze, he recognized the screech and hiss as being from one of the Xenos, a Xeno that was enraged from the way it sounded, but it wasn't in his cell, for a second he thought it might have been that large Xeno from earlier. An ear piercing scream erupted from Amy, followed by racked sobs, and then silence.

He sat there frozen, James didn't know if it had killed her or not, and for just a second he was wondering if he had just heard her die to what would have amounted to a quick but grisly death. He didn't hear anything for several moments, then the sound of approaching heavy footfalls. Looking over toward the cell door, one of the Xenos came into view, thankfully it wasn't the big one but one of the smaller aliens, smaller but no less deadly.

It stopped for a few seconds turned its massive elongated head and looked right at him, drool streaming down from its mouth and the lips fully peeled back, it almost seemed to be smiling...in a really horrible I want to eat someone's face kind of a way, it then turned back and walked out of the brig area, the serrated, bladed tail whipping about hitting both the floor and walls making loud clanking sounds as it walked away.

James didn't say a word or even move a muscle for what seemed like hours, it was only when a bellowing cry erupted from the cell next to his that he realized Amy was still alive. Whether she was still unhurt was another matter altogether. "Amy...are you alright, did it hurt you?" He asked, as annoying as she was, he still felt some concern for her.

"WHYYYYYY!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, "I HATE THIS PLACE, I WANT TO LEAVE, NOW!"

 _Yep, she's ok._ James thought to himself laying back down and trying to get some sleep though he doubted that he would.

"AND I JUST PISSED MYSELF...GROSS!"

James just started to cackle uncontrollably, all the horror, tension and stress that had just happened in such a short period of time had taken a toll and he was needing a release somehow and there it was, right there in the next cell over. His body shook uncontrollably as he just laid there, his laughing fits filled the rooms. So much so that after a while his stomach started to hurt but as much as he tried he could not stop.

"IT'S NOT FUNNY YOU ASSHOLE!" Amy screamed at the top of her lungs, peeling off her now very moist clothing off and slinging it down on the floor in a fit of undignified anger.

xxxxx

Alese came storming into the sleeping area, Shawn was sitting cross-legged off to the side with Shadow who was curled up around him, the Xenos tail laying right across Shawn's lap. Several data pads and what looked to be laptops were in front of him all on and operating, though what was on them none of the Xenos could tell. Ghost had stepped out to patrol and search the ship for a while just to make sure that all the mercs were gone. The last thing they needed was to have an uncounted guest start making trouble for them.

' _By the queen mother,'_ Alese sneered, her lips partly peeled back thick drool falling from her lips and teeth, her tail twitching back and forth, ' _that human is annoying beyond all reason._ '

Both Shawn and Shadow looked up at her, surprised and just a tad bit afraid of just how angry she was, Alese was never angry, well almost never, the only exception was with the merc that had shot Shawn, but other than that she had always had a calm and soothing demeanor and now she was half way to frothing at the mouth.

"The guy down there?" Shawn asked, "He didn't' seem that bad, scared shitless, sure, and talking and acting out of fear but he didn't seem like he was that bad of a person really."

 _'He's not the problem, he's keeping fairly quiet and not doing anything. It's...it's...it's that HUMAN FEMALE,' Alese snarled that last two words, almost rabidly so, 'she doesn't shut up, all she does is talk and talk and talk, and it's all about herself, what she's going to do and the way she going to do it and how she's going to conquer the whole universe and how it will bow before her. Not to mention that she is demanding new clothes, fresh food and she wants you to bring it all to her right now.'_

"Oh." Shawn meeped out, watching Alese pace back and forth, her clawed fingers flexing back and forth as if she was just waiting to tear into something or more precisely, someone. "Well, I hope that she's used to disappointment because that's all she's getting right now."

' _Just the sound of her voice grates on my nerves, and when she talks like that I just want to pull out that pink, flapping, little worm in her mouth, show it to her and then shove it down her throat just so she'll choke on it. It took every bit of my willpower NOT to just tear the door off her cell and kill her. Though I did shut her up for a bit, at least I hope that I did.'_

"Uhhh, Alese sweetie, you're really starting to worry me, I've never seen you this agitated before," Shawn said, looking up at her, he was wondering just what the hell had that female merc exactly said to get Alese wound up this tight. "So what did you do?" He asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

 _'Hissed and screamed at her as loud as I could and shot out my tongue to make a point, I think I may have scared the other merc too, but she at least shut up, and she may have urinated herself too...I hope she did.'_ Alese said stopped dead in her tracks, her head slowly tilted up. Shawn could see her chest moving as she took in deep breaths trying to calm herself down. Her lips finally closed and the drool came to a trickle instead of a full blown stream. _'I'm sorry, but something about this human female was bothering me from the start and now that I have had a chance to observe and hear her, I know that she is a danger to us, more to herself than to us I believe, but we need to get rid of her as soon as we can.'_

"Well, when we get close to a Freeport station we can use the Ember Rose to take them over and drop them off, I'll need to get the remaining repairs to my ship done at a dry dock anyway. The maintenance androids have done a fantastic job so far, but I'll need to have the FTL and the primary and secondary engines completely replaced. Plus the hull breach work they did, while good, is a temporary fix at best and that will need to be worked on.

 _'How long will that take_?' Shadow asked.

"Don't really know, depending on if the parts are available and how good the crew is in installing and doing repair work. Could be as little as a couple of weeks could be a month or more." Shawn answered, his fingers tapping on a few of the buttons on one of the laptops in front of him. "Either way it'll be a chunk of time that we'll have to sit and wait."

' _Perhaps then it would be best to leave them where they are at until the repairs to your ship are done, if we free them they may contact other mercenaries and we do not need others to show up while we wait for the repairs to your ship to be done,'_ Shadow said, crisscrossing his hands and resting his head down on them, after today's events he was feeling rather tired and wanted nothing more than to curl up with all of his hive mates and go to sleep for a while.

"Good point."

Cocking her head, Alese looked at the data tables and laptops that were on the floor, _'what are you two working on?_ She asked, squatting down in front of Shawn.

"All this?" Shawn replied, "After we dropped the food off in the brig area, Shadow and I made a quick run up to the CIC area to grab whatever equipment the mercs had left up there after you all ran them out. I remember one of them saying that they had the access codes with them. Figured I'd see what I could dig up."

 _'Did you find anything of use from what you brought back?'_ Alese asked, looking down at the tablets and laptops.

Shawn looked right up at her, a wide smile crossed his face, "Just the command access codes for this ship, that all."

' _That was quick.'_ Shadow said surprised by how quickly Shawn had been able to gain that info, lifting his head he looked right at Shawn.

' _Indeed.'_ Alese agreed with equal surprise.

"There wasn't much to it really, they already had the codes up and were about to use them from the way it looks. So looks like we can now unlock the higher level functions of this ship, which are the weapon and defense systems, all the armory and munitions bays, science labs, and the ships primary and secondary data cores. I should be able to also change the ships access codes too so that the next time we won't get shut down."

 _'So we should be safe then, from others doing what the mercs do to us?'_ Alese asked.

"Well safer, unless someone who knows the security system itself inside and out that can access the ship through a back door and can shut this vessel down, but barring that from happening, we should be fairly safe. That and if we get another merc ship that decides to mess with us they'll get eight partial cannons pointed right at them with whatever else this ship has to offer." Answered Shawn, "provided I can figure out the weapon systems and how to operate it, plus I still have to get back up to CIC at some point soon and start trying to locate that homing beacon and see about shutting it down."

 _'Do you believe that you can do that?'_ Shadow asked.

"Honestly I don't know. A lot of the higher level systems on this ship are going to have a steep learning curve I would bet, and I don't even know where to start looking. I guess I'll need to see if I can bring up a data schematic of the ship itself and start there. But we have just under two days before we come out of FTL, once that happens we will be pressed for time."

 _'Where exactly are we going?'_ Alese asked.

"The official designation is asteroid fiel three nine one, but it's more commonly known by its nickname, the hidey hole. It's a massive asteroid field that a lot of pirates, smugglers and other criminal elements go to when trying to escape whoever is chasing them. The thing about this field that so different than most asteroid fields is that the rocks give off an electromagnetic radiation that interferes with the ships sensors, scanners, and communications. You're damn near blind and have to rely on visual navigation, and the deeper you go into that field the worse it gets. Great for small vessels, like the Ember Rose and ships that are smaller than that, but bigger ships they start having a hard time navigating the field."

' _And you plan on using this asteroid field, how exactly_?" Questioned Alese, becoming not only curious but a bit concerned, while she didn't understand the ship's systems beyond what she had picked up, she did understand that the sensors on a ship were very important to its navigation, even though she didn't understand how it worked.

"I know a few spots that we can squeeze into and hide, I'm hoping that the EM radiation will scramble the homing beacon's signal so that even if the merc ships show up they won't be able to pinpoint our position. However they may have a general idea of the area that we are in and if they manage to spot us visually then we could have a problem."

 _'It seems you have been here before.'_ Shadow said, it was a statement, not a question.

"Some of my business dealing in the past took me there, first time I had to transport a few individuals for some sort of meeting that took a turn for the worse. And let's just say that I'm glad I have a very fast ship, I really didn't like the part about dodging missile and rail gun fire. Thankfully I was able to find a few areas to hide in for a couple of days before making a quick break and escaping."

' _You were involved in what you race would consider criminal elements?'_ Alese asked somewhat shocked that Shawn would even be involved in activities like that.

"It wasn't by choice, I run or ran a courier service, most of the stuff I would deliver would be small amounts of freight, sensitive messages that couldn't be broadcasted out in the open, not even over a secure channel, even taxi people from one place to another and pretty much anything that could be transported in my ship that needed to be delivered someplace quickly. Got a job to transport a few people to the hidey hole for some sort of meeting, I was supposed to dock at a ship and they would go over have their meeting come back, I would wait for them to come back over and then leave and that was it. Not sure what happened, but when I heard weapons fire and saw one of the guys trying to make it back and then get shot to pieces I got the hell out of there as fast as I could. Guess the people commanding the other ship didn't want any witnesses, cause next thing I know I've got half a dozen missiles locked onto me as well as a few rail guns opening fire trying to take me out. So I got deep in the field, killed the power and parked my ship right next to a large asteroid and waited a couple of days before making a run for it. Don't know if they were still in the area and I sure wasn't waiting around to find out. But needless to say, I made it out of there in record time."

' _You are lucky you were not killed.'_ Alese said, sitting down next to Shawn and Shadow.

"Tell me about it, I was watching my back for months after that, still was in fact when you all picked me up." Placing his hand over his mouth as he took a deep yawn, he hadn't realized just how tired he was. Though most of this day or what he could recall of it, he had gone through a major anxiety and panic attack, had that damn little voice from the back of his mind come back, removed the mercs weapons and equipment, bagged more dead mercs that he wanted to count and emotionally opened up more than he ever had about what had happened on Darrius station to Alese.

Overall it had been a very busy and taxing day, it was no wonder he was so damn tired all of a sudden.

Closing up and putting the laptops and date pads into sleep mode he sat them aside for now, he would need them for later when he made his way back up to CIC to take the locks off the high priority functions and see about changing the ships commanded access codes. For now it was time to get some much-needed sleep, hopefully minus the weird dreams or any mass panic attacks.

Both Xenos looked to have caught on to the fact that Shawn was about to lay down and get some sleep, as they started to shift their positions to lay down too. Shawn leaned over; reached out and cupped Alese's face and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Thank you for everything that you did and still do to help me."

Alese didn't say a word, her hand moved up to the back of his head, her fingers playfully running through the back of his hair, lifting her head level to his, she drew him in, her thin lips playfully and delicately danced across his in a somewhat messy if not lengthy kiss. ' _You're welcome_.' She finally replied back, her mental voice back to its normally calm and gentle tone with a hint of slyness in it. ' _We are hive, we are always here for one another; I hope that as time passes you will truly understand what that means.'_

Shawn sat there utterly speechless, while this was the second time that he had been kissed by one of the Xenos, the first time was Shadow and it was him half playing around, this, this kiss was serious, he had felt the heated attraction fill his mind. And while it was to a much lesser degree, it felt very much like the emotions he had been picking up in that dream of his. The desire, lust, even deep felt love that for a few moments filled his mind and then slowly tapered off.

Reaching up he touched his lips with the tip of his fingers, "wow," was the only thing he could muster out. Alese had joked from time to time and he had picked up on her feelings, but she had never been this direct before. It was possible that the encounter with the mercs had reiterated just how dangerous things were for them and they might at any moment be killed or captured. Maybe for them, it was time to stop fooling around and start seizing the moments and hold onto them for however long time would allow.

He just wasn't sure if he was really ready to take that big of a step, a large part of him wanted to and had wanted to for a while now, but just enough of him was still holding back, not sure if this was right or not. He hated the uncertainty of it; not being able to go with what he deep down knew he wanted. He wanted to give himself to Shadow, Alese and even Ghost if it ever presented itself, but there was just that bit of fear in the back of his mind and soul holding him back, that tiny voice that seemed to rein him in somehow.

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, it had been a taxing day and his mind was tired and clouded. Sleep would help clear those thoughts up and maybe tomorrow he could talk to Shadow about a few things. Somehow he needed to find a way to push past this wall, or just break through it. Alese had started putting some major cracks into it, he had opened up to her in a way that he had not opened up to anyone else. He now felt like he was truly starting to make some progress in taking on and conquering his own demons. It was something that he just wasn't able to do on his own, no matter how much he might want it.

Alese smiled at him, ' _We all need rest,'_ she said, laying down.

Nodding, Shawn laid down, Shadow in his usual manner spooned up to his back, the Xeno's arm laying over and drawing the human in as close as he could. Alese shifted her position coming in as close as she could to the two males. Her head resting just snug against Shawn's chest, the tails of both Xenos coiled and draped over each other in the usual protective fashion.

' _So...no kiss for me?'_ Shadow playfully asked, the back his forefinger gently caressing the side of Shawn's face.

"Oh, you're just being a cheeky little bugger now aren't you?" Shawn jokily said.

Shadow just let out of loud series of repeated hisses, something that Shawn had come to recognize as the equivalent of a Xenomorph belly laugh.

' _You do know you can sleep with us without your clothing on, it might even be more comfortable.'_ Shadow purred in Shawn's mind. _'I know I would not mind at all.'_

"Errrr, maybe when I'm ready to I will," Shawn replied back, not sure why Shadow just brought it up out of the blue all of a sudden, he was feeling more than a bit self-conscious about his body, he didn't actually mind the small belly gut that he had, which had gotten smaller since coming on board, but it was all of the horrible burns and scars on his back side that he didn't want anyone to see.

He knew that none of the Xenos would see him any differently or treat him differently if or when they saw it, but it was such a painful reminder of the choices he had made and what it had cost him in the past. Closing his eyes, and enjoying the gentle strokes to the side of his face, Shawn quickly felt himself drifting off to sleep. He hoped that it would be a nice restful sleep, and while he might not mind the erotic, planet side dream again, he hoped that it would at least finish up and not stop midway.

 _Shouldn't get close, can't afford to get close…_ The voice in the back of his mind started up again.

SHUT IT, Shawn mentally told himself as he with all his mental might took that tiny voice and shoved it in the corner for a serious timeout.

Shortly after that, he was out and fast asleep.

xxxxx

Amy sat on the floor of her cell, she was in a bad mood, a major snit, an all out sulk, in other words, she was not doing well. And that suited her just fine for the moment. She hadn't said a thing since that god awful ugly as hell THING had shown up in front of her door and screamed and hissed at her, it's head tilting side to side that awful white, toothy tongue slowly going in and out repeatedly, the teeth opening and closing, and then it had just up and walked away. She could have sworn that it had smiled right at her as soon as screamed bloody murder and even peed herself in the process.

Her now soiled pants and underwear were lying a few feet away from her as she sat bare ass on the cold plexi-steel floor. _So gross_ she thought to herself, she was not going to touch that, that's what others were for, to take care of her needs for her, after all, she was going to be a grand admiral of a mighty fleet and others would need to get use to serving her needs, wants and desires at a moment's whim.

On top of it all, that ingrate, whatever his name was, she didn't care; as far as she was now concerned he wasn't important. He had been laughing at her, the utter nerve of him, how dare he, no one laughed at her and got away with it. By all rights, HE should be cleaning her soiled clothing to at least partly make up for it.

This was not how things were supposed to have turned out, SHE was supposed to have returned back to that old, broken down ship, victorious, with the mission complete, praise coming everyone, even a promotion for all her efforts and she led her incompetent minions into battle. This was her time to shine, HERS, and hers alone and no one else's. She was the important one, HER, and no one else.

At least that was what she had told herself and kept telling herself. Her dreams would not be hindered by this cell and those…monsters. Monsters that she wound now scour and purge from her galaxy, she would find these horrible and mindless beasts and burn them all to ash, wipe them out of existence and the galaxy would praise her as a hero.

But for now, she would simply have to tolerate her unjustified oppression, until she could free herself, take over this ship and destroy those beasts. Once she did that she would return a hero and be properly rewarded with her own ship, a mighty battleship freshly minted from the shipyards.

She was also getting hungry now, looking up, the tray with the food that had been left there earlier was still on the door shelf, she, however, was NOT going to, under any circumstance even touch those awful MREs and meal protein bars, those were for lackeys and those under her. She wanted a proper meal, piping hot, well-cooked meats, with steamed vegetables, hot bread and of course an expensive wine, with a rich dessert of chocolate. Not these pitiful, meager rations.

Completely, totally, unacceptable.

All of it, was completely unacceptable as far as she was concerned, this situation that she was in, the food, her treatment, everything. When that guy came back she was going to tell him off, rip him a new one, and boy would he be sorry for ever putting her in this cell, she'd get a new uniform, clean clothing, proper quarters, that nice soft bed and a hot meal.

Everything that she deserved, and properly so, she would get and very soon.

xxxxx

Today was going to be a very busy day, in fact, it was turning out to be one already. Shawn had woken up feeling somewhat refreshed and in a far better mood, he didn't know what time it was and for some odd reason, it no longer seemed to matter to him or be that important anymore. He had managed to ease out of Shadow and Alese's grip and slip out of the sleeping area without waking any of them, no small feat there. Ghost at some point had returned and was curled up just above the three of them, his tail resting along and draped over Alese's torso.

He had stopped by the mess hall grabbed a few of the bland meal bars with a couple large mugs of coffee and headed up to CIC. A few chores were in order to get everything straightened back up, he had diverted some of the maintenance androids to start cleaning up the blood in the hallways, hanger bay and even the large airlock prep room, once the androids were done with that task he would have them take the weapons, ammo, power cells and all the other equipment that had been gathered from the mercs and place them in an empty storage room that was close to the sleeping room. Later on, when time permitted he could take stock of what they had. As well as looking in on the merc dropships and seeing what all was on board.

As of now he was perched up in the Captains nest control area, and had unlocked the high-level functions of the ship, with the access command codes that had been an easy task, as had been resetting the codes too. The ship was now fully under their command, which was one thing, learning how to fully operate it however was another beast entirely.

Even if the ship was partly automated, which it looked like some of it was, as well as having service androids to help out, it still required a fully functional well-trained crew. Not like he just had a few hundred crew members and officers he could just ask to come on board. Besides he didn't know how many people would be willing to serve aside Xenomorphs.

And even then, the Xenomorphs were very limited on what they could do as far as operations on the ship, they couldn't see what was on the display or monitor screens, or if they could it was very limited on what they could see, which eliminated most of the critical functions. Maybe there was some way to work around that or adapt the technology to their field of vision.

If he could do that then they could help operate the ship. Just add one more thing to do to what was a growing list of things to do.

 _Let's face facts here Shawn, you're going to be very busy for a long time, provided any of us make it through this mess._ He thought to himself drinking some more of the coffee.

While he was still feeling a bit winded and a little tired from the previous day, he was feeling far better than before. The feeling in his hand was starting to come back and he was now able to fully move all of his fingers, the palm of his hand and arm were still numb, even the soreness from where he had been shot was no longer there, in fact the bullet wounds no longer hurt at all.

Wonderful stuff that life jelly.

Sipping on his second large cup of coffee, he looked at the now unlocked higher end systems of the ship from one of the display monitors, scrolling through menu after menu until he found what it was he was looking for, the ship's database schematics and layout. He brought up what looked to be hundreds of folders with thousands of files, each organized either by deck, section, and even function.

"Computer, locate and access long range homing beacon." He said taking another sip, his gut feeling was telling him it was not going to be this easy, he really hoped it would be but experience had taught him otherwise.

" **ERROR...UNABLE TO LOCATE, NO SUCH DEVICE CURRENTLY ACTIVE ON VESSEL."**

"Well, balls," Shawn muttered to himself, so it was going to be like that huh. There was no way he was going to be able to go and look through every folder and file, that in itself would take months, months they did not have. His mind started to focus in on what needed to be done as if somehow a hidden switch had flipped on and, had started to take the normal chaos that would have come with a daunting task like this and bring order and structure to it instead. _The process of elimination then it is._ Came to his mind suddenly, it would be the easiest way and the most logical instead of randomly searching through the data files.

"Computer, list type and size of power conduits being used on this ship."

" **ACCESSING INFORMATION, POWER CONDUIT TYPE INSTALLED IS G-ONE THOUGH G-SEVEN."**

"Ok, heavy military grade, that's something at least."

' _You slept well it seems, you even managed to sneak out without waking any of us up.'_ Shadow said walking into the CIC.

"Oh yeah, I did sleep pretty well, no weird or nasty dreams. Didn't want to wake anyone up, besides you all looked pretty cute sleeping curled up like that. By the way, did you know you snore, or at least I think that it's a snore. You sort of make these adorable little almost squeaking noises when you breathe sometimes." Shawn replied back, looking up at the approaching Xeno, "Besides I needed to get started on trying to track down this homing beacon that we have strapped to our ass."

Shadow walking up to where Shawn was sitting at, the Xeno placed his hand on Shawn's head and ruffled the human's hair a bit. ' _Squeaking noises indeed, you should know that you snort at times. So any luck in your search?"_

"Just started, but I have an idea that might work, now the computer doesn't have access to the beacon itself it seems, so I'm thinking it might be an independent unit altogether, but it would still need a lot of continual power to transmit a signal out as far it is. My thought is to look through the schematics of the heavier power conduits and eliminate them one at a time until I find the power conduit that is connected to the beacon and then see about shutting it down. At least that's my plan."

' _Will that work?'_

Shrugging, "don't know, maybe," he said, "unless it's got its own independent power system that's off the main grid, then well, I don't know what we'll do."

' _I have faith that you will figure it out.'_

Shawn was silent for a bit, he turned back and forth in the chair ever so slightly. "Can we talk, I mean really talk."

' _Of course, what do you wish to talk about?'_ Asked Shadow, curious about what it was Shawn suddenly wanted to talk about and so soon after waking up.

"Us, you and I, and Alese too," Shawn said, not really sure about how to broach this subject but maybe it was time.

" _Oh,_ _"_ Shadow said, his crested head turning to look at Shawn with interest.

"Ok…look, I know that you are interested in me, and from the way that you've been acting since we first met, I guess you have been probably from day one. And Alese as well, especially from that kiss that she planted on me last night, I can still feel it too."

' _She wishes to mate with you and has for some time,'_ Shadow told him bluntly, his voice very serious now, ' _as do I. And to answer your question, if that was what it was, yes, I became interested in you shortly after we first met, I found you fantasizing for some reason, at the time I could not figure out why.'_

"I'll give it to you, you do not beat around the bush when it comes to talking about this sort of stuff do you?"

' _It is a natural biological function of many living creatures in the universe, why should we be ashamed to express and discuss something that is so natural. Even if we are different species there is enough in common for us to both share physical and mental pleasure with each other.'_

"Well, I can tell you right now, that there are a lot of my people that freak out beyond reason when even the idea of cross inter-species relationships come up. They tend to think that it's unnatural and that we need to keep to our own and keep the bloodline pure and untainted by alien filth, as those people put it."

' _Small and petty minds they have, but we are deviating off the subject you wish to discuss.'_

"Right." Shawn said, "There is a large part of me that wants to, I mean really, really wants to, but there is also just enough of me that is scared, and unsure about this, and it's holding me back."

 _'What can I…can we do,'_ Shadow said, correcting himself, ' _to alleviate your fears, to show that we would never harm you, even if we were to mate, none of us would ever bring harm to you during intercourse.'_

"It's not the physical aspect that concerns me, well not as much, despite just how damn big you are, you've always been gentle with me. But it's the emotional side of it all, I don't know if Alese shared with you what she helped me with, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of carrying around a bit of emotional baggage that I'm having a hard time letting go of."

'Yes, I did notice you are carrying around what you describe as emotional baggage and n _o, she did not share that with me, I assume that what happened between the two of you, she wishes to keep private until you deem it ok to share.'_ Shadow replied back. ' _She would not wish to violate and break your trust.'_

Shawn reached out and took one of Shadow's hands, gripping it tightly he steadied himself for what was to come, again. "Do you want to see, I would not mind sharing, in fact, it seemed to help some the first time."

 _'Only if you truly want me to. I will go no further than what you want._ ' Replied Shadow, his grip tightening a bit on Shawn's hand, reassuring the human that he was there for him no matter what happened or what he would see.

Nodding, Shawn closed his eye and tilted his head forward. A few seconds later he could feel Shadow enter his mind, his mind while in many ways was just as gentle as Aleses' was when she had first entered, Shadow's mind, however, felt far more powerful and focused. The images whipped by, and he felt the whole ordeal play again, Alese helping him in the airlock prep room, the room fire, his loss, everything. And while he was better prepared for it, it didn't make it that much easier.

Slipping out of Shawn's mind, Shadow looked at him, as the human wiped away some tears that were starting to fall. Coming in closer, he rested his chin on Shawn's head and drew the human in. ' _I am truly sorry for what you have had to endure, and that you felt the need to endure it alone and by yourself. You are not alone anymore and should not suffer needlessly. Alese is correct, pain is pain no matter how much or how little. You should not feel guilty simply for what we had to endure, and for what you have gone through. This whole concept that you need to 'man up and take it and that you should not complain because others have had it worse' is not healthy, it is self-destructive and poisonous. Your race might be better off if they would just allow their own emotions to run the course instead of trying to suppress them, simply for the reason that it make them look weak. That is not true at all, lose is lose, grief is grief and pain is pain, an emotional release is needed and no one is weak for needing that.'_

"Yea well, we are a bit screwed up as a race." Shawn said, "This helps, but I don't know how long or if ever it will take to get rid of all this pain or if it will ever go all away."

' _I know by what little I have seen when you sleep, bits and pieces that have been projected, that there is a great deal more, none of us will press you for it, but we are here for you and each other, and I can tell you this, the sooner you release this pain the better off you will be. It is a simple and powerful truth.'_

Smiling a bit, Shawn nodded again, "I know, and thank you." Shawn continued to rub and explore Shadow's hand with his own, "So…us, let's say I want this, I mean fully, what happens between all of us. Besides the physical stuff that goes on."

Releasing Shawn from his embrace, Shadow backed up a bit and squatted down in front their human, ' _A closer, stronger and more intimate bond than before; one that would continue to grow and flourish between us all.'_

Reaching up, Shawn placed his hand on the front of Shadow's face, his hand slowly gliding down feeling the thin lips, sharp teeth, sinuous muscles, and tendons. "You know, when we first met in this room, I thought that I was going to die, that you were going to rip me apart. I've been scared before, but it was one of the few times I was absolutely terrified, I had never seen anything close to you or Alese or Ghost, and I wanted off this ship so badly, just to get away and run. But yet I couldn't, I had to stay or take my chances adrift in space. And I'm glad that I stayed, I know it's only been a little over a month, though, god, it seems so much longer than that, but now, now I don't think that if I could, I would ever go back to human society, I'm not sure I could really fit back in. It's not just everything that I've experienced with the three of you, but I spent so much time alone that I sort of became more and more detached from human society, now…now I'm not sure that there's really a place for me anymore within the social norm."

Shadow took Shawn's hand and placed it flat against his, their fingers slowly interlocking together. ' _You have a place with us, you are one of us,'_ Shadow leaned forward nuzzling the side of Shawn's face, giving the human small, gentle rubs along his cheek, jaw, and neck. _'Come with us when we find a home, be with us, you need not be alone ever again, you are wanted, needed…desired.'_ The words he spoke were naked and bare, the heat of his own beginning arousal started to press into Shawn's own mind with the Xenos desire, lust, and love.

His mind started to drift into a primitive and even primal instinctual base, logic, ration even reasoning were quickly being pushed aside, and for a few moments Shawn did not care at all, he returned Shadow's nuzzling, rub for rub, his lips danced gently kissing the side of the Xeno's jaw. A deep part of him now wanted nothing less than to give himself fully over to this all-powerful male alpha alien, to show him absolute and total submission and let this Xenomorph, his Xenomorph, his mate, to do whatever he wanted and desired to him, to allow and let him completely and even fully penetrate and impregnate him, even at the risk of his own life, nothing else mattered, only fulfilling and sating the absolute needs, urges, desires, and pleasures of his mate.

Nothing else mattered and that was final.

The raw and even overwhelming lust coming from Shawn's mind made Shadow mentally break away, apparently, it wasn't just pain that the human had been repressing but also vast sexual desire and need, something that was just as damaging. He had sensed where Shawn's mind was all too quickly going and that he was about to completely give himself over, and while Shadow did want Shawn, he didn't want the human to be taken completely over by total and pure bestial instincts and give himself over like an animal in desperate need and heat. Though the temptation was almost far too great to resist. ' _I apologize, our instincts are powerful, I did not realize how much it would overwhelm you like this._ ' Shadow said, feeling more than a bit overwhelmed himself.

"Trust me, it wasn't just you," Shawn said, coming back to his senses and reeling from the intense sexual heat that his mind had just been put through, closing his eyes he tried to calm down, his whole body felt tingly and hot. "You just happened to help bring it very close to the surface that's all." He said shaking his head. He had never felt anything like that, his mind has just closed itself and allowed his base instincts to just take over, only his instincts seemed to be ramped up to an ungodly level somehow.

 _'I will exercise more caution until you are ready to make your decision, I should not have pressed like I did.'_ Replied Shadow, trying to calm himself down, he needed to focus on something else, anything else at this point. ' _It was needlessly careless of me.'_

"I've don't mind you being as forward as you are, it's a constant reminder of how much you are truly interested in me, and not just for some short term relationship," Shawn told him, rubbing his forehead. "But thank you for showing restraint when I couldn't, if we go through this I want our first time to be special and I don't think that the two of us going at it like a pair of wild animals in CIC would really be considered special. If anything I think that we would have regretted it."

 _'As much as I wanted it, wanted you, I agree, we would have regretted it._ _I will wait as long as it takes for you to be ready and if you never are I will still be there for you.'_

Nodding, Shawn reached out and patted Shadow on the shoulder, "Thank you." Shawn paused for a bit, he looked back at Shadow as a question that had come across his mind earlier came back and before he could even think, the words just kind of spewed out on their own. "Sooooo, just out of curiosity your race doesn't like, you know, ejaculate acid do they?"

 _'WHAT!? NO!'_ Shadow bellowed out complete taken aback by the odd question and damn near doing a double take, _'No, we do not ejaculate acid, is that something that you were concerned with? By the queen mother Shawn, if we did, I would never have been as forward with you in wanting to mate knowing that it would have killed you, none of us would ever have put you in that kind of danger, ever.'_

"Just wanted to check, I mean your race does have acid for blood, didn't know if there were any other bodily fluids that might be acidic also," Shawn replied back a bit sheepishly.

' _Just our blood and that's it,' s_ tated Shadow.

"Well good to know anyway," Shawn said letting out a nervous laugh, "so...how about we go and check on our two guests and see how they are doing, we can stop by the mess hall I'll get some food for them and we can see about walking all this tension off, I hope."

 _'Agreed. Though I think that we would both have to walk the length of the ship several times over to relieve the tension.'_ Shadow commented getting up and heading toward the main CIC doors, Shawn got up and following closely behind.

"Do I really snort in my sleep?" Shawn asked, trying to change the subject to something a bit lighter.

'Yes, _but it is cute when you do.'_ Shadow answered, sending Shawn a mental image of himself curled up, the Xeno gently stroking his hair and side, occasionally a loud snort would erupt from Shawn as he slept.

Shawn's head dropped his hand covered his face, "Oh my god," he groaned out loud, completely embarrassed by what he had just seen.

A rapid succession of loud hissed filled the air as Shadow gave off a Xeno style belly laugh at Shawn's response.

Shawn could only smile and laugh as well.

xxxxx

As time went on, Amy's bad mood had gotten far worse, she was practically seething with white-hot rage, she still sat there without her pants or underwear on, and of course why would she, they were soiled and filthy, and SHE was NOT going to clean them, on top of that no one had bothered to come and check on her needs and that what was most important.

 _How dare they ignore me,_ She thought bitterly to herself, she had slept a bit dozing off and on some but refusing to move from that spot, _How dare they not come up and check on me, what can they be doing that was so much more important than checking up on me._

It was right then when she heard a metal door open up and then a few seconds later close with a loud metallic clank. Forgetting that she was not wearing anything below, she flew up to her feet, _whoever it is, is going to get it now,_ She thought to herself.

A lone figure came into view, he walked over to where a large bench table that ran most of the length of the cell room; sat down a tray with what looked like MREs and meal bars. Picking up a few he turned around and started to walk toward her cell.

"YOU, YOU, YOU…!" She yelled, loudly snapping her fingers, "Where have you been, how dare you not check in on me, I have dirty clothing that needs to be cleaned, I demand that you clean my uniform or get me a new one right this instant, and I demand that I receive proper food, if fact you WILL move me to proper quarters right this instant!"

Shawn just stood there looking at the half naked female merc, not really sure if he was just seeing and hearing things or had she really just demanded that he become her personal manservant.

"Just what are you gawking at, you heard my orders, snap to it now, chop, chop." Amy barked, crossing her arms.

"Really? You going to start dishing out orders in a cell doing the half Monty, and the lower half of all things." Shawn said, only raising an eyebrow and nodding at her.

Amy just looked at him in total confusion, half Monty, what was this dim half-wit talking about. It was right then her brain cell connected and she realized that she was standing up with no pants or underwear on and that it was all hanging out for everyone to see. Grabbing the lower part of her shirt she pulled it down trying to cover herself up as much as possible and save what was left of her dignity.

"YOU FREAKY LITTLE PERVERT STOP STARING!" She screamed.

"In case you haven't noticed you're not in any position to give me or anyone else orders, and by the way, you don't have anything that I haven't seen already." He said placing a few more meal bars and MREs on the unmoved tray on the door ledge. "Here, it's not much but it's better than nothing."

Amy walked up, still holding her shirt down with one hand, and slammed the tray back through the hole with her free hand, the tray and its contents flew off and scattered onto the floor. "I SAID REAL FOOD, ARE YOU STUPID OR DEAF, AND I WANT A NEW UNIFORM AND REAL CLOTHES…NOW! She screamed at the top of her lungs. "GET THEM FOR ME!"

Shadow took a step forward his lips peeling back in full aggression, thick, hot drool started to fall from his chin, there was no way this female merc was going to treat his human, his mate, like garbage, if necessary he would rip the door off the wall and teach this impudent little child a lesson. And he would have no problem inflicting a certain amount of pain on her to drive the lesson home. She would learn her place and very quickly, it was no wonder Alese had come back so pissed off.

Shawn glanced toward his direction, ' _No, let me handle this one,'_ he mentally communicated with Shadow, who stopped before he had revealed himself to the female merc.

Going over to the fallen tray he picked up the contents and placed them back on the tray, then picked it up and placed it down on the table bench in full site for her to see. "You want to act like a spoiled five-year-old child, fine, then you're going to get treated like one, let's see just how you like not having anything to eat for a day or two. And as far as I'm concerned you can stay in that cell buck ass naked for all I care, you want that uniform cleaned, do it your fucking self, there's a sink and shower in there with running water. Have fun." Picking up a few of the MREs and bars he turned his back on her as he walked away and toward the other cell.

Amy stood there in total disbelief, how dare he, some lowly unimportant peon, talk to her in that manner, no one had ever talked to her like that in her entire life, she was the center of the universe and deserved respect from all. And that was a fact that was not up for debate, mommy and daddy had told her that all the time and they knew all.

"YOU DON'T DARE TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, OR TURN YOU BACK ON ME, DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, HOW DARE YOU!" She bellowed out, tears starting to run down her face, "GET YOU ASS BACK OVER HERE RIGHT NOW…I COMMAND YOU!"

A large black skeletal form with a massive crested head and lots of sharp teeth filled her field of view as soon as she finished up her outburst. Lips peeled back it hissed at her with a cold fury, elongated clawed fingers grabbed the bars and slowly started to squeeze, the bars began to slowly creak and groan under the aliens strength, then started to gradually cave inward.

Amy shrieked in terror and in an instant found herself standing in a warm pool, as yellow liquid trickled down her legs.

Satisfied, Shadow let go of the slightly bent bars and backed up, a slight sadistic toothy smile plastered on his face. _Disgusting, but it serves you right you filthy little human bitch._ He thought to himself.

"I don't know who you are nor do I care, but I know what you are, you're an annoying spoiled little child, how you managed to get into a mercenary group is beyond me but if they accepted you than their unit must have been desperate for recruits. OH, and for your health, I wouldn't try to piss off my friend here ever again, he doesn't take to kindly to outbursts like what you just did, if you want to talk then I suggest that actually try talking in a polite and rational manner and not just yell out orders like you own us all. Because the next time, he might very well pull that door off and come right in for you, and what he does to you, no matter what it is, I won't even try to stop him, hell I might just sit back and record it." Shawn said, already tired of this little mercs self-centered attitude, right now a good and hard dose of reality is just what she needed.

Walking over to the next cell, the other merc was just sitting on the bunk, almost wide-eyed and looking more than a bit nervous. "You have that tray, I've got some more meal bars and MREs," Shawn said.

Getting up the merc slowly walked over and placed the tray on the door ledge, as soon as he did Shawn placed some more of the ratios on it. "So you're not going to threaten to kick my ass again are you?" He asked, looking right at the Merc.

James just shook his head, "Sorry about that from earlier, I was…"

"Scared," Shawn said finishing up James sentence.

James nodded in tentative agreement.

"I can relate, all too well in fact. Look, man, just keep calm and nothing bad is going to happen. But just out of morbid curiously, that lady merc over in the next cell, has she always been like that, because she's about half a step away from having her ass handed to her by one of the Xenomorphs."

"As long as I've known her which hasn't been that long." He answered back.

Shawn nodded, "Look for what it's worth, I'm sorry about your friends, we didn't have much of a choice in the matter. The Xenomorphs aren't going back and I wasn't about to let them get taken."

"They weren't my friends," James said, "I barely even knew them, I was a rookie, and this was my first mission out with them. Same with the other one over there, this was her first mission out too." He said nodding toward the other cell. "If you don't mind me asking, but why are we in these cells and not dead, that Xeno had me in its grip and was about to punch a hole in my head but I'm still alive, why?"

"That was me," Shawn said, "we needed info on how your group tracked this ship down, so I asked the Xenos to grab a couple of you guys so we could try and get answers, as it turns out, we didn't need you or the other one, I was up in CIC when one of the groups came in and I overheard them saying something about a homing beacon that was transmitting back to the base. But I'm guessing you don't have any idea on where that beacon is at?"

James just shook his head, "No, just that we were following a signal that would lead us to this ship and that we were to regain control of it and capture the Xenos, it was supposed to be an easy mission and it just turned into a shit storm, they…they didn't do anything to me, did they?" He asked fear laced his voice.

"Do?" Shawn asked.

"Did they…rape me somehow, do anything to me?"

"No, they did not rape you. Why do you ask?"

James was silent for a bit before answering, "Dreams, horrible dreams, and this stuff I was covered in, whatever it was when I woke up."

Shawn leaned against the wall, Shadow was only a few meters away, staying out of sight of the young merc. "They had you secreted in resin to hold you in place on a wall, I suggested that they move you down to the cells, figured it might be more comfortable than being stuck to a wall for weeks or even months. That was it, none of them raped or violated you."

"And you know they didn't because…?"

"Because they have no interest in you like that. Besides if they were to have raped you, I can tell you right now without a doubt you would have known it as soon as you woke up." Shawn said trying to reassure the young merc. "You weren't bleeding out and nothing was ruptured, am I correct? So nothing happened to you, well, besides getting stuck to a wall for a few hours maybe a day and that was pretty much it."

"Ok," James replied, nodding some, but sounding none too convinced, his hand moved up to his chest, "I had a black medical pack on my right side, do you know where it's at?"

"Probably in the area where you were secured at when you were first captured, along with the equipment and weapons that were removed, why?

"That pouch has meds that I need," James answered back, he wasn't starting to have an asthma attack just yet, but he knew that sooner or later he would have one. The attacks hadn't been as frequent since he had come on board the Vesuvius, possibly something to do with the recycled and purified air but he would still get them, and sooner or later he knew that an attack was due. "I'm asthmatic, I made it a point to keep meds with me at all times. And I would really appreciate it if I could get that medical pouch back...please"

Shawn nodded, "We'll get it for you, but you do understand we'll have to look through it first, just to make sure there are no weapons or items that you could use to break out."

"We?" James asked.

At that moment Shadow revealed himself and stood next to Shawn, James immediately backed up away from the door.

"Don't worry, he's not coming in after you, my suggestion is that you get used to seeing them because you will be seeing them around as long as you are on this ship. Besides they are not dumb animals or mindless killers, and despite how we might see them, they can be quite pleasant to be around, so long as you don't do anything to completely piss them off."

"How…how can you do that, do you control them somehow?" James asked, still not sure he could trust his eyes.

"No, I do not control them, like I said before, I was invited onboard, and you guys were not. In the short time that I have been here they have never shown any hostility toward me since I came on this ship, though they did scare the ever loving shit out of me the first time we met." Shawn said, giving Shadow a slight wink.

"I'll take your word for it," James said, sitting back down on the bunk, trying to keep a respectful distance between himself and the Xeno. He still didn't see how this guy, whoever he was, could keep so calm standing right next to one of them, especially that large one, the same one that had slaughtered the group he was with.

Turning to leave, "I'll see about getting your med pouch back. Maybe even some fresh clothes," Shawn said heading out of the brig, Shadow true to his namesake was only a foot or two behind Shawn, the large Xenomorph towering over the smaller human.

"I'm going to grab some more coffee and head back up to CIC, care to keep me company for a bit?" Asked Shawn.

' _As much as I would like to, I must decline, you have a great deal of work before you and I would be an unnecessary distraction, a distraction that you cannot afford to have right now.'_ Shadow answered back, placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder. ' _I know of the pouch that the human merc speaks of I'll go and get it, you can look through it and see if there is anything that could be used against us, I'll then return it to him.'_

Stopping Shawn turned and looked up at the Xeno, "You are not a distraction if anything you give me focus, the will to do what needs to be done."

' _Be that as it may, I was ready to tear your clothing off, pin you down to the floor and fully mount and mate with you on the spot and at that time I cared for nothing else, and I still do some, so considering our predicament we cannot afford to waste that kind of time no matter how much we may want to sate our desires and instincts.'_ Shadow let go of Shawn's shoulder, turned and started to walk away. ' _I will ask Ales and Ghost and see if they can offer any sort of assistance to you, if anything maybe they can help you keep your focus. I, unfortunately, cannot, and for that I am sorry.'_

Shawn stood there and watched as the large Xeno walked away until he was out of sight. Taking a deep breath he tilted his head up and slowly exhaled. "And god knows I would have let you too, and I really wanted you too." he whispered to himself, "but you're right we can't afford distractions, not now, not with those mercs on our asses. Timing here just totally fucking sucks."

About two days is what they had, two days to find a homing beacon that was not on the ship's schematics and diagrams. He didn't even know what he was looking for and if he did find it how he was going to disable it. And even if he managed to pull that small feat off there was still the matter of getting the other Xenomorphs off of Eclipse station and finding them a home, and beyond a want and need to do that, none of them had any sort of plan.

Considering everything that was standing right before them a distraction was exactly what he wanted.


	15. NPX-391

CHAPTER 14: NPX-391

xxxxx

Two days.

That was all the time they had before exiting out of the FTL transit and entering into asteroid field three nine one, or as it was more commonly referred to as, the hidey hole. Two days to try and hunt down and locate a homing beacon that was transmitting their position. Two days had quickly become one day and one day had now become a mere handful of hours before coming out of FTL.

Within those two days, Shadow had retrieved the black medical pouch for Shawn to look over and when it was clear that there was nothing that could be used by the merc as a weapon or any devices that could be used to help him escape, Shadow had taken the pouch and delivered it to the mercs cell. Carefully placing the medical pouch on the door ledge he gently pushed it forward with one of his claws until it was just inside the cell.

James had slowly walked up and taken the pouch, still absolutely terrified of the large Xeno that was now just a few feet away from him. Shadow had given the merc a nod, turned and went to check in on the female merc who was now sitting on the cell bunk and looked to be in a serious all out pout. She thankfully was staying silent, her clothing was still laying on the floor and the small pool of urine was still sitting in the middle of the cell.

 _Miserable and useless excuse of a human_ , Shadow had thought bitterly to himself while looking at her from a dark corner, while physically she would have been considered attractive by most, he found her quite repulsive, ugly even. It was not anything to do with her physical features, but everything within her, her attitude, the way she conducted herself, her soul, it all smelled of rot and corruption, the airs of someone who expected the universe to bend to their will simply because they demanded it and felt they were all too entitled to it. She had not seen him and if she had he had no doubt that she would have screamed and urinated herself again. If she insisted on acting like a spoiled youngling then so be it, they would treat her as such, at least the other merc, while he had made, even though it was an empty threat toward Shawn, had at least had the curiosity to act like an adult and had to his credit, apologized for that act.

He knew that both mercs were scared and unsure about what the future held for them, and he could not blame them for that, and that fear could cause one to act irrationally, at least one of them had tried to act civilized and was not being a demanding self-centered, spoiled child. Once again credit where credit was due.

Shadow had crept out of the brig area, leaving the mercs to themselves, and started to wonder around the ship, for the time being, as much as he hated to, he needed to stay away from Shawn and let him do what needed to be done without being a distraction. He also needed to find a place and cool off; his heated arousal and need were still running very close to the surface.

He had communicated with Alese and Ghost to let them know what had happened and that he would not be of use to them for a while, and that they would need to help Shawn if possible. They had both been surprised that things had heated up so much and just how potent the drive had been from Shawn. But they did understand and would help in whatever way they could.

It had taken so much of his willpower to break the connection with Shawn, to stop and walk away until he was ready, despite what Shadow had said about never harming him, the Xeno knew that if they had both given themselves over to their passions and let their instincts take over there would have been a very real possibility that actual harm could have come to Shawn if Shadow had fully mated with him while in such a headed and animalistic condition.

So now, for the time being, he would stay away, he could wait, they would both have to wait, if he were to return to CIC as he was now, in his state, he was unsure how long he could maintain rational control and forcing himself on to Shawn was something that he would never do. He found a dark area of the ship and curling up into a ball his tail wrapped around himself, he went deep within his own mind and tried to calm the instinctual beast that was still edging ever so closer to the surface and threatening to take over.

Shawn had been tied up in the CIC area for almost the two full days, only taking a break to go and give food to the mercs, or for himself, Alese and Ghost. The female merc was still acting like a child only now she wasn't talking to him and just sat on the bunk pouting. Fine by him, he doubted she had anything he wanted to hear. The other one was more receptive and was at least talking some.

Alese and Ghost had stayed with Shawn in CIC to both keep him company and remind him that even he needed sleep and rest even if it was only a few hours. Most of the time Shawn had been bent over several computer consoles trying to, by the process of elimination, find a power conduit that would lead them to the homing beacon.

He had no idea if this plan of his would even work as he was going off of a guess. An assumption that the beacon itself was directly tied into the ship's main power source and not an independent power source such as a generator, it did, however, seem to be the most logical and reasonable assumption however.

It was either that or search the ship, section by section, deck by deck until they found something and if that turned up fruitless, the next step would have been looking over the outer hull. And the hell with that was Shawn's first thought on that idea. He had spent more than enough time in a space suit that he did not have any desire to ever be in one of those walking fabric coffins ever again if he could avoid it.

He had started with the G-Seven power conduits, those were the largest of the power conduits and were connected into and ran directly from the reactor systems themselves, those would then go into a splitter junction where the slightly smaller G-Six and G-Five conduits would come out, and from there, those conduits would run into junction boxes were the G-Four and G-Three would come out and so on.

The larger conduits weren't a problem to eliminate and scratch off the list, there was only so many linear meters of conduit, it was when he started getting into the smaller conduits that he ran into problems as the smaller the conduit size the more of it there was, hundreds of kilometers of conduits ran throughout the ship depending on the size. Small conduits like the G-One and G-Two, possibly thousands of kilometers.

He had eliminated the massive G-Seven conduits in a very short period of time, and even the G-Six, which were the primary power mains for the heavy weapon systems, as well as the primary mains for whole sections where the small conduits would break off and start to run throughout those areas.

It was when the G-Five conduits came up that it started to become a huge undertaking. Hundreds of kilometers of energy transferring conduit spread out everywhere. He thankfully had access to bring up the specs for just for the individual conduit size layout separately and was trying to track where each conduit went to and its functions.

Alese and Ghost sat in CIC, feeling utterly miserable and completely useless in the fact that they could do nothing to assist Shawn in his search and that it all seemed to rest on his shoulders. In their minds, it was cruel and unfair and they both hated it. They found that he would often look over at them and then smile and return back to his work. When Ghost asked him about it, his answer to them was only, "you all give me the strength and the will to go on." At least their being with him did serve some purpose even if it was simply for moral support.

While both Ghost and Alese sat on the floor close by Shawn, each one was filled with an unpleasant mixture of both boredom and worry. It was when Shawn's mood changed suddenly that it caught their attention. He seemed to have found something, possibly what it was he had been looking for.

 _'You have found something?'_ Ghost inquired standing up and walking over to where Shawn was at.

"Maybe, possibly...I think." Shawn said, his eyes were darting across several screens. "There's a G-Five conduit that's directly connected into one of the primary reactors, but it doesn't seem to hook up to any system, at least nothing that's on the schematics that I have up, it's active and drawing power and a lot of it, and according to the layout I have it goes up directly up into aft dorsal section of the ship, but that's all I can tell."

 _'Is it possible that you may have found the power conduit for the homing beacon?'_ Ghost asked, placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder and looking at the terminal, to him it simply looked like a glowing mass of white light.

"If it is, then the damn thing is on the outer hall of the ship, which means as soon as we come out of FTL and get into the field I'm going to have to go out there and see about shutting it down, damn it all I was really hoping I wasn't going to have to do a space walk...crap"

 _'Can you not simply disconnect the conduit from the reactor itself,'_ Ghost asked, _'that would seem to be the quickest course of action would it not be?'_

"It would be, except for one small thing, in order to do what you suggest, I would have to shut down the reactor, you can't disconnect a conduit that's directly tied right into the reactor itself without shutting it down, if you do, then you get a massive discharge of energy from the outlet, which will pretty much fry everyone and everything in the area, and will keep discharging until either the end of capped off or the whole reactor is powered down."

 _'So you will need to go out there and if it is not the beacon but something else?'_ Ghost asked.

"Then we run and we keep on running until we find this damn thing and shut it down. I mean it's either that or I try and figure out how to get the weapon systems up and running and then we try and fight, but I'm only one person and there is only so much I can do when it comes to operating this ship, which is supposed to have a crew close to three hundred."

 _'Shawn, you are tired... exhausted and understandably stressed, you have had very little sleep in the last two days and have been hunched over these computer systems looking for something that is all too well hidden. None of us expect you to work this ship by yourself; we do understand that there is only so much that you can do by yourself.'_ Alese said.

"I know, I know, but the fact is that I am, I mean when it comes down to it, your race can't see what's on the monitors or very little, so there's nothing that you can do as far as operating the computer systems which is pretty much integral to working on a starship and as far as the beacon, I'm grasping at straws on that one...sorry human metaphor there. But yes I am stressed and tired, and frustrated as fuck, I'm also worried about Shadow too. I haven't seen him in close for two days, and you know what, not having him right next to me feels weird, like a part of myself has somehow gone missing."

 _'It is not surprising, the two of you have bonded very close, closer than what any of us had ever thought possible, especially given the difference between our two races.'_ Ghost said.

"Yea, but we're all close, we've all bonded," Shawn answered back.

 _'Yes we are all close and we all have bonds that we have built and formed. But you and Shadow are exceptionally close to one another and have an incredibly strong bond,'_ replied Ghost.

"And yet, I can't even say how I feel about him or any of you, the words just won't come out, and when I do try to say them they sound forced even fake."

 _'Then do not use words,'_ Alese told Shawn, _'we have never used spoken words to communicate how we feel toward one another. Let him and us feel what you feel toward us.'_

'Shawn,' Ghost spoke up, _'I understand how walled off you are and how difficult those barriers are to break down and overcome, and what you feel may be muffled and crushed by doubt, sorrow and anger, it is a battle that rages within myself all the time. There are times I wish that I could be alone forever and not burden my hive mates with my own pain, I feel alone and weak and that I no longer matter or have a place that I care about. Shadow and Alese will remind me how much they care and that I do have a place with them and am needed. For us, words were never needed, just let what you feel be your voice, you need nothing else.'_

Shawn just nodded, not sure if what Ghost had just told him would work or not, the whole concept of linking minds was still so new, and feeling what someone else felt was still very frightendly new and even overwhelming. As he had experience with Shadow in CIC only a couple of days ago. Still, it might be better than waiting to try and find the right words, words which he wasn't sure would ever come.

 _'You should rest, we do not know what awaits us at this asteroid field when we arrive, even if we only have a few hours you should use that time to rest and sleep.'_ Alese said.

"We have just under six hours before coming out of FTL" Replied Shawn, looking over at the countdown display, "I'm not sure I could even sleep at this point."

 _'Alese is correct, you need to rest and sleep, even if it is only for a little while, we do not know what will be there waiting for us, if we are lucky there will be nothing there, however...'_

"However the way our luck as been going," Shawn began, finishing up Ghost's sentence, "assume the worse will be there waiting for us, like a whole damn fleet of merc ships."

 _'Yes, correct.'_ Ghost replied, _'If nothing is there then we will be fortunate, and if we have company waiting for us then you will need your wits about you. Something that you cannot do if you are fighting fatigue at the same time you are having to fight an enemy.'_

"Ok, ok, you two win." Shawn said, admitting defeat to the two Xenos, raising his hands, "But I am not sleeping in CIC again those chairs suck and the floor is hard and cold, we can go back to our sleeping room and rest up there. Maybe Shadow will be there waiting for us."

Ghost shook his head, _'No, I am afraid he is not.'_ Replied Ghost, his voice laced with sadness, _'he still stays away and remains isolated.'_

That was not what Shawn was hoping to hear, it really wracked his emotions to know that Shadow, was still staying away. He wondered if somehow he had messed up. "Gods, I feel like I really somehow screwed things up here," Shawn said, guilt starting to set within his stomach.

 _'No, you have done nothing wrong. What happened simply happened; neither one of you are at fault for what transpired.'_ Reassured Ghost, the Xeno placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder, _'we, all of us are in uncharted territory when it comes to interacting with your race in this manner.'_

 _'Our emotions, instincts, and passions are very strong, never forget that human emotions and instincts do not run as potent, and for all of us this is a new learning experience, one that we have never dealt with and have nothing within our hive memory to drawn upon for guidance.'_ Alese added, trying to help ease Shawn's rising guilt.

"So, in other words, were all blind and stumbling our way in the dark through this," Shawn replied back, not feeling any better by their words, he knew that met everything they were saying, but he still felt bad that Shadow was not around.

 _'Correct, but at least we are blind and stumbling in the dark together so it is not as frightening,'_ Ghost said, _'come let us rest and sleep for as long as we can.'_

"Alright," Shawn nodded in agreement, he did need sleep and they were both right about that. It would do no good to fight fatigue at the same time he was hunting down that transmitter on the hull and if the mercs either showed up or were already waiting he would need to think on his feet and figure out what to do. For all he knew this could be the last time they would all sleep together.

He really was wishing Shadow was there or would come back, he missed him dearly.

xxxxx

The asteroid fiel three nine one, it's nickname the hidey hole was a massive field, no one knew how the field had been formed, or why it had such unusual properties, the EM radiation, while not unique was rare however to such fields. A subtle blue hue illuminated most of the field giving off a beautiful and ghostly appearance from afar, almost as if it was a delicate cloud hanging in the blackness of the void.

A bright white light flashed for a brief second, tens of thousands of kilometers from the outermost edge of the field, the light visible for just a second, deposited its black metallic contents into space. The vessel drifted forward for a few minutes then came to a complete stop. Moments later, one of the larger outer airlock doors opened up and a large white mass with a small personal distress beacon attached to it that was active flew out and tumbled through space. No one knew if the bodies of the dead mercs would be picked up and returned home and laid to rest, it was their best chance and if not then this asteroid field would be their permanent resting place. It was a solemn moment for all that were witness to it, no one spoke ill of the dead that had just been released into space, each one giving their own version of a silent prayer out of respect for their return home.

Shortly after the ship roared to life with brilliant blue jets of flame, pushing the vessel forward toward its intended destination. Silently the black ship moved toward the field, small asteroids glided past the vessel greeting it as it flew by. Minute by minute the field started to grow in size and density more and more rocks of all sizes, from tiny pebbles to massive giants that dwarfed the Saratoga itself began to surround the ship as it started too slowed down.

As the field thickened with the floating space rocks, the Saratoga turned to port, a large opening came into view, slowly and steady the ship entered the opening which gave away to a lengthy tunnel that was clear of the massive ship crushing and damaging rocks. A long corridor, one of several within the field that had been artificially made to hide larger ships from pursuing vessels, or as a secret meeting spot.

The sensor readings were now what most pilots, navigators or bridge crew referred to as sensor soup. The mass amount of static, interference and white noise came up on the sensor monitors and display, only a faint blip would pop up and then disappear seconds later. Most of the navigator was done by visual means, every external camera was up and running, giving a fairly good field of view.

And while the proximity sensors were working, even their range was reduced to only a few hundred meters. A warning while it would occur would only give them, depending on the speed, a few seconds of leeway to adjust course. But it was better than nothing.

It was not known how many ships that had gone too far into the field over the course of the centuries were still there, permanent tombs of pilots and crew that had dared to venture too far in and met with an untimely death. Some said it was dozens, others speculated it was hundreds, maybe even thousands.

At this point, both the field and the corridor were a refuge, or at least the inhabitance of the ship was hoping it would be. Whatever time they had gained was now being eaten away, no one knew how much time they really had until the mercs caught up, days, hours or even minutes. All Shawn and the others knew was that the clock was ticking down and quickly.

Shawn leaned forward, the bulky white spacesuit was reminding him now all too much of Darrius station when it went up in flames. Checking his connections and life-support he adjusted several of the buckles that secured the ever life-giving life-support system to his back as well as a data pad that was in a protective case strapped to his arm that had the location of what he was hoping was the transmitter. "Check, check and check." He said making sure the glove metal O-rings were securely connected to the suit forming an air tight seal. "Oh, jesses I can't believe I'm doing this." He muttered his heart starting to race wildly.

Ghost came up to him, reached around with this hand to the back of Shawn's head and leaned in forward his forehead touching with Shawn's. _'One of us should be out there with you.'_

"No, I don't want any of you out there, while I would love the company, it's deadly out there, being out in a field like this is something you don't want to do until you absolutely have to. And I don't want to take the chance to lose any of you." Shawn stated firmly, while he would welcome either Ghost or Alese to be there, he knew just how hazardous it was the last thing he wanted was to see one of them die by a flying space rock.

 _'I will go regardless.'_ A deep and tired voice spoke out that filled their minds.

All three looked over to see Shadow entering the airlock prep room. His hands gripping the door frame supporting himself as he bent down to enter the room. Shawn dropped the helmet he had been holding down onto the metal floor, walking up to the large Xenomorph he just wrapped his arms around Shadow's torso. Gently Shadow returned the embrace with him arms crisscrossing across Shawn's back. Shawn could feel a sense of great relief coming from Shadow's mind, he figured that the Xeno would be worried that he might be angry at him. Shawn had been more worried about him than anything else. "Please tell me that you are feeling better now." He said releasing the Xeno from the hug.

 _'Yes, somewhat. I am sorry I could not be there with you. I hope that you understand.'_ He answered back.

"I do, or at least I'm trying to understand, I know that things got pretty heated back up in CIC and I'm learning just how potent your emotions and instincts really are. Guess that we both kind of pushed things."

Shadow squatted down until he was almost head level with Shawn, cupping the humans' face with both of his hands he leaned in, touching his forehead with Shawn's. _'When this is over and we are safe, we will take all the time we need to make sure we have this right between us. I do not want to rush and lose control and hurt you, I would not be able to forgive myself for such an act.'_

Nodding, Shawn reached up and touched Shadow with his gloved hand on the side of the jaw.

"You're not going out there, I'm sorry but I won't allow it, I won't take the chance of some freak accident happening and watch you die."

 _'I'm going out there with you and that is final, I can say the same thing, do you think that I or any of us would allow you to undertake this task without one of us there just in case a freak accident does happen. If something does happen to you we can bring you back inside quicker than you realize, now we can stay here in this spot arguing if we so desire but as we all know time is not an ally at this moment.'_ Shadow said, his stance firm on the matter and nothing Shawn said or did was going to change his position. He would go and that was all there was to it.

"I'm not going to win this one am I?" Shawn asked, knowing all too well the answer, Shadow was going to be right next to him the whole time, whether he liked it or not, and while he didn't like the idea of any of the Xenos going out, he was grateful that someone would be out there, a lot of bad memories were starting to come back and haunt him, and that was something he sure as hell did not need right now.

 _'No, you will not.'_ Was Shadows only response to the question.

"Then let's see about getting this damn transmitter taken care of so we can have that time, for all of us."

 _'I agree.'_ Shadow said, standing up and began to walk toward the airlock door, the sooner they could get this beacon shut down the better.

"You're sure as hell not going out there like that." Shawn stated his voice turning serious, walking over to one of the large lockers, "if you going out there, you're going to be teetered to me the whole damn time and that's final." Opening up a large locker door for supplies and equipment, he grabbed a large belt and what looked to be a long piece of cable wrapped up with a pair of securing clamps on either end.

Wrapping and securing the belt around Shadow's waist, he fastened one end of the cable clamp to the belt and then the other end to himself. "Just in case something happens so you won't go floating away. I've seen a lot of accidents happen and people get lost that way, trust me, slowly dying in space is a bad way to go." Shawn told him, knowing just how horrible an experience it was being in a space suit for days at a time.

 _'I will trust your judgment, just tell me what I will need to do and it will be done.'_ Shadow said, his tone very fatigued and strained, Shawn picked up on it but said nothing for the time being, for now, there was simply no time.

"Just stay close and low, right now we're in the middle of an asteroid field, and even though this is a corridor that had been cleared out, there's still a ton of small rocks fragments floating and bouncing around out there, you would be surprised how much damage a fist side rock going at several hundred or thousand kilometers per hour can do to the human body, I don't want to lose you to a piece of rock. We'll be using the superstructure as a shield as we make our way across, the more cover we have the better. Once we get to the location we'll see what we're dealing with and go from there." Shawn said, placing the helmet on, he yanked the pressure seal ring on the neck and with a click, the lights in the helmet HUD turned on and indicated all systems were in the green and all seals were locked.

Picking up a large tool crate which had several large four foot long tubes strapped to the side and a small emergency thruster pack which he clipped onto his side, both he and Shadow entered the primary airlock. All three Xenos could pick up on Shawn's rapidly growing anxiety, he wasn't just simply nervous, he was terrified. Reaching out he pressed a large green button, the door closed and sealed. "Shit, shit," Shawn muttered under his breath. Grateful that no one could see just how bad he was starting to tremble, "stay focused, stay focused, just concentrate on the work, go from point A to point B and go from there." He whispered to himself trying to stay calm.

Even though the bulky spacesuit masked any of his physical signs of being scared, his mind was screaming out loud and clear for all three Xenos to hear.

Shadow reached out; gently placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder, _'you have nothing to be afraid of we are all here, I am with you.'_ He said, trying to calm Shawn's fears, he had only seen bits of pieces of Shawn's dreams but it had always involved fire, death and tumbling through space, far more than enough to justify his terror.

 _'Both of you, please be careful.'_ Alese said mentally reaching out to both of them. If she lost either one or by the queen mother forbid both of them, it would devastate both her and Ghost, possibly to the point of madness.

Nodding, Shawn gave a thumbs up, _'we'll be careful.'_ he mentally replied back to Alese, his mind still laced with fear but now not nearly as bad.

 _'Will you be alright, can you do this?'_ Shadow asked as Shawn went through the depressurizing sequence for the room, in a few moments the outer door opened up, and both occupants were witness to a grand spectacular close up to the asteroid field. A part of him wished that both he and Shadow could spend the time to watch and take in the site of the massive field and it's unusual blue hue, it was beautiful, he then wondered if for a second if Shadow or more precisely how Shadow was seeing the field and it's odd EM radiation.

It would have to wait until later, much later.

 _'I'll be fine...need to do this...no choice.'_ His mental voice was shaky, overall it was much better than what it had been when he had first tried it, the speech was more cohesive and far less garbled and broken. Reaching around the edge of the door frame, he found himself on the outer hull of the Saratoga, as menacing as it had been when he first encountered it in the Ember Rose, it was completely awe inspiring now that he was having his first real close up look of the outer hull of the ship.

He could see the massive pulse guns, rail guns, gauss cannons and other ship destroying weapons nestled up in their housing, huge weapon systems that no doubt cost at least hundreds of thousands if not millions of credits per gun. Even his small ship would get torn to shreds with a few shots by these monsters.

Gripping onto anything that could be used as a handhold, he slowly, carefully glided himself up the side of the ship, Shadow was only a couple of meters behind him, effortlessly crawling up the side with no problem in the zero-G environment, or the vacuum itself. If Shawn had not seen into Ghost's mind about all the horrible experiments that he had been put through including being forced to spend days out in space, Shawn would never have allowed Shadow to come out with him, no matter what the Xeno would have said about being able to survive in the vacuum of space.

Reaching the top of the ship, as Shawn peaked over he found himself looking right at one of the twin barrel housings for the massive building-sized partial cannons that were fixed onto a gigantic swinging turret that was set and locked down into the ship's superstructure.

"Right, that is one seriously big ass gun," he muttered to himself trying to keep his mind off the rising terror that was taking hold, he had no doubt that the mass of just one of the barrel alone was almost as much as his own tiny ship. And this ship had four of these massive turrets on it. Enemy or not, he would feel sorry for anyone that wound up being on the receiving end of those weapons.

 _'Which way do we go?'_ Shadow asked, coming up right next to Shawn.

Pointing at the back of the ship, _'Toward the aft,'_ Shawn replied his mental voice crackling with nervous tension, _'stay low.'_ He said, and started to walk, using as much of the structure of the ship as cover to avoid any of the small rocks that might collide with them. Trying not to look up or toward any part of space, Shawn kept his eyes locked downward, only glancing up. His breathing was starting to quicken becoming short and erratic, fear was way past the point of gripping him, and it was only a matter of time before he either started to hyperventilate or went into a panic attack, possibly both. Something that would be lethal in space. Even with Shadow projecting his calm and reassuring thoughts it was not enough to hold back the barrier that was about to rupture

Shadow crept along, down on all fours and was staying right next to Shawn. His human was in a bad state of mind, he could feel the stark naked terror that was squeezing Shawn's heart and soul and it all the Xeno could do not to just grab Shawn and head back inside the ship.

 _'Talk to me...please.'_ Shawn's voice weakly echoed into Shadow's mind, as each step they made, took them further and further away from the airlock doors.

 _'What would you like me to talk to you about?'_ Shadow asked, his mind racing trying to think of any topic that might distract him from the eruption that was about to happen.

 _'Anything, everything, I don't care what it is, just please talk to me.'_ He pleaded disparately, hoping, wishing for anything that would distract him.

 _'Do you think that there are any places that will be suitable for our new home that we can reach?'_ Shadow said, hoping that talk of their new home, as premature as it might be, would hopefully take Shawn's mind off his fears. He knew that it was an impossible task considering where they were at, but maybe he could make it just a bit more bearable.

 _'You guys could live on a near airless asteroid and make it your home if you wanted to I would bet.'_ Shawn replied back trying to joke, hearing Shadow in his mind and having him close did help some, but just only. _'But you're talking a planet, one very far away.'_

 _'One for ALL of us.'_ Shadow replied back, his emphasis on all of them, Shawn included.

 _'Earth type planets are rare but they are out there, most times we have to terraform a planet and make it habitable for our race. Maybe the Saratoga's database has something that would work for us.'_ Shawn stumbled forward slightly, Shadow was right there holding him in an instant, even in zero-g, the Xenomorphs were frighteningly fast. A slight headache and dizziness came on, the mental muscles were still developing, and still caused him headaches and other slight side-effects, side-effects that he hoped would go away with practice and time. _'I'm alright.'_ He told Shadow, who loosened his grip slightly, _'just a slight headache and a bit of dizziness.'_

 _'How much further do we need to go?'_ Shadow asked, releasing Shawn from his grip, he could feel just that little bit of talking did help some, the fear, while still there had loosened its grip just a little bit.

Looking at the data pad that was strapped to his arm, _'another hundred or so meter to go,'_ the waypoint indicator read. A hundred meters, it might as well been a hundred miles, every step was agonizingly slow in the zero-g environment. Shawn kept thinking that either he or Shadow was going to be hit and killed by a small asteroid fragment any second.

 _He's going to die out here, you know that, right, or you will._ The tiny voice in the back of his mind spoke up, of all the times for it to come back, now was possibly one of the worse times...ever.

 _Not now, just go away!_ Shawn growled, he was beyond tired of this tiny voice that would crop up and just ruin everything, he knew that it was a part of him, his own fear given voice and power over him, and now it was trying to make this horrendous task even more difficult.

 _Nope, not this time._ It replied back with a stronger and louder tone than before. _I'm here to stay for this stint, and I don't care if your Xeno lover or to be lover can hear what I'm saying, it's not like he can do anything to shut me down right, well he would have to harm you to do that, but we both know he would never do that._ It shot back.

 _'Ignore it, it can't do anything if you let it,'_ Shadow said, hearing everything that was going on within Shawn's mind. While he had heard this tiny voice when Shawn has let him replay what had happened with Alese in the airlock prep room, hearing it and experiencing it firsthand was two very different things. This was something that they were all going to have to deal with somehow. Shawn was somehow going to have to confront and conquer this fear that had taken hold and now had a voice and power over him.

 _Yea, please go ahead and ignore me, just like how Shadow ignored you for the last two days when you needed him, though I guess that it was fortunate that Alese and Ghost were there to play second fiddle and take up the slack, but only at Shadow's beck and call, right._ The tiny voice sneered.

"Just shut the fuck up, stop talking, just go away." Shawn screamed inside his suit, not fully realizing just what he was doing as he grabbed the lock for the seal ring on his neck, "or I swear to fucking god I'll.." He was cut off right in mid-sentence by that tiny mental voice.

 _Or you'll do what, huh, kill yourself, kill us both, you don't have the balls for that boy and you never did, otherwise, you would have done it already and a long time ago. And I doubt that Shadow would let you._ It blurted out, knowing full well that it, well himself, was telling the truth.

Shawn never realized until he felt a slight pressure on his hand that Shadow had grabbed it and was holding his hand firmly in place not letting him move the seal ring an inch. He was about to try and kill himself in a fit of anger and didn't even realize it until just now, the stark realization of what he was about to do and how it would have devastated the Xenos hit him like an out of control freight train.

 _'I'm sorry Shadow, I'm sorry, I..I can't do this, I'm sorry.'_ Shawn cried, _'I'm not strong enough to fight this thing in my head.'_ He didn't know how much longer he could go on, ever since he realized that he would need to do a spacewalk his fear had been tightening its grip and now it had him in a full blown choke hold and was refusing to let go.

 _'Then tell me what needs to be done and I will do it, what do I need to do?_ ' Shadow asked his own mental voice heavy with fear, not for himself but for his human who seemed to be losing this sudden internal fight. _'Shawn please tell me what do I need to do?'_

 _Yes, Shawn, what does he need to do, I'm sure that he could just start by blindly ripping out wires and conduit and maybe he might get lucky and get the right one or hell he could just get himself fried in the process. Of course, you don't even know what you're looking for yourself, do you? Just blindly stumbling around without a plan hoping that you'll luck out._ The tiny voice said, not caring if the large Xeno heard him or not. _Not exactly the best way to protect them, and that is what you promised them is it not, not really doing a very good job at that are you? Well hell boy, you might as well give up and surrender right now, maybe the mercs will be lenient and let you go, though we both know what the answer to that would really be. Bullet right in the head, right after they torture you for intel first. And that would be if you're lucky, oh well too bad so sad, better luck next time._

 _'ENOUGH,'_ Shadow's voice rang out in Shawn's mind, _'Go back to whatever dark hole you crawled out of and leave him be, I will not allow you to overtake him with fear and doubt.'_ The Xeno commanded, he had had more than enough of this little voice that was feeding fear and doubt into Shawn's mind and soul. _'I would never hurt my Shawn, but you, you I will come after with my full fury and will.'_ For a brief moment, he could feel fear within that tiny voice that was seeding doubt within Shawn's mind.

 _And just how will you do that my dearest love,_ the tiny voice mocked, _you hurt me, you hurt him. You forget I am him, just a part that was birthed and given voice in the depths of space, born in fire and death, out of fear and terror, I am his means to survival, so please do your worst...my dearest love._

It wasn't just the Xeno's sheer willpower, it was also desperation that made Shadow act, none of them had time for this, every precious second used up here was one less second they would have to use if and when the merc ships showed up.

Focusing his own will and mental strength, Shadow tried to press and crush that obscene little voice back down into where ever the hell it had come from, and while it had been annoying at first when it was first discovered by Alese, now it was becoming downright malignant.

It protested at first, then it went into a tirade, now it was threatening about what it would do to them, Shadow knew it was all empty bluster and meaningless threats and that it had no direct control over Shawn and that it could never take control over him. And finally, while he could not destroy it, he was able to silence it, temporarily at least.

Shawn's eyes were partly glazed over and his head felt like someone was inside it with a sledgehammer pounding away strike, after strike, after strike, after strike. What was supposed to be a, hopefully, easy walk, just go from point A to point B and back and that was it, had now become some messed up emotional quagmire mental battle within himself that he seemed to have no control over.

 _'Shawn...Shawn, please say something.'_ Shadow pleaded, hoping and praying to whatever forces were out there that his human was alright.

At first, Shawn didn't move, he just stood there his eyes looking down, not moving a muscle, after what seemed like several long moments that lasted forever, he slowly raised his head, he eyes were red and a wet trail went down the side of this face. _'My head is pounding like you would not believe.'_ He finally said, a weak smile creeping across his face. _'But it's gone, at least for now.'_ Raising his gloved hand he reached up and placed it on Shadow's chest, 'thank you.'

 _'I will not let harm come to you, nor will I let you face this fear on your own.'_ He replied back, grasping Shawn's hand and giving it a firm squeeze. It was a simple but very powerful reminder to Shawn that he would be there for him for as long as time allowed.

Nodding, in the back of his mind Shawn was starting to fully realized and comprehend that Shadow and the other two Xenos would be there for and with him for the rest of his life. It was not just some odd and unusual friendship that had developed but something that was becoming far deeper and more personal.

 _'A Hundred meters left, let's go and see what we find.'_ Shawn said, turning back around and started walking toward the aft section of the ship, _' the sooner we get this damn thing disconnected the better off we'll be.'_

 _'Can you do this, can handle being out here with what just happened?'_ Shadow asked, following next to Shawn. Even though he had suppressed that tiny voice in Shawn's head, he felt that the human was still just a hair's breath away from a panic attack.

 _'No, I can't, as least not alone, which is why I'm glad that you're with me.'_ Answered Shawn, he couldn't fully express just how much he was grateful to Shadow for pressing the issue and outright telling him that he was coming and that was as he said, was final. _'I'm sorry for being weak like this when I'm needed the most, that damn voice in the back of my head, just...I'm sorry.'_

 _'You are not weak, and you have nothing to be sorry for, your own fear took a hold of you there is no shame in that, you have been strong for us since you came onboard now let us be strong for you. When we are safe we will do all we are capable of to help you overcome that fear that has take hold and has been given voice and power.'_ Shadow said, trying to give Shawn whatever encouragement and comfort that he himself could. This was more very new territory they were entering and in truth, Shadow did not know how much the three of them could really do to help Shawn with this problem, while they could be there for him, he suspected that ultimately the battle would be solely up to Shawn himself.

Human minds were such odd and unstable things he was discovering, he quietly wondered how many of his race had been able to interact with other humans like the three of them had with Shawn, a few he knew from the records that Shawn had discovered, but how many other encounters might have happened that were never discovered. Was there, perhaps in some far off undiscovered section of the galaxy or hidden deep away from prying eyes a colony or hive that both races lived together in peaceful coexistence.

Part of him doubted it, but there was hope that maybe just maybe it could have happened.

Both of them feverly made their way across the dorsal section of the Saratoga, Shawn focused on taking one step at a time, his mind racing on what he was going to have to do as far as trying to disconnect the homing beacon's power source if indeed that was what they were heading to.

Shadow tried to keep Shawn's mind distracted by talking of what their hopes and dreams could be, a home, a proper hive, a simple and quiet and very peaceful life, one that did not involve being some ass hat scientist test subjects. In truth, neither he nor Ghost or Alese had come up with any other plans for their lives beyond that. What else did they need, what else was out there that they desired, nothing as far as he knew. That was all they would need...was it not?

Shadow didn't realize that they were almost to the spot until Shawn stopped and looked up, _'this is it. At least according to the info I have.'_ Shawn said, looking at the datapad that was strapped to his arm.

A few meters in front of them was a twenty-foot tall black geodesic dome supported on six evenly spaced diagonally slanted metal support beams that raised it five feet above the hull. Rising up from the hull of the ship and going into the bottom center part of the dome was what looked to be a shielded conduit.

 _'This was not in the ship's schematics at all, this has to be it.'_ Shawn said, walking up to the dome, _'maybe there's an access hatch, if we can get inside I might have a better idea of what we're dealing with. If not, I'm going to have to unbolt and pull the conduit out directly, not something that I really want to try and do.'_

Looking around the dome, Shadow noticed what looked like a six-foot tall access hatch that only just barely stood out because of a handle and a rail glide system that was just a few meters to their left side. _'Over here, is this what you are looking for?'_

 _'I do believe so.'_ He answered back, walking up; gripping the handle and turning it the door popped open several inches and slid to the side on its own. Stepping inside Shawn found himself looking at what was, for the most part, a mostly empty room, save for only a few console stations that were stationed a couple of meters inside. The very center had a long black cylinder that was eight to ten feet in diameter from what he could tell that and went up the full height of the dome.

 _'I have no idea what the hell I'm looking at.'_ Shawn told Shadow as the Xenomorph entered the dome, standing next to Shawn he swung his head side to side as if looking at something.

 _'I see light everywhere, it's fairly bright in here.'_ Shadow said, looking up and around.

 _'Bright? I can barely see anything at all, just a few lights from the floor the consoles screens and a slight glow from that cylinder,'_ Shawn said, looking up at Shadow, as he wondered just what it was that Shadow was seeing. What light source was he talking about?

 _'It's coming from the center of this room, from that cylinder,'_ Shadow replied looking right at the massive black tube.

Going up to one of the consoles, Shawn looked over the monitors that were on and looked to have several display readouts, _'This looks to be monitoring some sort of frequency output, but the power level is way off the chart for any transmitter that I've ever seen or heard of. There is enough power being shunted through here to power my own ship with some to spare.'_ Moving over to a second console he saw what looked to be some sort of diagram, a large crystalline structure almost like a jagged cactus that he did not recognize, _'What the hell is this? This can't be a transmitter or if it is it's not like anything I've ever seen or heard of, maybe alien tech of some sort, but this doesn't even look like technology that any of the alien races that I'm familiar with use.'_

 _'Perhaps it was something this organization found somewhere,'_ Shadow commented, _'if they were exploring perhaps they came across the remains of some long forgotten and dead race, possibly some race that the creators had wiped out long ago.'_ He said a deep sadness echoed in his last statement.

 _'That's a possibility, either that or it could have been something that they created, but regardless I need to kill the power.'_ Shawn said, going back to the main console he started to navigate the menu subroutines.

 _'What are you doing?'_ Shadow asked looking over his shoulder at the console screen, not that he could see anything except white light coming from it and nothing else.

 _'Seeing if I can access the power menu and turn it off from here...got it...I hope.'_ Shawn answered back, inputting the new command codes to override and shut down the power.

His hopes were quickly squashed.

 **ACCESS DENIED, CODES NOT VALID, INPUT CORRECT ACCESS CODE.** A message flashed across the screen.

 _Because you're off the main system from the rest of the ship, so the new codes didn't take, you fucking piece of crap._ Shawn thought bitterly to himself, of course, he should have remembered that little tidbit of information. That this whole structure besides the power wasn't tied in with any of the networks, so of course the new codes would not have taken.

 _'New codes aren't working on this, maybe I can lower the cylinder and see what we're dealing with, there could be a way to physically disconnect it from the main power leads.'_ He told Shadow, his heart was starting to beat faster and faster, anxiety and overall nervousness was starting to get to him. He had been hoping that it would be a plan, regular hi-powered transmitter that he could flip a switch and that would be it, but oh-no, it would have to have been some far off tech that he had never even heard of. At this point, he wasn't even going to ask what could happen next, and quite frankly that would have been just inviting disaster. Not that disaster needed an invitation it seemed, it just showed up whenever it felt like it. Hi, here I am ready to fuck your day up some more, enjoy.

 _'Tell me what you need me to do and I will see it done.'_ Shadow replied back, his hand resting on Shawn's shoulder. He could tell that Shawn's injuries were well on the mend, he was still having trouble with his arm, but it was far better now and he was able to use it to a limited ability.

Shawn scrolled through some more of the menus until he found what he was looking for, tapping the touch screen, the cylinder started to lower. _'Okay, let's see just what we are dealing with an...'_ He was cut off as Shadow mentally screamed out in pain.

 _'IT'S TOO BRIGHT, I CAN'T SEE!'_ Shadow screeched out in Shawn's mind panicked, quickly turning around he covered the front of his dome with his hands. _'I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!'_

 _'I'm here, I'm here!'_ Shawn cried out, grabbing Shadow by the arm, _'I'm guiding you out, just a few steps and that's it, just follow my lead, that's it.'_ Slowly leading Shadow out of the dome, Shawn carefully guided the large Xenomorph step by step until they were a few meters away from the access hatch.

 _'I can't see.'_ Shadow whimpered, _'there's nothing, just nothing.'_

 _'No, no, no, please no.'_ Shawn cried, his heart sinking at Shadow's pitiful cry, his padded hand petting and stroking Shadow's dome, physically he couldn't see anything different, no whiteing that was happening or discoloration within the Xenos dome itself. He hoped, he prayed that it was justly temporally, like someone suddenly looking at an all too intense bright light and going temporally blind or have vision problems for a few minutes. _'I'm here, I'll stay here with you for however long I need to.'_

 _'No.'_ Shadow responded, _'no...you need to shut this damn thing down, we may not have much time left, you can't stay with me right now, you need to do what is necessary and turn this thing off or destroy it.'_ Shawn noticed Shadow's hand reaching out and gripping one of the support struts. _'Go and do what needs to be done, I'll be fine.'_

 _'Alight, I'm going, look maybe it's just temporary.'_ Shawn said, detaching the safety line from his belt. _'I'll get it powered down then we get back inside.'_

 _'A sound plan.'_ Shadow replied back, his tail coiling around himself as he curled up.

 _'Shadow...'_ Shawn started, only to be cut off.

 _'Do not worry about me, concentrate on turning off that transmitter, that task is far more important. And do not say you're sorry for what happened, it was not your fault, you didn't know, neither one of us could have known.'_

Shawn tried to fight back the tears that were threatening to overtime him, as much as he wanted to stay there and hold his Xeno, to comfort Shadow as Shadow had given him comfort and support in the past few weeks, he couldn't, not now. No, he had to do what was necessary and get this transmitter or whatever the hell it was shut down. Heading back inside the dome before he changed his mind completely, he looked at the console layout, and the now fully exposed what looked to be more of a small crystal tree or shrub with large and small section jutting out from the main section that ran up a full fifteen feet.

The crystalline object gently pulsed and glowed with energy, slowly it would dim and then brighten up. The colors would shift and ebb filling the room with subtle different colors every few seconds.

"With my luck I'm getting some weird kind of radiation poisoning now," he muttered to himself, walking up to the console, he started to look over the menus, overall there were very few commands that he recognized, many of them were about adjusting the frequency gain, resolution, harmonics, resonance, power adjustments. Nothing however that he could access as far as shutting the device down.

Time for plan B.

Walking over to the base of the structure, he looked around trying to see if any cables were connecting to the crystal structure at all, everything looked to be below the plating itself. Stomping on the plate, it felt as if it was several inches think. No chance of cutting through that without a high-powered laser cutter, and he didn't have one of those on his person.

"Fine, hard way it is then, why should this little outing be easy, huh. Freaking panic attack hits, Shadow goes blind, and now I have to disconnect the conduit from outside." Shawn muttered to himself, as he walked back out. "Anything else that you all would like to throw our way, maybe an asteroid or two, or how about a pirate cruiser."

 _'Things do not go as planned I take it?_ ' Shadow said, still unmoving, sensing his human's anger and distress.

 _'No they did not, I'm going to have to disconnect from the bottom, pull the conduit out and cap it off, all without getting either one of us killed.'_ Shawn told him, squatting down next to Shadow, he placed his gloved hand on the dome. _'How are you doing, can you see or sense anything?'_

 _'I believe my senses and vision are coming back, it's not as dark as it was, still hurts some.'_ Shadow said, reaching out and placing his hand on Shawn's arm and giving it a gentle squeeze. _'What do you need me to do?'_

 _'I may need help getting the conduit pulled out when I get the safety bolts removed.'_ Shawn replied setting down the tool case and opening it up revealing a massive selection of tools, devices patches and sealants for repair and maintenance work. ' _Not sure what the setup is like underneath, so it's possible this could take a while.'_

Grabbing a large spotlight, Shawn carefully glided underneath the large dome to look around the conduit, to his immediate relief he found that the conduit housing was supported in by what looked like eighteen one inch diameter bolts. "Not too bad, unbolt, pull out and cap it off, straightforward and simple. I hope." He told himself, half expecting something to come out of nowhere and blindside him, yet again. However, he knew full well that by now, the way things were going, something unexpected was going to come up, in fact, he would be very surprised if it did not.

Attaching the spotlight to the hull with its magnetic plate and leaving it in place, Shawn pushed himself out turning he looked at Shadow, ' _Well some good news, I have some bolts that I'll need to take out, once that's done, we can pull the conduit out and cap it off, after that we should be in the clear and won't have anyone being able to track us. At least that's the plan.'_ He said grabbing a high powered drill and the proper sized socket for the bolts and a storage bag to place them in.

Even if he or Shadow could have seen it, far off in the distance just outside of the asteroid field, to them it would have looked like nothing more than a pair of stars twinkling, two flashes of light brightly flared and then faded.

Gliding back underneath the dome, Shawn positioned himself as best as he could to gain access to work on the bolts. Bringing up the drill and placing it on the first bolt, slowly it began to turn and then unscrew. One by one he undid the bolts and placed each on in the storage bag.

Shadow held his position, as much as he wanted to crawl underneath the dome to at least be close to Shawn, he did not want to interfere with the work that he was doing. He did, however, have something that he wanted to ask him about. _'Can I inquire something about your past?'_

' _Sure, what is it?'_ Shawn answered, starting in on another bolt.

 _'You dream about it but you never talk about it, you always do what you can to bury it, your life on that station, why do you not ever talk about it.'_ The Xeno asked, even though he couldn't really see anything, he could sense Shawn's position underneath the dome.

Shawn's finger released off the trigger, and he just laid there for a while before answering back, it wasn't a discussion that he was really prepared for and now wasn't the best time for it, but then again, there wasn't really a good time for that topic. _'Probably the same reason why you, Alese and Ghost never talk about what happened on Eclipse station, just too damn painful too. I mean how do you talk and tell someone what you experienced, try and make them fully understand, the simple fact is this, you can't. Sure you can discuss and go into detail about all the bad stuff that happened, all the death, destruction, the horrific conditions, but someone who never went though it will never fully understand what it's like to lose someone to a fire or seeing friends being blown out into space knowing that there is nothing that can be done to save them, all you can do is pray that it's a quick death and they don't feel much in the end.'_

Resuming removing the bolt, Shawn spoke back up, _'while you and the others understand pain, can you truly understand what it's like to lose a whole group of friends and co-workers in some accident that could have been avoided, to lay there for weeks at a time feeling like complete and total shit, to cry and wish that there was something that you could have done, and at the same time wondering when it'll be your turn next. Wondering if you'll make it through the next shift or the next day. Or even sometimes wish that you didn't know or care about anyone at all that way when someone died you wouldn't feel any pain at all.'_

Shadow did not say anything for a while as Shawn continued to remove more of the bolts and placed them in the storage bag. _'I apologize, it was a subject I should not have brought up, it is just hard to see you suffer needlessly.'_

 _'You don't have to apologize, it's just something that very hard to talk about, I know that it's something I need to overcome and move past, but I'm never really sure how to talk about it. Maybe when we get this transmitter shut down, and I really hope that's what this is, and we can't be tracked anymore like you guys said earlier, we can find somewhere to heal ourselves. Bare our souls if you will and just let it all come out. Can't say I'm really looking forward to it if it's something that we do, but I guess it needs to happen.'_ Shawn told him as another bolt came out and was quickly bagged up.

 _'I have never told you about what happened to me have I, and I do not know if Alese has either.'_ Shadow said, his head turning toward Shawn's position.

 _'Figured that you all would tell me when you were ready, I saw a part of what Ghost went though, felt everything too, I guess I assumed that for all of the Xenos that were there it was more of the same, that Mason and the other scientist would just experiment and torture on you, not caring what it was doing to you all.'_

 _'For the most part, yes, but Ghost always had it much worse than the rest of us, he was Mason's favorite to torture and experiment on, Mason came so close to breaking Ghost so many times, but we could always support him and help bring him back.'_ Shadow answered, his thoughts going to that unpleasant place for a brief few moments. The clear holding tanks, the cruelty of the scientists, he could feel the primal aggression starting to rise up at the memories. Quickly he brushed the old memories aside, there was no place for those anymore, he was needed here and now and could not afford to get caught up in the past.

 _'Yea.'_ Shawn replied back to him, his mental voice all to quiet and distant, even though it had only been fragments he had experienced he could still remember it all with clarity. _'Ok, got it, that's the last one.'_ He announced, his mental tone quickly changing. Sliding back out, he put the bag and tools that he was using back in the case. Grabbing the two tubes and what looked like a large gun with a flat muzzle on the end, he started to go back under. _OK, I'm going to need your help on this one, if you're still up for it.'_

' _What do you need me to do?'_ He replied shifting his position and carefully started to make his way under the dome until he was next to Shawn.

 _'Help me pull this conduit out, very slowly, and stop when I tell you, otherwise we'll both get fried.'_ Shawn said, placing his hand on the conduit housing, although Shadow could not see he followed Shawn's lead and placed his hand just above where Shawn's were.

Ever so slowly, both of them pulled at the conduit, at first it did not move, then finally giving an inch and then another, every so gradually it started to slide out. Several feet had already come out, when Shawn felt something within the conduit give, a slight glow was starting to come out of the bottom of the dome.

 _'Stop, stop.'_ Shawn said, even through the space suit he was wearing he swore he could feel the high powered electrical charge being generated. _'Get behind me.'_ Immediately, without question, Shadow did as Shawn told him. Placing his hand toward the top and his other hand behind the conduit, Shawn pulled down and pushed the top part forward as soon as he saw a bright whitish-blue glow, the conduit popped out, several bolts arched out and lanced the struts and bottom of the dome. "Damn," Shawn muttered to himself, pushing the end of the deadly conduit away from him.

Small bolts of electricity continued to arc and shoot out, lancing anything metal that was close by. Shifting slightly to the left a couple of feet, he grabbed one of the tubes, _'I need you to hold the conduit in place, don't let go and keep it facing out,.'_ Shawn instructed Shadow, the Xeno grabbed a hold of the conduit, his long thin fingers clutching around the power conduit and holding it firmly in place.

Unwrapping the tube, it unfurled into a thin silver disk with a black band going around it. Scooting forward until he was just a foot from the opening of the conduit, carefully he slid the disk over the opening, almost with a life of its own the disk began to wrap around the edge of the conduit until it was fully sealed. Leading back, Shawn grabbed the gun, pointed it at the edge of the tube and pulled the trigger, a narrow red beam several inches in length arched forward, as soon as it hit the silver material along with the black band it strived up and shrunk adhering to the conduit. Grabbing the second tube Shawn repeated the process until the conduit was safely capped. Going back to the tool box, he grabbed a long piece of cable, tied it around the conduit and then secured to one of the supports.

 _'That's it, capped and secured.'_ Shawn said, _'we should be safe now. Or at least I think that we should be safe. We won't really know until those mercs show back up if they do.'_

 _'Thank you for everything that you have done for us and what you continue to do. I do not know if we can every truly repay you for all that you have done for us.'_ Shadow said, reaching out and placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder.

' _Well, the three of you have managed to completely change my life and given me something worth living, even fighting for, not just a reason to simply exist.'_ Shawn replied back, placing his gloved hand on Shadow's dome and rubbing it. _'How is your vision is it any better?'_

 _'My sense are returning slowly, I can see vague outlines of shapes but everything is still very dark, but the pain is gone now.'_ Answered Shadow, relieved that his vision and senses were slowly starting to come back, ' _I do not know what that device was, but I have never seen anything like it, it was so bright.'_

Shawn glided out of the underside of the dome, Shadow following close being. _'Well whatever it was it should be shut down now, but I'm going to check it out and see if it really is shut down. Stay here until I get back, just in case.'_ Shawn told the Xeno as he headed for the hatch opening.

Shadow slowly stood up, his hand gripping onto the side of the dome for support waiting for Shawn to return. _'I'm not going anywhere.'_ He replied back slyly. _'I'll be here, waiting for you.'_

Upon entering the dome, Shawn could see that all power had indeed been cut, no backup generators or emergency batteries had kicked on, the consoles were dead, no floor lighting illuminated the area and the crystal structure no longer glowed a multitude of shifting colors. Nodding to himself, he stepped back out, closed the hatch and locked it. It was time to get both himself and Shadow back inside and leave this place and make some serious plans.

' _Come on, let's get back inside, I've had enough of being out here, and I'm sure you have too.'_ Shawn said, reattaching the safety harness to both himself and Shadow.

 _'You will get no argument from me.'_ Shadow replied placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder.

Taking careful, tentative steps the two of them slowly made their way toward the main airlock. Each one hoping that nothing no further surprises would happen on the way back. And although he had been able to hold back his anxiety while working on the dome, Shawn could feel it starting to come back, another attack was the last thing that any of them needed at this point. Focusing on one step at a time and looking down, he tried to hold the upcoming attack at bay.

All they needed to do was make it back inside the airlock, get up to CIC and warp out once they got clear of the asteroid belt and that would be it.

xxxxx

Just on the outer edge of the asteroid belt, two flashes of bright light erupted from the empty nothingness, within a fraction of a second two ships were ejected from FTL transit, the Vesuvius and the Damato had made recorded time arriving, pushing their engines to the breaking point.

"Jump complete, we are positioned at the out edge of the asteroid field." Lieutenant Rodriguez reported, "the Damato has come out of jump as well and is taking up position alongside us."

"Understood." Captain Torres said, getting up from his station and started to walk around the bridge, "Ensign Taylor are you picking up the homing beacon?" He asked.

Looking at one of the monitors on his console he saw a familiar but highly distorted frequency modulation. "Yes sir, but it's going to be hard to pinpoint, the signal is scattered all to hell, they're here and inside the field, and from the looks of it fairly deep."

"Can you clean it up, get a general location at least, there are only a few spots in the field that a ship that size can travel safely deep inside," Torrens asked, walking up to Ensign Taylor's station.

"Maybe, it'll be hard with all this EM interference but I think I can clean it up some and get a general fix of where they are at, the beacon is powerful so at least it'll make it somewhat easier too. But sir, If I may remind the Captain, if we go in there our sensors will be next to useless, we'll be all but blind."

"I appreciate your concern Mister Taylor and yes, while we will have very limited sensors we still have visual with our external cameras. I've been in this field before and know the tricks to navigate it, slow and cautious." Captain Torres replied back, just let me know when you have cleaned up and have an idea on where we need to go.

"Yes sir I..." An odd sound suddenly emanated from Taylor's console as he was addressing the Captain interrupting him in mind sentence, "Sir, I'm picking up something else," he said, looking at another monitor, "it's close by, low frequency, short range too, possibly a short-range distress beacon of some sort, less than twenty thousand kilometers from our position and directly in our flight path."

"Is it one of ours?" Asked Captain Torres, wounding if anyone from the boarding party could still be alive and had managed to get off the Saratoga before it went into the asteroid field.

"Negative sir, it doesn't match the frequently used by our own group," Taylor replied back.

Torres stepped away from Ensign Taylors station, " Lieutenant Rodriguez, get a fix on that beacon, let's see what we are dealing with, maybe survivors, maybe not, but I want to know either way. Mister Taylor work on getting the homing beacon signal cleaned up as much as you can so we can get a fix on that ship's position. Tactical, weapons and fire control, set EMP torpedo and missile load out for widespread firing pattern, have all warheads armed for impact detonation maximum yield, instruct the Damato to do the same, also inform Captain Tennyson that he will be taking point once we enter the field, his ship is smaller and more maneuverable and will have a better chance than we will once we engage."

Lieutenant Rodriguez turned his head to address the Torrens, "Sir I have a fix on that distress beacon, setting course."

"One-quarter speed Mister Rodriguez, Ensign Taylor have our scanners powered to maximum and set them to detect any explosives, this could be a trap and the last thing we need to do is fall into one our here. Once we are in range get a visual to see what we are coming up on. "

Both officers nodded with a "Yes sir," and returned straight to their duties.

The two ships pushed forward, their engines firing up, slowly edging them closer to the asteroid field, and the distress beacon, the crew of both vessels were all on high alert really to engage anything that might come out of the field to attack them. Countless tense minutes seemed to pass by until they were in visual range of the distress beacon.

"I have a visual on something, but I'm not sure what it is," Ensign Taylor announced, "scanners are negative on any explosives so far, but I am reading a large biomass."

Captain Torres turned around to look toward Taylor's area, "Biomass?" He wasn't sure what to make of that, then it dawned on him what it might be. "It is spread out over a wide area?"

"Negative sir, single tight reading, several tons from what I can tell."

"Bring it up on the primary monitor, maximum magnification," Torres ordered.

"Bringing it up now sir," Taylor replied back. The main screen lit up, a single white object in the backdrop of space tumbled over and over getting slightly larger the closer they got.

Lieutenant Rodriguez squinted his eyes looking at the monitor, "What the hell is that?"

Looking at the monitor for several minutes, Captain Torres said nothing, his eyes fixated on the screen. As the white object got closer and closer, not just himself but they could all see that it was not a single solid object but made up of many smaller objects. "Body bags, Mister Rodriguez, it's our men and women that were killed onboard the Saratoga."

"You sure of that sir?" The Lieutenant asked somewhat perplexed, "why would an enemy go to the trouble of bagging up the remains of our troops and setting up a distress beacon like that, if it's not a trap that is?"

"I have no idea, and I doubt we'll find out anytime soon, not until we capture that ship and get to ask that person directly. Torres went over to his command station and tapped on one of the consoles, "Hanger bay, this is the Captain, prep and launch heavy dropship one, there is a distress beacon that has been placed with the remains of our boarding party that is floating in space, bring them back home. I'll have Ensign Taylor forward you the info."

" _Understood sir, we'll launch shortly_." A voice replied over the coms.

"Ensign Taylor," Torres said, looking up.

"Forwarding them the info now sir," Taylor said, "Captain I've managed to get a general location on where the Saratoga is at." Ensign Taylor announced, "That homing beacon is putting out one hell of a powerful signal, even with the natural EM interference I've been able to get a partial fix on it, however, we'll still have to rely on visual to actually find that ship."

"One problem at a time, Mister Taylor, one problem at a time." Captain Torres replied back going back over to his personal console and opened a channel to the Damato. " Captain Tennyson we have a partial fix on the Saratoga's position, I'm relaying coordinates to you now, please take point and have your EMP torpedoes and missiles ready to fire once you have a positive visual on the target.

" _Captain Tennyson here, receiving info, EMP torpedoes and missiles are being loaded and prepped for firing."_

" Lieutenant Rodriguez, take us in." Captain Torres finger pressed down on a button on one of the consoles, for a second a high pitched squawk could be heard throughout the ship. "This is the Captain, set condition one though out the ship, all hands battle stations, I repeat all hands battle stations, we will be engaging the Saratoga shortly."

xxxxx

Every godforsaken minute in that cloth coffin seemed like an eternity to Shawn as he and Shadow made it back into the airlock, the human while keeping his fear and anxiety down was close to losing it, as soon as the outer airlock door closed and sealed and the room pressurized allowing the inner door to open up, he bolted into the prep room practically peeling off the space suit, letting the helmet fall to the floor, with a heavy clunk. Alese and Ghost were still there and had been waiting for them the whole time, nervous and concerned as they had felt what both Shawn and Shadow had gone through while on the other hull of the ship.

Sweat poured down his face and his breathing was labored and heavy, he had been fine for the most part when he had something to work on and take his mind off being in space, the walk back while not as bad as the walk to the transmitter, had been bad enough. Slinging the suit to the side, he bent over and tried to get his breathing back under control. He glanced up at Shadow who was standing just a few feet from him, looking down at him. "I really hate those things now." He muttered, mostly to himself than to Shadow. "How are you doing, sorry I know I keep asking."

 _'Better now, my senses and vision are slowly returning, I believe everything will be healed in a day, the question is how are you doing, you are very close to having a panic attack.'_

"Now that I'm back inside and not in that damn suit I'll be doing a lot better soon, I just need to settle down so we can get out of this oversize rock field."

 _'You two are far from being fine,'_ Alese said, _'what was that device?'_ The female Xeno asked, walking up to Shadow, she looked right at his dome, her long finger slowly caressing his face and dome.

"I have no idea," Shawn said straightening back up, "I've never seen anything close to that kind of tech, or even heard of anything like it. Shadow said that there was a lot of light coming from it, but all I ever saw was a faint glow, even with the shield down it was never that bright. But once we get out of here and are safe I'm going to medical and see if I have any kind of radiation poisoning or anything that might be out of the ordinary, if there was a shield around it then it couldn't have been all that safe."

 _'A different form of energy then, something that our race perceives very differently from humans or are more sensitive to perhaps.'_ Ghost said, looking over Shawn. ' _You are sure you are alright, we all felt what happened to you while you were out there.'_

Shawn nodded, wiping some sweat off his forehead, "Just something that I need to overcome, my fear given voice and seems to enjoy being a royal pain in the ass at the worse possible times."

Cupping Shawn's face with his hands, Ghost leaned in and pressed his forehead to Shawn's, _'Remember, we are all here for each other, you do not need to face this pain alone.'_

Smiling, Shawn reached up and ran his fingers along the jaw muscles and tendons, a gentle touch that was rewarded with a deep thrum from Ghost's chest. "I know, when we are safe we can work on healing ourselves and face all of our demons together, just like we've been saying now for a while."

 _'Then let's leave this place and see if we are truly safe now.'_ Alese suggested, allowing herself to be used as a guide for Shadow until his vision and senses had fully returned. Something that he hoped that a full day of rest would cure.

"I have no problem with that, all of my experiences with this asteroid belt are far from pleasant, and being out there just now was on the top list of stuff I never want to experience ever again." Shawn replied back, turning to look at Alese and Shadow, "and if I never come back here ever again I'll be just fine with that."

Leaving the air lock prep room all four of them headed back up to CIC, Shawn knew that even though the field was masking the ship, and with any luck the transmitter was now powered down, this ship, stealth or not, in its current position in the hollowed out corridor was a very large target, and to top it off there was very limited maneuverable especially for a ship of its size.

"Alright, let's put this place behind us," Shawn said, walking up to the navigation console. "Computer, activate aft starboard thrusters, half power, ten-second burn, let's get this beast turned around nice and slow." Looking at the monitors that were still transmitting a visual, he could see that no stay asteroids had come into the corridor, and the proximity sensors were still showing clear and in the green.

 **"CONFIRMED, FIRING AFT STARBOARD THRUSTERS, TEN SECOND BURN COMMENCING."**

Immediately all four of them could feel the G-forces starting to push them sideways slightly, as the ship's massive bulk slowly started to turn.

 **"TEN SECOND BURN CONFIRMED, POWERING DOWN THRUSTERS."** As soon as ten seconds had passed the thrusters stopped, only the active inertia continued to turn the ship.

Looking at the indicators for the yaw, pitch and roll, on the console, his finger slightly tapping on the panel, Shawn tried to mentally tried to calculate how long before he needed to fire the forward starboard thrusters to stop the ship from its turn, almost instantly he realized that it would take about another twenty-eight seconds for the ship to completely do it's one hundred and eighty degree turn, it was odd that he had never been able to make those calculations without the computers help before. His finger counted to tap on the panel as he counted down each second. "Computer on my mark, fire forward starboard thrusters half power ten-second burn, and stabilize."

Several more taps, several more seconds passed by, "Mark." He said.

 **"CONFIRMED, FIRING FORWARD STARBOARD THRUSTERS, TEN SECOND BURN COMMENCING."**

In his mind, he was counting down each second as it ticked away. Once they were out of this field, then they could make plans, plans to heal themselves, and then plans to rescue the other Xenos that were at Eclipse station and then plans to find a real home for themselves. Maybe a nice walk in a forest, he knew how that might end and it was something he was looking forward to.

" **TEN SECOND BURN CONFIRMED, POWERING DOWN THRUSTERS, STABILIZING TRAJECTORY."** The computer announced, interrupting his train of thought, all of them could feel the sudden shift in movement as the ship halted its turn.

"Computer engage five-second burn on secondary engines, one-eighth power, nice and slow."

 **"ENGAGING FIVE SECOND BURN, ONE-EIGHTH POWER, SECONDARY ENGINES."** The computer responded, the ship's secondary engines flared to live for a few seconds and then cut out, slowly pushing the ship forward.

"Now all we have to do is get clear and we are good to go." Shawn said, turning to look at the three Xenos, "so once we're out of here we can figure out what to do next."

 _'Such as rescuing our brothers and sisters from that monster.'_ Shadow said, nuzzling the side of Alese's dome.

"Well that goes without saying, but yes, coming up with a plan for such a rescue, and then figuring out where to go from there. I mean breaking into a secret space station and trying to rescue what eleven of your kin is not going to be easy, to say nothing of escaping."

 _'Which is why we need to come up with a plan that will give us the best chance of succeeding.'_ Ghost replied, _'however that is something we can work on when we are safe and can take the time to think it over, this plan will require great thought, planning and stealth, not brute force or firepower.'_

"Either way, it's going to be..." Shawn stopped talking as something from the sensor monitor caught his eye, getting up he walked toward one of the large monitors, his head tilting to the side slightly, the whole screen was little more that static soup, only a periodic readout of what was around them would show up, so far it had all been rocks. But now there was something else.

"What is that?" Shawn muttered to himself, there was a faint blip or several that were popping up and then disappearing, small and fast from what he could see. And they were heading right for...them.

The three Xenos sensing Shawn's confusion, asked him what was wrong, he didn't answer only continually looking at the screen, his eye squinting and then widened right up. His heart almost seized up at that moment and his mind just froze. _Missiles._ That was the only word that came to his mind, the safe spot that was a haven for them had just become a death trap. The only advantage they seemed to have is that the missiles could not lock onto them, due to both the nature of the ship's stealth systems and the natural EM radiation of the field.

Looking at the forward facing monitor feed, he could see three, now four, faint glowing objects getting closer and closer, it was right then that they streaked by the ship one of the side monitors lit up with a bright flash from the missiles engine burn and then they were gone.

" **PROXIMITY ALERT, MISSILES DETECTED."** The monotone computer voice announced.

"Yea, no shit, thanks for the warning on that, little too late don't you think." Shawn blurted out, running back to the navigation console his fingers going across the controls frantically. "Damn that was way too close."

' _What is going on? Have we been found?'_ Alese asked, there was a hint of fear in her mental voice. None of them had any desire to go against the mercs again, knowing that this time they would more than likely lose.

"Yea, looks like our merc friends are back and they are not playing around this time, guess they were able to get a lock on that damn beacon after all and get a fix on our position," Shawn answered, he quickly switched to the main forward facing monitor, and continued to zoom out until he saw the entrance to the corridor and something else. Sitting dead center at the entrance of the corridor was a ship, it wasn't the massive heavy battle cruiser that the mercs had come from, but he did remember an escort ship that was with it, a frigate, and now it looked like he was about to face off with it head to head.

"Well, this is going to be interesting, there's a frigate blockading the entrance, guess they wanted to get our attention."

 _'What are you going to do?'_ Shadow asked, tension lacing his voice, it wasn't fear, it was anger, anger that they were still being hunted, and that after everything they had been through, now it looked like it might be all for nothing.

"I'll go right though that ship if I have to, you all need to hang on to something this is going to get rough. " Shawn said, pressing several buttons on the console, immediately the ship lurched forward, as the main engines roared to live for several seconds.

Readjusting the angel of several of the cameras to more of a forward field of view, he no longer cared what was behind him or to his sides, only what was in front, which was now a missile slinging frigate. Shawn's view kept glancing at the monitors with the active feed, the sensor readout, and his own station. Having a firefight inside an asteroid field was hazardous enough, but a firefight in a narrow corridor as the one they were in was damn near suicidal.

Several more faint glows could be seen in the cameras feed moving closer to them, and the sensors, as sporadic as it was, confirmed it, only these were slightly larger and slower than what the other missiles had been. "We've got incoming torpedoes, brace for impact!" Shawn screamed, his fingers going across the navigation panel, the ship heaved up as the ventral thrusters were fired. Gripping on the console he braced for what would be a possibly devastating explosion any second. The sensor display suddenly turned red, as the torpedoes got closer and closer, a box began to form around the sporadic torpedo display outlines. A loud steady high pitched sound echoed throughout the CIC room.

 **"AUTOMATIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS ONLINE, PARTIAL TARGET LOCK CONFIRMED, ACTIVATING PULSE GUNS."** The computer's monotone voice announced. Bluish bolts firing in rapid succession of another erupted from all over ship's gun ports, the energy bolts streaked toward the incoming torpedoes.

 _'Did you do that, I didn't think you knew how to operate the weapons on this ship.'_ Shadow said, looking over at Shawn, with what only could have been described as a Xeno look of astonishment on his face.

"It wasn't me, I didn't do anything," Shawn replied back, his focus still on the navigation systems as he fired the dorsal thrusters to level off the ship before it rammed into the wall of the corridor. "It must be some sort of automatic defense programming protocol that kicked in. Cause I sure as hell didn't do it." He replied back, as several torpedoes exploded a short distance from them, the ship shaking violently as the shock waves hit.

A torpedo that the pulse fire had missed flew by the underside of the ship barely missing by only a few short meters. The continues tone that indicated a lock ceased and the sensor display turned back to normal as the torpedo passed by flying harmlessly away from the ship and further into the tunnel.

"It missed, the torpedo missed, it's in our aft quadrant!" Shouted Shawn, his tight grip on the console causing his knuckles to turn white.

A pinging sound filled the room again, the noise getting closer and closer until it was a steady sound. The sensor display turned red and several more boxes outlined from what he could see five possibly six more incoming torpedoes who's signal would fade in and out. A second set of signals appeared behind the second volley of torpedoes, smaller and faster this time.

"Oh shit," Shawn whispered, his eyes wide with terror of what they were now facing down, locked onto the sensor displey monitor, the incoming cluster of torpedoes and missiles seemed to converge and was now single uniformed mass of death heading for them.

Blue energy pulse fire filled up the forward facing monitor feeds, explosions followed seconds later as the deadly energy bolts started to find their targets. More shock waves soon followed rocking this Saratoga. The ship was almost skirting the top of the field when a torpedo flew past and instead of flying off deep into the tunnel its attack angle sent it into the side of the tunnel wall, a massive explosion tore through the corridor wall sending smaller rocks flying everywhere and moving a few of the larger ones.

The defensive fire saturated the area, another explosion happened and then another one, a torpedo, one that was either too fast or too lucky to be hit by the Saratoga's defensive weapons, made its mark on the ship. An explosion buckled and rocked the ship, throwing Shawn back in his chair, the three Xenos found themselves being thrown back and onto the floor, a series of shrieks and hisses filled the air.

"Computer, damage report!" Shawn yelled, wounding just how bad the hit was, had there be a hull breach, how bad was the damage. Were they even going to make it out now? The power flickered for a few moments sending CIC into partial darkness as the lights shut down for several seconds then came back on.

 **"NEGATIVE ARMOR OR HULL DAMAGE, POWER LOSS IN SECTIONS THREE, FOUR, FIVE DECKS EIGHT, NINE, AND TEN. REROUTING POWER."** The computer reported back.

 _This time a missile glanced the Saratoga aft section, exploding, causing the ship to lurch and jolt under the violent onslaught, the engines flared and blacked out briefly and then came back to life._

 _**"PRIMARY ENGINE POWER OUTPUT DECREASED TO EIGHTHLY-TWO PERCEPT OF NORMAL, COMPENSATING FOR PRIMARY POWER LOSS."** Another report by the monotone computer voice announced. _

_'SHAWN!'_ Shadow yelled, picking himself up off the floor and gripping a hold of one of the consoles.

"They're hitting us with EMP weapons, they're trying to shut this ship down!" Shawn shouted back, his voice tense and stressed.

Another alarm blared off in CIC, **"WARNING, WARNING, PROXIMITY ALERT, ASTEROID FIELD DESTABILIZING, PREPARE FOR COLLISION-IMPACT."**

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Shawn stammered under his breath, his heart pounding inside of his chest, not fully believing how everything had just got to total and complete shit within mere minutes.

Quickly he flipped to several external views on the console, aft came up, the asteroids were bumping into one another, causing a catastrophic chain reaction, the stable corridor was now collapsing in on itself and quickly disappearing, flipping to a dorsal than ventral view, he could see smaller rocks bouncing around, and the larger asteroids began to move as well. The missile and torpedo explosions had been just enough to destabilize the carefully constructed tunnel.

"Hang on and I mean hang on to anything you can!" He yelled out, the Saratoga pushed forward as the engines fired up, accelerating the ships massive bulk, small rocks harmlessly bounced off the hull breaking apart.

More missiles and torpedoes were launched from the assault frigate which was met with a volley of pulse cannon fire, the resulting explosions knocking more of the asteroids out of balance causing them to uncontrollably tumble into one another and into the tunnel.

There was nothing delicate or graceful about the way the Saratoga handled, it was slow, bulky and was taking what seemed forever to make every turn or maneuver. The ship rolled over to starboard and pushed toward the center of the tunnel as it barely missed a large building sized asteroid that made its way into the corridor, the ships pulse cannons continuing to fire rapidly in almost all directions, now not only at the incoming ordnance that was being launched at them but now at also possible colliding asteroids that were becoming a hazard.

Another missile shot though the pulse guns rapid fire defense screen, impacting the front of the ship, setting off a massive EMP blast from the armed warhead, lights flickered and a low hum was heard throughout CIC as more power was lost and then came back on as the computer rerouted power to affected systems.

"Thirty seconds until we reach the opening!" Shawn yelled, he adjusted the trajectory of the Saratoga again, bringing it low toward the wall of the corridor, a couple of missiles and torpedoes streaked by just skirting the edge of the ship's hull barely missing it. "Twenty seconds!"

"Computer, can you lock onto that frigate and engage with the main weapons?" Asked Shawn, hoping that they could catch some sort of break, even if they could get a few shots off with something it might be enough to force that ship out of the way and give the Captain some pause.

 **"PARTIAL WEAPONS LOCK AVAILABLE ONLY, PRIMARY OFFENSIVE WEAPONS OFFLINE, DEFENSIVE WEAPONS ACTIVE ONLY."** The computer replied back.

"Computer, lock onto that frigate and fire defensive weapons when in range!" Shawn ordered, hoping, just hoping that it would be possible. If they could get the energy pulse guns to fire on the assault frigate then they might have a real chance of escaping. He still hadn't seen the heavy cruiser yet, maybe it was out of range looking for them in some other part of the field, or maybe it was close by, waiting.

 **"ORDER CONFIRMED, ESTABLISHING PARTIAL WEAPONS LOCK, PULSE GUNS STANDING BY TO FIRE ON HEAVY TARGET."** The computer piped up, a continuous tone echoed throughout the CIC area, on the sensor monitor an outline of the frigate that kept fading in and out had a square target indicator painted around it, the box turned red indication that at least a partial lock was indeed established.

"FIRE!" He screamed, his whole body shaking as a mix if fear and adrenaline coursed right through him, it was taking every ounce of willpower just to keep his mind focused on piloting the ship and trying not to collide with the collapsing conduit wall or get hit by any more incoming missiles or torpedoes. At this point, he just wanted to run and hide somewhere, but that was not even an option.

The forward facing monitors filled up with bluish rapid bolts of energy that flew toward the frigate, peppering it mercilessly, for a split second, Shawn though he saw a series of missile and torpedo launches just a moment before the pulse fire started to impact the assault frigate. Right then several massive explosions happened just in front of the frigate, first two, then three, then six, maybe more, he was having a hard time keeping track of what was happening as it all escalated so quickly.

As the Saratoga closed in on the entrance or exit point of the tunnel, the assault frigate looked as it was starting to back off, then as another explosion happened just in front of it, the ship listed to its port side and started to slowly drift away. More of the pulse gun fire raked the frigate, the impacts while individually were weak, were collectively having a devastating toll on the enemy ship now, thick black smoke began to vent from several spots though out the frigate's hull.

Firing the forward docking thrusters, the Saratoga slowed down as it closed in on the aperture's opening. Another small set of quick bursts from the dorsal thrusters followed by a sequence of bursts from the ventral thrusters stabilized the ship as it exited the corridor. The pulse guns went quiet as the Saratoga glided past the now disabled and damaged assault frigate which ever so slowly drifted away from the now collapsing corridor.

The engines lit up, pushing the cruiser forward, Shawn began to plot an exit route to escape the field, several massive asteroids came into view, as the Saratoga maneuvered around them with little problem, the damaged assault frigate was now little more than a small dot on the rear monitor.

As bad luck would have it, an old friend suddenly decided to show itself as the Saratoga went past several of the massive ship killing rocks.

Appearing as if a specter of ill fortune, the heavy cruiser Vesuvius was only less than a hundred kilometers away from the Saratoga as it began to fire its own volley of missiles and torpedoes. The volleys of missiles and torpedoes were met with an onslaught of energy bolts from the rapid fire pulse guns, large EMP explosions saturated the area between the two titans and each ship closed in on the other closing the distance all too quickly.

The engines lit up pushing the Saratoga faster and faster toward the Vesuvius, the pulse guns continued to fire, destroying most of the incoming missiles and torpedoes, several torpedoes flew by the black ship, flying off into the asteroid field hitting one of the massive rocks detonating harmlessly, one of the missiles hit the port aft side of the ship, the power died out and then moments later came back on as the computer once again composited for the energy loss.

As the ships came into range, pulse fire began to saturate the Vesuvius's hull, Torrens ordered the ship to take evasive maneuvers as warning lights began to flash across the damage board indicating hits to the armor plating. The merc ship started to bank away from the approaching vessel, the Saratoga continued to fire as it passed beneath the underbelly of the Vesuvius, pulse guns fired without letting up peppering the underside of the massive vessel over and over.

While the think armor of the battle cruiser was able to absorb most of the hits without too much damage, a number of shots did make their mark, inflicting light damage to the hull underneath as wells as several secondary subsystems.

Within seconds the Saratoga had passed by the Vesuvius, it's guns still fringing until they were out of range than going silent. Turning to face the running Saratoga, a spread of EMP missiles and torpedoes were fired in the fleeing ships direction, though it was for nothing, as the missiles and torpedoes having no way to lock onto the ship, flew out into the field each one impacting on an asteroid and doing little more than making a spectacular explosion.

The Saratoga hit a hard burn as its engines fired up as soon as it got to the thinning edge of the asteroid field easily outrunning the aged heavy battle cruiser, soon it was little more than a speck within the field and then it was gone, only a bright flash of light indicated were it might have been an then nothing.

The merc's quarry, their target, was now gone, and now they had no way to track it. The homing beacon had gone silent, even with all the planning and firepower at their disposal, they have been unable to stop and capture the Saratoga, and now one of their own vessels was heavily damaged, while it was repairable it would be out of commission undergoing repairs for months.

Torrens was not looking forward to breaking this news to his superiors, he had had a bad feeling about this mission from the start and now more than ever he regretted taking it, he had failed on what was supposed to be an easy board and capture operation. And what was worse in his mind was the loss of life, good, highly trained men and women that were now dead.

The heavy drop ship had reported that it had picked up the bodies of the mercs, they could be put to rest in a proper way, at least there was that.

Maybe, just maybe, if the powers that be had been upfront and told them just what they were getting involved with they would have prepared accordingly and the mission would have been a success and not a botched failure, with a high casualty rate and now a badly damaged warship.

Perhaps it was time to pay this Doctor Mason a personal visit and have a face to face confrontation with the man. Something to clear the air as it were.

xxxxx

A flash of light and the black ship exited its FTL transit, it had only been thirty minutes since the Saratoga had jumped out of the asteroid field. Shawn needed to know if the mercs were going to pursue, he figured making a short range jump and wait to see if they showed up would be the only way to find out.

The defense system was still active and on standby, Shawn was still shaking trying to get his nerves under control, while he had been fired at by ships before, which was a close call, this was the first time ever that he had been in a straight up ship to ship firefight, and to top it off they had gone up against two ships and come out alive.

The missiles and torpedoes that had hit, while they did not do any physical damage, was playing havoc with the power grid which was still fluctuating on several sections and decks where the EMP weapons had hit. A good bit of luck was that it was not affecting the weapons, or at least not the pulse guns.

But for now, they would wait to see whether or not the mercs would show up. And so they waited, all of them in CIC did not say a word, Shawn continued to look at the sensor display, which was free and clear, anything that would show up he would see immediately. Shadow came up behind Shawn and placed his long fingers on the human's shoulders and gave a slight squeeze.

At first, an hour passed by, then two, which lengthened into four and then finally after a long twelve-hour stretch they finally figured that if the mercs had not shown up now then they were probably safe, or at least they couldn't be followed anymore.

"Alright," Shawn began, "I'm guessing that what we took out was the homing beacon, so if that's the case we can now move around without being followed. Also," he stated raising up three fingers on his hand, "we have now been taken unaware three times, I really do not want to make it a fourth, so we need to start coming up with some plans for dealing with crap like this."

 _'I agree, but how do we plan for the unexpected?"_ Ghost asked, looking at his three hive mates, this whole ordeal had been more than a little taxing for all of them, rest is what they all needed right now.

"Well first off, now that I have access to the ships full systems, we all need to see about learning them, I know that your race can't see what is on the view screens or monitors, but there I'm sure that there are other areas that can be learned. Also, I need to check out the armories and m _unitions_ bay and see what there is as far as weapons, If we get boarded again I would like to have something other than my luck and wits to fight with. There are the merc weapons I can use if nothing else."

 _'It is a start, we need to learn this ship inside and out, there is still a large number of, what do you call them, maintenance tunnels that we have not explored.'_ Stated Ghost. _'We need to learn where they go and the fastest way to get to them and through them.'_

"Tubes, maintenance tubes if you want to be correct about it, but yeah, basically the same thing," Shawn said, letting out a deep yawn, rubbing his eyes, which were starting to turn red. "I'll see if I can figure out the weapon systems, if we can take out or at least disable an enemy ship before it gets close to us then we won't have to worry about getting into another onboard fight."

 _'There is now the fact that if we can no longer be detected and can truly move freely,'_ Shadow begin, ' _we need to free our hive brothers and sisters from Mason and see about finding a home.'_

Shawn tapped a series of buttons on the navigation console, on the console's monitor a layout of the local area came up with the Saratoga's position, a map with a flight plan to Eclipse base appeared. "According to this, the trip will take about three weeks to get there maybe less, that should give us enough time to come up with a plan, there are some schematics of Eclipse station on file, there basic but it'll be enough to give me an idea on how we might be able to maneuver and make our way through, but considering that it's just the four of us against whatever that station has to throw at us, we are going to need to come up with one hell of a plan and a massive distraction."

 _'Do you believe we can do this, really do this?_ ' Alese asked. _'I know that we have told you that we were going back, but we never had a plan, you still do not have to go through with this, you can still walk away if you so choose. We all agreed that you do not need to go any further than you wish. If you do this you may NOT be able to return to the life you once knew. Are you sure you truly want to do that, you may be sacrificing everything you once knew.'_ The female Xenomorph said, while she was far more grateful than Shawn really knew, she did not want to see him throw his life away, even for their sake.

"I know, and believe me I've thought about this, but If I walked away from this I don't think I could live with myself, how could I just turn around and walk away after everything I've been through and seen. Especially after all that we have shared, you said it yourself many times, all of us are hive, which means we stay together. Besides the life I had before this, with the exception of my family and friends, was pretty damn empty and lonely and I really don't have much desire to go back to that, so it looks like you're stuck with me."

Walking up to Shawn, Alese kneeled down until she was head level with him, cupping his face and they all had so many times before, she leaned and pressed her forehead against his. A sign of friendship, affection, trust and love that he had come to recognize, an overwhelming sense of gratitude filled his mind. He knew that if she had eyes, she would have been crying, reaching up he ran his fingers along the length of her smooth dome.

"You're welcome," and even though the words were not needed, he offered them anyway. "My heart and soul belong to all of you." He said out loud, "I love you all, for now, and all eternity." He didn't know where the words were coming from and at this moment he did not care, but something in those mental walls had given away just enough for him to finally say what was in his heart.

It was about damn time.

All three Xenos were floored by the sudden words, and by the strong heartfelt emotion behind the words, they all knew that Shawn cared about them, but he had always had a hard time expressing the way he felt. Too many emotional walls and now some of those walls had, it seemed, to have collapsed.

Looking up at Shadow and Ghost, he smiled softly, "Let's say we go and get you brothers and sisters off of that damn station and find ourselves a place to call home."

' _YES!'_ All three Xenos said in unison.

The Saratoga adjusted its position, as the bulk swung to its new coordinates, in less than three weeks they would arrive at Eclipse station and when that happened all four knew that all hell would be let loose on that god forsaken place, either they would survive and succeed or they would not, there would be no compromise, no middle ground, it would be all or nothing and that would be it.

The engines of the black stealth ship glowed brightly and then with a blinding flash of light it was gone in a streak and then nothing.

Company was coming and hell itself was not far behind.


	16. Lessons and revelations

CHAPTER 15: Lessons and Revelations

xxxxx

Time.

Time is one of those concepts that a person either seems to have too much of or not enough of. And in this particular case, Dr. Elizabeth Brooks had very little of, every day, every hour, minute and second that ticked by was a slice of time that she no longer could get back, to her, and at this moment, it was an enemy an enemy that was bearing down on her and one that she could not defeat.

Right now she was in a race against time, she had been tasked, a seemingly impossible one, of saving the women that were going to become impregnated and used as hosts for more of the Xenomorphs. She had heard that more females were going to be used as hosts, she and her small support staff had been in a heated rush to try and find a solution to the chemical imbalance that occurred after the women had given birth to the alien creatures.

Under the normal course of nature, the Xeno birthing process would of be excruciatingly fatal as it would rip through the rib cage to free itself from the host body, but with the genetic alterations that Mason had made to both the face-huggers as well as the embryos, the Xenomorphs would gestate at a far slower rate and be inclined to travel through the birth canal when it was ready to be born, as the modified face-huggers would impregnate and deposit the embryo into the womb instead of down into the chest as was normal.

A process that if perfected meant that as long as there was a readily supply of eggs, they could breed as many Xenomorphs as they wanted, without leaving a trail of bodies or missing persons. And of course, the galaxy was a huge place, millions of unwanted, lost and desolated souls that had no home and no one to miss them should they simply disappear. A frighteningly large number of possible hosts that could be either abducted or coerced by the unseen forces that guided this secret organization.

A consistent thought that was keeping her up at night now.

She look at the monitor screens from her own workstation inside of her own small lab, a lab that was dedicated in trying to save the lives of the female hosts that Dr. Mason and this secret organization were more than intent on sacrificing in order to obtain their own goals and agendas, whatever those might really be. She had been quietly poking around and keeping an ear open for anything that could give her an idea, but so far she had come up with nothing. Whatever it was this organization was going to use Xenos on or for, either no one was talking about it or no one except possibly a select few knew the true intent.

And to top it off now, there was an internal war brewing inside of her, if she and her staff were able to save the lives of the hosts, and find a solution for the imbalance, then what, condemn not only those poor souls but possibly countless others to spend their lives as breeding stock for an untold number of Xenomorphs.

The other possibility was to simply let the women slowly die, she wondered if it would be more humane to simply botch the results, inform Mason and the higher ups that she was unable to find a cure and let them pass away peacefully after giving birth. At least that would save them from a lifetime of being used as breeding stock for the Xenos.

No, neither option was acceptable, she had taken a solemn oath to do no harm, the hard part, however, was that now that she was involved with this organization, no matter what she did, she would be doing harm, either to a few, or too many. She needed to find a way to save their lives but at the same time, deny Mason and the powers that be the prized Xenos. She always believed there were other ways, paths to follow, they simply needed to be found or created. The problem was that she was a very tiny fish in what she was finding out to be an all too large ocean. Even if she managed to stop Mason, somehow, either by killing him, and destroying all the information that was on file, she had no doubt that they would set up shop someplace else and start over again.

Somehow a third option needed to be created, she just did not know what the option was.

Either way, it might be a moot point, the data coming up on her screen was the same as it had been the last few dozen times... the death of the hosts, chemical imbalance fatal, three month was the longest she could possibly keep them alive and that was it. Her and her staff and been going through modifications of the procedures she had come up with to stabilize the hosts after birth, small to moderate changes to see if anything could help extend the life expectancy or stabilize the imbalance.

So far very little progress was being made.

She started to wonder if her idea to have the newly birthed Xenos stay with the hosts might even help, all the evidence that she had seen pointed to the fact that there was a connection between both the Xenos and the hosts right after birth, but the simple fact was that no one knew what that connection was. The newly birthed aliens were always removed from the parent host, usually with the aliens throwing a violent fit and defensively attacking whoever was trying to remove them. So no one had ever even thought to conduct a study and make detailed observations.

She had to admit, when she thought about it, it was a far off plan, crazy and even absurd, but she and the other members of her staff were running out of ideas and time and at this point they were almost willing to try anything, no matter how far-fetched it might be.

Picking up the metal mug she finished off the last of the cold coffee from the pot that Ryan had prepared for her using his own beans. It was nice having a treat like that, something to remind her of home, and even help give her some focus in doing what needed to be done. The problem was that her mind was mush, her staff had ended their shift hours ago and she had decided to stay around for a while to see if she could come up with anything else.

But so far nothing.

Getting up she refilled her mug and paced aimlessly around the lab for a bit, nothing was helping, she needed to get out clear her head, maybe get some sleep or at least take a small break. Walking out of the lab she headed down a long corridor, passing by several doors she stopped in front of the Xeno pen area. It was late, almost three in the morning, only the basic combat androids were on guard duty at the moment, save for a few human guards that made rounds throughout the sectors.

Swiping her ID through the card slot, the door opened up and she walked in, only half a dozen combat synthetics stood stationed throughout the area, never moving or even acknowledged her presence as she entered. She started to wonder though out the pen area, looking at the massive, specially designed holding containers for the aliens. Elizabeth came across the small warrior that seemed to have taken an interest in her, the small one was curled up in a ball asleep on its side, the long tail coiled around its body.

Elizabeth slowly reached up and placed her hand on the container wall, the small warrior twitched immediately, its tail moved a few feet, slowly sweeping back and forth and then going still, as well as its head which moved almost in unison and then going still at the same time. She squinted as she spotted what looked to be fresh burn and cut marks along the side of its body, more of Mason's handiwork she figured bitterly to herself.

She both feared and hated that man, he was barely human as far as she was concerned, and somehow embodied some of the worse traits that humanity had to offer. She wondered what kind of a person he might have been if he actually felt emotions, other than anger and rage, as she had found out, a revelation that still shook her up inside.

Those normally dead eyes that would time from time of course when something did not go his way or as planned, would burn with a cold, murderous fury. And while Mason had never to her knowledge throw a tantrum, he would hurt the Xenos until he felt better and got whatever it was out of his system. Sometimes it would take minutes, hours or even days depending on his temperament.

She did wonder though if the Xenos were freed, what would really happen? Would they go on a rampage and kill everyone in sight on the station, or would they only go after the personal that had hurt them and leave the rest alive?

It was tempting, for just a split second, to think about trying to release them. If freed would they kill her, her staff...Ryan, or would they alone be spared? She quickly pushed that thought back, no, if she did that she would be responsible for everyone that died. And that was something that she could not live with, no matter how much she hated the situation and even the people.

It was simply not an option.

Turning and walking she continued down the line of Xenomorph holding pods, it wasn't until she came to the larger containment pod that held one of the massive Praetorians, the one that Ryan seemed to be in good standings with, somehow. Like the small warrior and most of the others, the Praetorian was curled up with the deadly tail wrapped around its body.

Elizabeth just stood there and looked at it, it was probably the largest of the Xenos when she had first seen it, she would have betted that it was close to nine and a half feet tall, in reality, however, it was well over ten feet tall. With a heavy set barrel chest like rib cage that seemed to be thicker than most of the other Xenos.

Like the small warrior it stirred some, the heavy deadly tail blade swished back and forth across the clear floor plaiting several times and its massive crested head moved slightly, maybe they could sense the presence of her body. Elizabeth was about to walk away when the Xenos head lifted up and turned to look right at her, it's mouth opened wide revealing the deadly steel color teeth and white toothed tongue, and just as quickly as it had opened its mouth, it closed it.

The crested head tilted some as it looked at her; in a swift fluid motion it rose up. The Xeno didn't come toward her as she might have thought it would do, instead it stood fully upright and puffed its chest out giving it a much larger appearance as it drew its arms slightly back. The forearms dropped down slightly to its sides, as the elongated fingers spread out apart with the deadly claws shown in all their glory. The segmented, bladed tail rose up in a slight arc before dropping down to the ground with the tip curling around its feet. In a final act the Praetorian lifted its head showing the underside of its throat and jaw.

Elizabeth could almost swear that it was displaying itself for her to see. And while there was a tinge of fear that was in the pit of her stomach from its sheer size, most of what she was feeling was awe. Despite the frightening skeletal and bio-mechanic appearance, it was impressive, quite very impressive. She had no doubt that it could tear through any defense that this station had to offer, be it human, android or the built-in static defense weapons. It was after all, as she had come to learn, a Praetorian Xenomorph, elite personal guard to the queen, and the more fearsome and deadly of the Xenomorph species, next only to the queen herself.

After a few more moments of standing completely statue still, it took a step and was right in front of the glass, right in front of her. Elizabeth looked up, this time really looking at the creature, its skin with its slick sheen, the textured ridges, small tube-like structure that seemed to run just underneath the skin, even the segmented bladed tipped tail. She took in what seemed to be an ocean of detail and textures, even the aliens were not completely black as she had first though when she had first seen them. There were variations of black, slight hues of dark grays, deep blues, even a tinge of brown here and there.

Slowly it squatted down and leaned forward until its forehead made contact with the clear protective wall, the massive crested head slowly turned side to side as if it was observing her, studying her, learning about her.

She was only a few inches away from what she knew were to be one of the most deadly creatures that humanity had ever encountered. Yet she had never felt as if she was in any danger whenever she came here and even now, so close to one of the elite Praetorians, she felt as if she was in no danger at all, if the door to the containment unit had opened up and the Xeno stepped out she had an odd sense that it would do no harm to her.

Raising her hand, she placed it on the clear wall of the containment pod, moments later the Xeno mirrored her movement and did the same. Some seconds later she heard or more accurately felt some odd buzzing sound deep within the back of her mind, more of a slight tickle if she was able to put the sensation into words.

The Xenos eyeless gaze never broke away from hers as she looked into the dark semitransparent dome, for the first time she could see what appeared to be the faint outline of a human skull beneath, mostly the eye sockets and nose bridge. It was something that she had read about and even seen on the drones but she had no clue that particular physical trait was passed on to the Praetorians, it did make some sense in a way since the Praetorians were once drones themselves.

A slight wave of dizziness washed over her, taking a step back she shook her head and rubbed her forehead, in a few moments the dizziness was gone and the tickling sensation in her mind stopped. She wanted to chalk up the sudden feelings to overwork and exhaustion. But the scientific mind within her knew better and was telling her otherwise. Looking back up at the massive Xeno, she wondered if it in fact been trying to communicate with her. It continued to look right at her, its hand still on the transparent pod wall.

As much as she wanted to stay and see what would happen, to explore the possibilities, she knew that it was far too dangerous to try something like that here, she didn't even want to know what would happen if Mason or the others found out what she knew or at least suspected. She knew her acts were putting both herself and the Xenos at risk. Quickly turning she hurriedly made her way to the exit, right now she just wanted to go back to her quarters and think upon what she had just experienced and seen with the Praetorian.

As Elizabeth made her way out of the pit area, the Praetorian kept its hand on the glass for a while longer, its gaze following her as she left. A minute later it returned to the center of its clear prison, curled up and lay there not going to sleep, there was too much to ponder on and to plan. Two of their brothers and a sister had escaped, where they were now or even if they were still alive none of them knew. If they were lucky they were far away, the three were missed and the one that had died was still mourned, but they were all glad that at least a few had gotten away.

Even while they been able to support and give comfort to one another, there were many that were at their breaking point, and while they doubted they could escape this human-made hell they had all been birthed into, maybe, just maybe with the help of a couple of humans that seemed to be sympathetic to them, maybe they could get out and make this place theirs and punish those that had caused them so much pain. And while the few decent humans in this place would be spared, the rest would meet a painful and grizzly fate, none of which would be quick either.

Communication was now the key, and how to properly communicate to the two humans that were so very different from the other without drawing suspicion to themselves or their possible human allies. The Praetorian would need to give this a great deal of thought, collectively they all would need to give this a great deal of both careful thought and planning.

Unknown to both Doctor Elizabeth Brooks and her now Praetorian interest, the little and what would have been considered odd exchange had not gone unnoticed by certain eyes.

xxxxx

Sleep was something that did not come easy for Doctor Brooks that night and when it did, she had been plagued by odd and unusual dreams or more precisely a single odd dream. Before going to bed and finally getting some sleep she had spent several hours going over in her mind about what had happened with the massive Xenomorph, granted the interaction was only a few minutes but it had a tremendous impact on her. The way it moved, matched her moves, and how it seemed to study and observe her, and that odd feeling in the back of her mind, that itch or tickle as it were.

She could have sworn that it had made a display of itself solely for her as if somehow it was trying to impress her, almost as if it was engaging in some sort of courtship behavior to win her over. She immediately dismissed that thought right then and there as there was no way that could ever happen, two completely different species and the way the Xenos reproduced was fatal under normal conditions. Plus from what very limited material she had read and studied over they were genderless creatures, the only one being female was the Queen. However, if that was the case, then it had been a very unusual act that the Praetorian had just done. Maybe she had misinterpreted what it was doing, it was an alien life form after all and when it came down to it, she knew almost nothing about them whatsoever.

And the strange dream had not helped either, she had been standing somewhere, it was almost a complete void it seemed, while there was no light she could see herself nonetheless. At first, she was the only one there, and then she felt something else with her. Hot breath washed over the nape of her neck; then powerful, moist, black arms embraced her tightly, holding her firmly in place. The last thing she remembered was glancing over and see the Praetorian's eyeless domed resting right on her shoulder. And just for a second, she swore that it had smiled just before she woke up.

With only a scant few hours of sleep, it was going to be a very long and tiring day.

xxxxx

Walking back into her lab was hard, she felt half dead and the only thing that she wanted to do was just crawl back into bed and sleep for the rest of the day, the only saving grace was that Ryan had made her a fresh batch of coffee for not only her but her staff with some freshly ground up coffee to tie her over the rest of the day. How he managed to get in there before anyone else she didn't know, the man must not sleep or just get up far before anyone else. Either way, the way she saw it he was the closest thing to a saint this place had, especially now.

Filling her metal mug, she drank half of it without really enjoying it and refilled it right back up. It was going to be that kind of a day. She was so tired she didn't even hear the door slide open, only when she heard his voice directed right at her did she take notice and her blood damn near ran cold.

"Doctor Brooks, come with me," Mason said, his voice displaying no emotion at all, although she thought she could make out a slight edge to it.

Not good. It struck her and her blood went cold at a couple of thoughts, maybe he had found out that she was starting to dig around, or maybe he was going inquire about her odd exchange with the Praetorian. Her mind was starting to create scenario after scenario on the worse possible cases of what could happen. She tried not to show it but inside she was starting to panic.

 _Just keep it together and everything will be all right, just give him a straight up scientific, logical no bullshit answer_. She thought to herself, she started to run through answers that she could give him that might explain some of her behavior.

Turning around she followed him without saying a word, she was now wishing that she really had called in and stayed in bed. The two of them went down and out of the main hallway taking several turns and down another long hallway, she found herself in front of one of the medical areas, it was an area that she herself had never been in as it was at a much higher security clearance than what she had.

Swiping a card the door opened up and Mason walked in, reluctantly she followed him inside. The room was cold, sterile, white and all too bright for her taste, a single chair was placed in front of a clear plexi-steel safety wall. What was on the other side of the safety wall made her heart almost stop as a cold chill ran right down her spine.

A single white medical bed was the only piece of furniture on the other side, three medical grade androids stood next to the bed, lying on the floor against the front of the bed was a black medical crate that was about three foot wide and deep and about a foot tall with a combo lock sealing the metal crate. It, however, was what or more precisely who was in the bed.

A young woman perhaps in her late twenties maybe early thirties at most was covered by a modest white blanket, and while she did not recognize the young woman strapped down to the table, her legs were held up and apart in a pair of medical grade metal stirrups. The women did not move, her eyes were closed and her chest rose and dropped in a slow rhythmic pattern, a sure sign that she was heavy sedated and would not feel what was to come.

Elisabeth tried to swallow as her mouth and throat went completely dry, she knew what was about to happen and she was powerless to stop it, she started to turn and was about to walk out when Masson spoke to her.

"Sit," Mason said, pointing to the chair that was before the clear wall, it was an order, nothing less.

She instantly recognized the sharp edge to his voice, a sharpness that was usually the first sign that he was becoming displeased. Elizabeth stood her back to the clear safety wall, not sure if she could even face what was to come.

"Now," he snapped, the sharpness in his voice growing.

Slowly turning back around she made her way to the chair and sat down in it, her stomach was in knots and right now she was trying to keep her wits about her and not go into a full blown panic. The bastard was going to make her watch and there was no way around it.

Mason walked up behind her, reaching out slowly, his fingers gently brushed down the length of her hair, a touch that almost made Elizabeth want to cringe with fright. "You've never had the opportunity to witness how it happens have you, Doctor Brooks? To see how our hosts are impregnated, the pure and sheer instinct and willpower, the single solitary drive of the Xenomorph face-huggers to plant its seed within a host's body, to continue and propagate its species. While it is not the most efficient way for a race to continue its existence, the raw instinct and power behind the drive is impressive none the less." The hard edge in his voice had died out, but the cold emotionless words made her feel as if she was now in real danger as if any minute she would be the one of the table.

With a slight nod of his head, Mason gave the signal for the medical androids to begin the procedure. His hands came to rest on Elizabeth's shoulders, his fingers clamping down in a vice like grip. Her whole body tensed up at not only his touch but the painful hold on her shoulders. She wanted to jerk away, wanted to pull away and run out of the room, but she knew if she did that the consequences would be much worse. So she stayed and she watched.

One of the androids pulled off the blanket revealing the woman's naked body. A second android knelt down in front of the box, punched in the combo and a red light that had been at the top of the lock turned green. Opening the box the android reached in and pulled out a sizable dark tan Xenomorph face-hugger, it's digits and lengthy tail being to whip in a frantic motion as it seemed to sense the woman's warm body.

Mason's grip on Elizabeth's shoulders tightened even more, his fingers digging deep into the muscle tissue and pressing down onto the bone."Observe and learn Doctor Brooks, this will be your legacy, what we will remember you by, you who managed to save the lives of those who are little more than cattle, breeding stock, a meaningless act that will in some small and insignificant way assist the organization to fulfill its goals and agendas." While his voice was still cold and emotionless it held an overtone of mockery within his words.

As the medical android carefully moved the Xenomorph face-hugger into position its movements became wilder, thrashing around aggressively, the fleshly slick tube began to protrude in and out of the bottom of the orifice.

Elizabeth turned her head slightly and closed her eyes not wanting to see what was about to happen to this poor woman. She found her head in a vice like camp as Mason grabbed her head with his hands on either side and painfully snapped her head forward.

"Watch," He quietly hissed in her ear, his fingers pressing into her skull, "and do not look away."

All she wanted to do was look away, to run, to just get off this station and never come back, this whole ordeal had become a living nightmare, one that did not seem to have an escape, and one that she felt was about to devour her soul.

Looking at the clear safety wall, she had to force herself to watch as Mason continued to hold her head in place in an inhuman vice like grip. One of the medical androids stepped up to assist by grabbing the swinging tail of the face-hugger and holding it firmly to the side. With a frightening burst of speed, the face-hugger jumped, its legs grabbing and locking itself around the women's hips, with a forceful thrust it rammed the slick tube deep into the women's womb.

Even drugged and fully sedated, a brief cry of pain ripped from the unconscious women filled the air, as her hips jerked up slightly the medical android released the tail which immediately coiled around the women's upper left leg securing it tightly to its new host. And a second later all was quiet, and she became still, a small trickle of blood began to drip and pool on the floor at the foot of the medical android. The sacks on the face-hugger started to pulse and throb as it began to deposit the alien seed within its new host.

Elizabeth sat there in shock, her whole body felt numb and cold, while it had all happen so quickly, a matter of seconds really, the brutality of it all made her sick to her stomach. The face-hugger ran with such a raw single purposeful instinct, to impregnate a host, deposit the Xenomorph genetic seed and then finally die with its single solitary purpose completed.

It would be a few hours before the face-hugger would detach itself from the female and then pass away. Elizabeth wondered if Mason would keep her the whole time forcing her to watch, it was something that she would not put past him. She never even felt it when he released her head from his grip, his finger slowly caressing the side of her face and he withdrew them.

One of the medical androids was doing a scan of both the women and face-hugger. "Minor bleeding from the virginal canal," the android reported to Mason through the intercom, "medical scans indicated that subject has never had sexual intercourse before, minor physical trauma is to be expected, will implement proper medical protocols once impregnation is complete."

"Understood, continue as planned, prepare the rest of the hosts for impregnation," Mason said, walking up to the clear safety wall, he looked at the young women laying uncovered as the face-hugger's twin sacks continued to pulse and throb sending the seed inside the female's womb, within a short time a tiny life with take shape, form and if all went as planned in a couple of months, new Xenomorphs would be birthed adding to the existing batch.

Slowly his gaze panned over the room, looking at nothing in particular as the medical androids began to clean up the room and rolled the medical bed out removing the woman host from the room. In his mind, even if this step was required for the organization's clients, to him it was nothing more than a waste of his time, he had far more important research to work on than overseeing the breeding of some alien species for unknown uses.

"...the rest?" She whispered, her mind in a fog as she was still reeling from the shock of what she had seen, nothing was fully registering for her.

Mason stood there for a while saying nothing, still looking into the room, "Yes, the rest," he said, "Ten total after they are impregnated they will become your responsibility." He stated with a disinterested tone of voice. "Do with them as you see fit, not that it will matter in the long run as their deaths will be as meaningless as their lives were, insignificant and unimportant, mindless sheep that are good for nothing more than serving as breeding stock."

Standing up she found her legs were slightly shaky as the shock was starting to wear off, holding on to the back of the chair for support she started to walk toward the door. To hell what Mason wanted or would do, she wanted no part of this anymore, or to even been in the same room with him.

"I do wonder, however, just a passing thought of no real importance, do you think that it felt any pain?" He asked.

Elizabeth stopped, the question echoed in her mind, it was an odd question to ask, she doubted the face-hugger felt anything beyond the instinctual need to impregnate a host to continue the species. "The face-hugger, I doubt so, why would it?" she replied back quietly.

"No, not the face-huger...the host," he stated, "do you think that it felt anything when the tube was rammed in and penetrated up inside its body. Do you think that if felt any pain what so ever, or was it perhaps instead of a sense of pleasure that it felt as it cried out?" Mason questioned, tapping a finger on the clear plexi-steel wall.

She didn't even know how to answer that question, she was almost sure that Mason was asking out of spite to try and get a rise out of her. Of course, she had felt pain as the face-huger had thrust right into her, how could she not, especially if she still was a virgin, and now that was gone, she had been impregnated by an alien life form and within a couple of months she would give birth to an alien. Doctor Brooks knew that the woman's life as well as the lives of all the other hosts was all but over. Even if they did live, they could never go back to the lives they once knew, not that this organization would let them. And to refer to that poor woman as 'it' was beyond inhumane; what was going on in this place was equally cruel and evil.

And she was a part of it, it all started to truly sink in just how much of a hellhole she had come to, at this very moment, she just wanted to forget this place and go home. But she knew that was never going to happen. Elizabeth had never wanted to be in a place like this, but now she was, and neck deep into it as it were; on top of it all she did not have a clue as how to get out.

"No matter, it is unimportant." He said, not caring if she answered the question or not.

Brooks turned around her eyes narrowed and for the first time that she could remember she felt a heated anger, but more than that for the first time in her entire life she felt a raging hate and all of it was toward Mason. She knew that Mason was a monster, but the way he lacked any emotion or empathy toward the female hosts or anyone at all for that matter, she now knew that they, all of them, truly meant nothing to him in any way, he had not even flinched during the whole procedure, she suspected that the whole universe could burn around him and he would not care in the slightest. "They are human beings, living, breathing human beings, you can't do this to them," She finally said, "they have families, parents, some of them may have children, possibly brothers and sisters, husbands or even wives, what you...what we are doing is wrong, this is monstrous, they do not deserve to live or even die this way, you do not have the right to decide their fate like this."

"Incorrect." Mason retorted back, not even bothering to turn and face her, keeping his back to her the whole time.

"Incorrect?" She asked, still astonished that he could be so callous and uncaring about all of this.

"Incorrect," was his reply, "they are nothing more than cattle, test subjects, our property to do with as we please and see fit. One would no more become emotionally attached to a host subject who will of course eventually die than to that of a lab rat that is going to be euthanized and dissected. When they have served their purpose and expire they will be disposed of. Nothing more, nothing less." Mason partly turned around and gave her little more than a half look, "you, of course, may leave now."

xxxxx

Ryan was making his rounds in the Xeno pens, taking the normal daily readings as well as doing his best to feed the Xenomorphs while Mason was away doing whatever it was he was doing. The doctor had been around a short time at the start of the shift and then disappeared not too long after that, the longer he was gone the better off they all were Ryan had figured. He had loaded the cart up with a triple helping of the synthetic meat, it was a rare occasion that he was able to do this, but he did it whenever he was able to.

As he went around taking the reading and feeding them, he noticed that they were not their normal docile state, most of the time they were usually sitting or laying in the center of the containment pods. Most of them if not all of them were up and pacing around restlessly, a few didn't even eat at first almost ignoring the food, normally they would pounce right on the food as it was placed right into the container, however, something else had their undivided attention.

Walking up to one of the larger containers that held the massive Praetorian who was standing up, not even looking at Ryan as he took the readings and sent a very large portion of meat into the containment unit. The Praetorian's head was turned, its gaze was from what Ryan could tell was laser focused on something else, what he did not know, it's bladed tail tip twitching back and forth slightly.

He had no idea what was going on, this was the first time he had seen them all acting like this, and even the other staff and personnel had taken notice and was looking around trying to figure out just what was going on. Looking at the data for the Xeno's vitals he couldn't find anything that was out of the ordinary, nor did there seem to be any disturbance that was happening close by, at least nothing that he could see or hear, there had been no announcements made and the alarms that might signal a problem were all quiet.

Looking up at the Praetorian for several seconds trying to figure out what was causing the odd behavior, movement just out of his far peripheral vision caught his attention. He saw Doctor Brooks running past the main door, her hand covering her mouth, while he only saw her for a couple of seconds, she looked as if she was crying. It was right then that he noticed that the Praetorian's gaze was locked right on her even as she disappeared around behind a wall, the Xeno's head continued to follow for a few seconds longer.

Ryan just looked at where Elizabeth had been and then back up at the Praetorian, had it somehow sensed her before she even got close, even though the containment pods, the heavily reinforced lab walls, and thick glass panes, all that metal between it and her. Had it somehow known she was coming? The way it had been focused on the spot she had come from he figured maybe it had, and from the way it was acting it even seemed to know she was in distress.

Perhaps under normal circumstances, it would have been another fascinating aspect of the Xenos to study and learn about, but now was not the time.

"Fuck," Ryan muttered to himself, he didn't have any idea what had happened, but he would have bet that that son of a bitch Mason was involved somehow. Throwing the data tablet onto the top of the cart he took off after her, he never even noticed that the Praetorian's gaze following him as he quickly ran out of the pit area and down the hall.

Following her as quickly as he could, he caught a glimpse of her as she turned a corner, he turned the same corner just in time to see her enter one of the empty storage rooms and slam the door shut. Ryan stopped at the storage door, not sure if he should enter or not, he didn't hear anything as he listened, no crying no hitting walls, just nothing.

Not a good sign.

Slowly he opened the door and peeked inside, "Doctor Brooks...Elisabeth?" He said, taking a step inside, the room was mostly dark save a tiny overhead emergency light that stayed on all the time. His hand found the button to activate the main lights, pressing it, the lights flickered on, filling the small room with dim yellowish light.

Elizabeth just sat along the side of the wall, her head buried in her arms which rested on her knees. Ryan didn't hear her crying, but he could see her whole body trembling. Quietly he closed the door and took a step toward her.

"Elizabeth...what happened?"

Elizabeth didn't look up when he spoke to her, keeping her head down buried in her crossed arms, she didn't want him to see her like this, she couldn't believe how Mason within just a few short minutes had completely terrified her more than she had ever been in her whole life. He had intimidated her before, bullied her and even scarred her, but this, this was him showing her what he was truly capable of and doing to her if he so chose to.

And she had no illusions that he would not hesitate even a second to give the order to have her strapped to the same medical table and have her impregnated and used as a host, and the chances that she would not be sedated were more than likely high she figured.

She knew that what he had done was a warning to her, his way of reminding and saying to her, 'do not fuck with me or you will suffer the consequences'. And his message to her had been loud and clear, but deep down it had pissed her off and brought out a seething white hot hatred that she did not even think she had for that man, she wanted him dead and that was all, to hell with her oath on doing no harm, at least when it came to Mason, she was willing to make an exception just this once, open that door and hope that she could close it afterwards.

"Elizabeth?" Ryan asked again, taking another step and kneeling in front of her.

Finally, she looked up at him, tears streaming down her face, she tried to speak, opening her mouth but the words would not come out, she just turned her head not looking him in the eyes. "I did not know," Elizabeth finally began, "I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know," the words repeated, over and over, "I didn't know just how awful it was going to be, he made me watch this young woman who was maybe thirty years old at most, she was strapped naked to a medical table and he had a face hugger impregnate her." Elizabeth's breathing was becoming raspy and shallow as she tried to speak, her whole body was trembling with a mixture of fear and rage.

She tried to get herself under control but it all was just way too much, and she didn't know what had been worse, watching that poor woman being impregnated or Mason's hand on her neck and head, she had a vague recollection of Mason caressing the side of her face at some point, a gesture that made her want to vomit with disgust, in the end however, it was Mason's touch that she hated more.

Reaching up she pulled away part of her shirt revealing her neck and shoulder area, already deep bruises were starting to form where Mason had a death grip on her. "He held me down into a chair and did this." Elizabeth stammered, "and when I tried to look away," her hand slowly went up to touch the side of her face, she could still feel the touch of his cold and clammy fingers pressing right into her face, forcing her to watch.

"I swear I will kill that motherfucker." Ryan snarled, both appalled and fully enraged by what he was saw and what Elizabeth had just told him. "I get my hands around that fucks neck and I will fucking choke him to death."

"No, you can't, he will kill you," Elisabeth barked, afraid of what would happen now if Ryan did go after Mason, "and if he doesn't then someone will in retaliation and if by some miracle that doesn't happen then they will either lock you up or send you away somewhere and I don't want to lose the only friend I have in this fucked up place." She said, wiping her eyes. "He's a monster, and I knew that there was something was wrong with him, but he doesn't care at all, he doesn't even consider those women that are being used for hosts as human, he thinks that their property, disposable cattle, and has about as much regard for them as animal that's going to be put down. I thought that he might care a little, maybe in some small way, but there's nothing, nothing at all."

Ryan gently and slowly placed his arms around her, careful not to touch the newly forming bruises, her body stiffened for a second and then relaxed. After a moment she leaned into his hug and began to calm down some. "I just want out now, I just want to leave and not look back, to forget this place. I wish that I had never accepted this damn contract to work here if I had known the facts I would have told them no and to go fuck themselves." Elizabeth said, closing her eyes, enjoying the warm and friendly hug.

"You and me both," Ryan said, "I hate this place too, I've seen too much and didn't say or do anything to stop it, maybe I'm a coward for that, I know that when it comes right down to it I'm just as guilty as everyone else here. I wanted to say something, even considered doing something a couple of times, but when it comes down to it I don't think that it would have done any good, it's a pity that when those Xenos escaped they didn't cross paths with Mason, I know they would have killed him as soon as they saw him."

Elizabeth was silent collecting her thoughts for a bit before speaking back up, "maybe they can get a second chance." She finally said, not caring about the consequences for her words. If Ryan was a spy for Mason this is where she would find out and if not now then in a short period of time.

Ryan looked right at her, even in her state he was a bit surprised by what she had just said, not that he blamed her one bit, he hadn't been there so he could only imagine what she had gone through in that short period of time. Ever since she had arrived, Mason had seemed to have it out for her, even though she was brought in by the organization, and was assigned to try and save the lives of the hosts, Mason had always treated her like an outcast, a threat or a joke.

"So, do you have a plan or something, or just talking out of anger, or both?" He asked, if she had a plan he wanted in; if there was a chance to get out of this place or hurt or even kill Mason than he was fine with that too.

She shook her head, "No, just talking out of anger more than anything else, I can't even fly a ship, not even a shuttle to save my life, not that a shuttle would do any good out here. I just thought that..." Her voice trailed off, as she remembered what she was wanting to do, an insane thought that had no plan.

"Thought what?" Ryan asked, wondering just what it was she had been thinking.

"It's nothing, maybe I'll tell you later when I'm calmed down some. I don't know."

Releasing her from his hug, he shifted his position and sat up against the wall next to her, reaching into his jacket he handed her a small metal flask. "Not quite the good stuff, but it'll do in a pinch." He said, "And you look like you could use it."

Elizabeth accepted the flask, uncapped it and took a long drink out of it. The liquor, whiskey, possibly cheaper stuff by the way it tasted and burned going down, gave her a head rush right away followed by a slight wave of heat. "Thanks...I think," she said, handing Ryan back the flask, "where the hell did you get this stuff at?"

Ryan let out a small chuckle, "Made it, I built a small still in my quarters that I keep out of sight, I make a few batches every now and then when I can get away with it. I've got a few glass gallon jugs of the stuff that I've stored, figure that in a few years it'll be nice and smooth, now if I had access to some small wooden barrels I would have used those."

"You smuggle in booze and coffee, have a secret still in your quarters, seem to be in good standings with the Xenomorphs and almost went after Doctor fuck-all himself, if I didn't know better I would swear that you're looking for trouble, anything else I should know about you?" Elizabeth said, have serious half joking, trying to get her mind off what had just happened with Mason. Taking another small sip she handed the flask back to Ryan.

Ryan rolled his eyes a bit, "Well if you really want to know I did manage to smuggle in a Glock nightly-five with eight magazines and a few boxes of spare ammo that I keep hidden in my desk at all times, just in case. Snyder would have my head if he knew, but I don't really have that much faith in the security here." He answered, "Besides, I'm sure that trouble will come regardless of whether we go looking for it or not at some point."

"You have a gun in your office, how?" Elizabeth asked, not just surprised but completely stunned, it was strictly against policy for anyone except security personnel to have firearms on board, especially in the lab areas.

Ryan shrugged slightly, "Believe it or not real coffee and good booze can get you a lot of favors out here. Get just the right people to look the other way just long enough, you just have to know who they are, why do you think I try to keep so much of it in stock." He said, taking a drink from the flask and passing it back to Elizabeth. "So...here's my question to you, what are you going to do now?

Taking the flask, she took another drink, trying to collect her thoughts. "I'm really not sure, I'm angry, scared, hurt and I just want to lash out and hurt that fucking piece of shit for what he did to me and that young woman. But right now I just don't know." Elizabeth turned to Ryan, "if it was you, what would you do, what would you have done if Mason had done to you what he did to me?"

Closing his eyes, Ryan was silent for a while before speaking. "I think I would have gone back to my office, taken my gun, marched right into his office and put a round or two in his head and a few in his heart just to make sure." Opening his eyes, he glanced back at Elizabeth who was still looking at him, "but it didn't happen to me, it happened to you, so the question is this, what are you going to do, or are you going to do anything?"

"I don't know, I want to kill him, but if I do then I'm either dead on the spot or sent to some prison probably for the rest of my life and would just disappear, and well I kind of like living. So I'm not really sure, I just can't think straight right now."

"Mason is well protected, and has a lot of powerful and wealthy people backing him, whatever you do, if you decide to do something, don't let him see it coming, make it look like an accident or something that will give Snyder a justifiable reason to sling his ass in the brig for a long time or hell even space him."

Handing the flask back to Ryan, Elizabeth just sat there trying to figure out what it was she was going to do or at least try to do. None of it made a lot of sense and being angry, frustrated and hurt did not help with clear thinking in any way. "Which means I may have to endure a lot more shit from that asshole." She said with a cold and bitter tone in her voice.

"Afraid so, but hey at least you won't have to go through it alone. Just let me know what it is you want to do and I'll back ya, now depending on what goes down it might get us both killed, so just remember I kind of like living too." Ryan said, placing the flashback in his jacket pocket.

"Don't worry," Elizabeth said, picking herself up off the floor, "I'm not going to do anything without thinking things through first and planning them, the last thing I want to do is either get spaced or impregnated."

Ryan followed her getting up too, it was right then that he found himself in a grateful hug as Elizabeth wrapped her arms around him. He carefully returned the hug trying not to hurt her any more than she already was, he had the feeling that when whatever was going to happen it would go down fast, but for right now she needed all the support she could get.

"Thank you for everything," She said, her voice sounded weary and even a bit distant, she was very grateful for the small kind gestures that Ryan had made, just the simple things that made life on this station a bit more bearable.

"You're welcome," he replied back, after a few lingering moments, he pulled away and nodded toward the door, "you should get some rest, call in for the rest of the day, get yourself calmed down and get your head clear, maybe get your shoulders and neck checked out by one of the medical personal."

Giving Ryan a weak smile, her hand inadvertently went up to her shoulder and neck rubbing the bruises. "I'll see how it looks and feels tomorrow, but right now getting some rest does sound pretty good." She said.

Stepping up to the door Ryan opened it for her. "Just be careful, I'll check in with you tomorrow see how you're doing, sound good?"

Nodding, she stopped in front of the door, turned and gave Ryan a small kiss on the cheek. "Once again thank you for being a friend, especially in this place." She said, after a few seconds she turned back and left the empty storage room.

Ryan just stood there for a few moments, watching Elizabeth walk away, his hand lightly rubbing the spot where she had kissed him. "You're welcome," he whispered, then headed back to his own Xeno pits.

Elizabeth had reported to the shift manager and her staff that she would be out for the rest of the day and when asked she had merely replied that she was not feeling well and needed to get some much-needed rest. She was still shaky and had locked her door just in case Mason decided to pay her a visit, after taking a long hot shower she went to bed, though not without grabbing a couple of sharp kitchen knives and having them very close by in bed with her.

As tired as she was, sleep did not come right away, she kept looking at the bedroom door half expecting it to open up and have someone come for her. It never happened and after a while, she finally drifted off to a deep sleep.

Just like before she found herself standing in a void, nothing around her, at least not at first, without warning she felt a puff of warm breath wash over the back of her neck, she closed her eyes as the same slightly moist and strong arms embraced and drew her in. She let herself bathe in the warm protectiveness of the alien for a while, just standing there as it held her.

Something slightly slick ran down the side of her neck, gently pressing against her skin, even in this dream world she found herself in, thankfully while there was no pain to what Mason had done to her earlier, she instinctively flinched as to whatever it was that was touching her as it ran over the spots that were now bruised.

There was a feeling of curiosity as the alien examined the marks on her neck and shoulder, then anger, finally hot boiling rage, not toward her but to whoever had done this to her. The Xenomorph wanted to know, it demanded to know who had dared to hurt her in this manner to mar her in this way.

"Mason." The name quietly escaped her lips, it was not even a whisper, but it had heard her all too clearly. The name was followed by a flood of memories, the events that had happened just a few hours ago, that cold, white room with the young women being impregnated and Mason, all his words that he had told her filled the Xenomorph's mind.

The response was a deafening and enraged ear piercing shriek within her own mind, there would be blood, payment for this injury, not just for Elizabeth's injuries but also for the injuries and injustice the ten human females that who even now being used as breeding stock and what they were having to endure. All who were responsible would pay a price, blood for blood, no mercy would be given, the alien swore to her it would rip them all apart, and as for Mason, Mason would die, slowly as his body was torn limb from limb, as all who were aligned with him would suffer the same fate. This it swore to her, this it vowed to her. They were not in words that she could understand but its emotions told her more than spoke words ever could.

Elizabeth almost recoiled at the raw overpowering rage that the alien was emitting, even her own anger and hate despite how strong it was, was nothing more than a shallow dried up pond compared to the deep ocean of emotions that she was sensing from the Xeno.

The Praetorian sensed the little human female's uncertainty and fear from his outburst, this was not what was needed, a deep rumbling sound came from the alien's chest, something to sooth and calm her down, to reassure her that she was in no danger from him.

She started to feel calmer, the rumbling was having a soothing effect on her, much like a cats purring only much deeper and a great deal more powerful, however, the effect was still the same. Turning around she found herself only mere inches from those deadly steel colored teeth since it was now squatting down it was for the most part at eye level with her...more or less, strings of thick sticky drool trickled down from its partly peeled back lips.

Reaching up she ran her fingers underneath the alien's jaw then the thin lips and even glided over the steel looking teeth, she felt and knew that this one would protect her, she now needed to do the same not just for this one but for all of them. If this one would protect her, her own staff and even Ryan, then she would do what she could to protect them.

Sensing what she was now thinking, in a gesture of understanding, it nodded at her and then bowed its crested head down. It was in that fleeting moment an unspoken pact was formed between the two. Elisabeth knew she was in deep and way over her head, but then again she had been from the moment she walked on board this station, however, in some odd way, she felt that she was now where she needed to be.

She ran her hand along the crested head, it was slick, moist and warmer to the touch than she would have first thought it to be, it had an off feeling of smooth leather and rubber mixed together only far tougher, as her hand ran up the smooth dome gave way to the tough bony crest exterior, several inches thick along the edges and even thicker toward the center, she found the naturally elaborate design rather beautiful. Right then she felt something, another very strong emotion, not from her but from outside herself, it was such an odd and unusual experience to feel emotions coming from an outside source, but after a couple of seconds, she recognized it.

Desire.

The Praetorian lifted its head up the eyeless dome looked right at her, or more precisely right through her, it wanted her, desired her. And she knew that with every fiber of her being that it would do what it needed to, to win her over and prove itself to her.

Doctor Brooks was stunned, awestruck and more than just a bit confused, why did it desire her in this manner, it certainly explained the odd behavior from earlier on why it was displaying itself for her, but for an alien species like this to suddenly show interest in a human in this manner was unheard of, such a union would be impossible. Wouldn't it?

In a quick movement, the Praetorian embraced her, wrapping its powerful arms around her, its chin cupping and resting on the mid part of her back, and its tail coiling around her small frame. For a moment she froze up not know what was going to happen, she didn't think that it would attack her and tear her apart, still, she found it was a bit unnerving to have something some massive and deadly practically coil itself around her. It was only when a strong wave of protectiveness, calm and reassurance filled her mind, she knew that she was truly in no danger. While Ryan's hug from earlier had been a protective blanket, warm and comfortable something that she needed at the time, this was a fortress of protection for her, nothing would ever hurt her as long as she was within the Praetorian's embrace.

Closing her eyes, welcomed the alien's embrace and leaned into it, her head came to rest on the Xeno's bony chest and for the first time since she had come to this secret station, she felt totally and completely safe. A strong wave of desire filled her mind yet again, this wasn't just some primitive and animalistic need, there was a deep and ancient intelligence behind it, something far greater than anyone at the lab had ever truly suspected.

 _Rest._

It wasn't so much a word that she heard glide into her mind but it was not the emotional projection that she had come to know in such a short period of time, but a blending of the two. Elizabeth could feel the void slowly dissolve around her and very soon she found herself back within her normal dreamful state, however, deep within the back of her mind, she could still feel the Praetorian's protective embrace. And in that dreamless sleep she welcomed that protective embrace, she latched onto it as an oasis in the desert and held onto it for as long as she could.

Elizabeth slept peacefully for the rest of the day and night, only when her alarm went off did she finally wake up feeling mostly refreshed and in a far more calm and stable state of mind. She remembered everything and was almost certain it was not a dream, however, there was still that small lingered bit of doubt, that one percent chance that kept her from truly believing.

Getting up and walking into the bathroom to shower and change, she ran her hand along her neck and shoulder, the bruises were a dark blue and black coloration, all in a pattern that was consistent with where his fingers and thumbs were at in that tight bone pressing grip even slight bruises along her face. They were ugly and hurt like hell and would be a reminder of what had happened for a while. Undressing, she took a long hot shower, her thoughts kept drifting back to the Xenomorph Praetorian, she wondered just what the hell she was getting herself into. She needed to know if what she had experienced was real or just a very weird dream that had now happened twice.

 _Third time's the charm._ She thought to herself as she turned the water off, got out of the shower and quickly got dressed. Grabbing her equipment for today's shift she headed out, her path didn't take her toward her office, however, this time it took her toward the center most part of the station, to the main operations area.

As scared as she was of Mason, she was more pissed now than anything else and Elizabeth was damned if she was going to let him bully and threaten her anymore, while she couldn't directly fight back, maybe she could make his life a bit unpleasant.

Commander Snyder had no love for Doctor Mason, and the two were constantly butting heads, maybe she could convince the Commander to help her out in some way, almost everyone knew that Snyder was looking for a reason to put Mason under arrest or to throw him off the station, a ship on that last part was optional.

Coming up to one of the main elevators, she pressed the button, waited and as soon as the door opened up she was inside and heading up to the main operations area.

It was time hit the hornets' nest and see what would come out.


	17. Seeds of a plan

CHAPTER 16: Seeds of a Plan

xxxxx

Sitting at his desk in an office that was more akin to a small storage space more than anything else, a workstation with an extra desk and a few small odds and ends that sparsely decorated it, were what mostly filled Ryan's office, as well as a couple of windows which gave him a spectacular view of the stark white hallway walls. He leaned back in his chair staring blankly at the monitors for what seemed like hours, going or rather trying to go over the bio readings of the Xenos that were displayed on several screens.

Normally he would be diligently looking over the daily readings and taking note of anything out of the ordinary and logging it in, but his mind kept wandering back to Doctor Elizabeth Brooks, he was worried about her, and her safety, he doubted he could really protect her if anything went down, still he did have a surprise if it came down to it that he could use. He glanced down to the file and storage cabinet that was underneath his desk to the right, within it at the bottom drawer wrapped in a white towel was his Glock ninety-five pistol with the magazines and boxes of ammo.

It was a pretty nasty weapon as far as sidearm's went, it had an eighteen round clip that fired ten-millimeter rounds, what he had for ammo was a mix of either hollow point, or a steel jacket cased rounds. And while he doubted it would stop a Xeno, not something he wanted to ever find out, it would do a nasty job on flesh and even up close maybe even take out one of the light model combat androids. He still mentally played with the idea of finding Mason and just putting a couple of rounds right in his head and heart, it was tempting, but it would be suicidal and as he had told Elizabeth, he liked to live too.

He wondered how she was holding up, and what she was planning on doing about Mason if anything. If she was going to she needed to be very careful on how she went about it, hell they both did as far as he was concerned. He had not seen her all morning and even into the early afternoon, she hadn't called in and her staff had not heard anything from her either. He wondered just for a second if indeed something had happened to her if maybe Mason had picked her up and was now impregnating her with one of the Xenos or worse.

No, not even Mason would be that reckless to just openly go and grab someone from the station and use them as a host no matter how much his disdain for them might be, especially if that someone was considered to be a mid-ranking scientist that would be missed. Originally Ryan would have doubted that even Mason would have dared to go that far, but after what had happened with Elizabeth, he really wasn't sure anymore. It was as if the man's actions over time had been slowly becoming more and more erratic and unhinged.

Which if that was the case, it would make him all the more dangerous to deal with.

He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, he would give it another hour and then go and check on her and see how she was doing. The last thing he wanted to do was lose the closest thing he had to a friend, perhaps she was getting a bit of extra sleep and had forgotten to call in and after what had happened he would not be surprised if that was the case, or that was what he was hoping.

Ryan laid his forearm over his eyes, a few minutes into his cat-nap a soft knock on the door brought him to full attention, sitting up in the chair, the door slid open and Elizabeth poked her head inside.

"May I?" She asked standing in the hallway.

Reaching back, Ryan grabbed a spare chair that was a couple of feet away and rolled it around for her to sit in. "Come on in, your staff or the shift manager didn't hear anything from you and after what happened I was hoping the worse hadn't happened, in fact, I was going to come and check in on you here in the next hour. So how are you doing?"

"A little better I think," Elisabeth answered half heartily, sitting down next to Ryan "I went to Commander Snyder and filed an official complaint against Mason this morning, had to go medical for an examination to get checked out in order to add a personal assault charge to the complaint as seeing they will need the medical records for evidence." She said not looking at anything in particular as her eyes scanned the small room.

Ryan shook his head, "I'm not entirely sure that was the best course of action, but since it's been done, how did it go with the Commander?"

Leaning back in the chair, Elizabeth just looked down at the floor. "He's looking for any reason to go after Mason, but he knows that Mason is well protected, just like you said. But Snyder is opening an investigation regardless, though he doubts anything will happen. He was impressed that I came forward, according to him most people are too scared to say anything much less file charges, beside what was I supposed to do, stay quiet, keep my head down, I can't do that, I'm sorry but I'm done taking that man's shit, maybe if it was just me it might be different but we both know that it's not just me."

"Look, I'm not disagreeing with you on what you did, believe me, I'm not, I'm just concerned that if it gets back to Mason he'll become unhinged and come after you directly and I do not want to lose you." Ryan said bringing his hand together his fingers intertwining, "At this point, I would not put anything past that man anymore."

Reaching out, Elizabeth grabbed Ryan's hand and gave it a firm squeeze, "Snyder told me he would keep the investigation quiet and to just act normally and not to draw attention to myself," reaching into her side lab pocket Elizabeth pulled out a small container with a nozzle and a small button on top. "The Commander gave me this, its military grade pepper spray, it'll only spray for a few seconds but it'll drop anyone if they get hit in the face with it. A bit of protection if he comes after me, and if that happens I'm to come directly to operations and I'll be placed in protective custody."

Ryan only tentatively nodded, still not entirely sure about this, but it was her decision and even if he did not fully agree with it, he would watch her back none the less. "Alright, just be careful and keep your eyes open."

"Don't worry, after what happened yesterday I will," Elizabeth replied back, she then went quiet for a while, she needed to know if Ryan was really on her side and now was the time to put that test to the theory, though if she was wrong she would be putting not only her own life in more danger than it was but also the lives of the current Xenos. She silently prayed to herself that she was not about to make a very stupid mistake. "There is something else I need to talk to you about but not here, someplace a bit more private."

"Well I doubt my office is bugged," he whispered to her, "but if you want we can go someplace else."

"That empty storage room." She whispered back. "What I have to tell you and what I am going to ask you, this just needs to between you and I and no one else."

Getting up, he opened the door and walked out into the hallway, "let's go."

Without drawing any attention to themselves both of them made their way back to the small storage room, looking around and seeing no one was around, Ryan and Elizabeth quickly made their way inside and closed the door.

"So what is going on that you couldn't tell me in my own office," Ryan asked sitting down against the wall across from the door. "You planning to kill Mason or something?" He asked, not really joking about that.

Shaking her head, Elizabeth sat down next to Ryan and crossed her legs. "No, not exactly, it's something else, it'll probably ruin his career here, well maybe, but after seeing what he did to that lady and knowing what is going to happen to the others if it hasn't already I need to do something, but the thing is I don't know how to fly a ship."

Ryan was silent for a moment as he thought about what she had just told him, especially that last part. "You're wanting to get them out of here aren't you?" He stated, more than just a bit stunned by what he figured she was saying. "You want to somehow get all those women the hell out of here and away from this place and you need someone to fly a ship to do it." This was something that he did not expect from her at all, he hadn't been sure what she would do but it was not this.

"Yea," she replied back, "and not just them, but also the Xenomorphs as well, we need to get them all off this station and someplace isolated and safe."

Ryan just stared right at her as if she had suddenly just grown three heads, a lot of arms and was waving them wildly around. "You are not fucking joking here are you, you are serious about this. Have you lost your fucking mind, do you realize that what you are suggesting is damn impossible." Ryan said flatly blown away that she was even suggesting such a thing, as much as he sympathized with the Xenos in the way they were treated he didn't even know what would happen if they were released on a planet. "Those women I can see, I get that okay, and as sorry as I feel for the Xenos, do you have any idea on what would happen as soon as they were released from their cells, they would probably kill us all, not that I can blame them one damn bit. But what the hell brought this idea on all of a sudden?"

"They won't kill us, not me, not my staff and not you, we are safe from their vengeance." She answered back. "And yes, before you say it I know how bat-shit crazy this all sounds."

"Yea no kidding, it does sound bat-shit crazy and safe from their vengeance, where exactly did you get that idea from?" Ryan asked, wondering just where the hell Elizabeth had gotten herself into all of a sudden.

Looking up at the ceiling, Elizabeth tried to collect her thoughts and make as much sense of it as she could, it was hard enough to explain and rationalize it to herself much less someone else, but she needed to. "How much do you really know on how they communicate, I mean really know?" She asked Ryan, if she could lead off with this it might make more sense on what she was trying to explain to him.

"Not too much for the most part, we think is that it's a mixture of vocalization and pheromones," Ryan answered wondering where this was going.

"And possibly telepathy of some sort, correct?" Elizabeth asked.

"It's something that's never been confirmed but yes, it is a possibility, there is a lot of high-level brain activity that we have never been able to account for and telepathic communications had always been a strong theory but Mason has never taken any interest in finding out so it's an uncharted area so to speak. Where are you going with this?" He asked.

"I think, I'm not entirely sure, but I think that both last night and the night before the large Praetorian was trying to communicate with me while I was asleep." Answered Elizabeth, trying to keep things as logical and precise as she could.

Ryan raised his eyebrows in disbelief, not certain if he really believed her or not, though since he had met her, she had had a level head and had always seemed calm and rational, and while he was more than willing to give her the benefit of the doubt she really needed to make a convincing argument to fully get him onboard. "Okay, go on, you've got my undivided attention."

Doctor Brooks went into great detail on what had happened the last couple of nights, when she had been up late working and had found herself in the Xeno pens and had gotten the attention of the Praetorian, the display it had made of itself and the odd itchy feeling in the back of her mind, as well as the two odd dreams and how she could on some level sense and in a very basic way, communicate with it. And that it had reassured her that neither she, nor her own staff, or even Ryan would be harmed. She had, of course, omitted the parts about the Praetorian's more personal feelings towards her, or at least what she picked up to be personal feelings.

Ryan sat there his eyes closed intently listening to every word that Elizabeth had said, it was in a lot of ways completely unbelievable, but he had to remind himself that they were, in fact, dealing with an alien race that they knew very little about and that anything could be possible. When she had finished talking, he opened his eyes and slowly turned to look at her, remembering the odd way the Xenos were acting then and how the Praetorian almost seemed to know that Elizabeth was coming and even might have known she was in distress. "Yesterday when I was taking the readings and feeding them, that Praetorian knew that you were coming, it was looking right at the area for a while before you even ran by and into this room, in fact, all the Xenos were worked up about something, and it was at the same time Mason had you watching that lady get impregnated."

Biting her thumbnail a few times, she thought about the overlapping time on the events, "Do you think that they might have known somehow, about what Mason was doing or at least what was happening?"

"It's possible," Ryan answered, "However, let's say for argument sake that you are correct in this and that that Praetorian is trying to contact you while you sleep, and let's also say that you are able to establish actual communications...what then?"

"Honestly I'm not sure," she muttered, trying to keep the events in order, "everything happened so damn fast, I just know that I can't let Mason have his sick way with either the female hosts or the Xenos. This is why I am asking you about this, figured that maybe you might have an idea, something, anything hopefully."

"First off let's look at facts, first and foremost, there are a total of thirty-six Xenomorphs in containment at this moment, within two to three months that number is going to jump by ten, but as for now, the number is thirty-six, that's a lot of Xenos to free, it might be different if it was one or two, but you are talking about thirty-six. Second, we can only open one containment pod at a time now, if one is open all the others are in automatic lockdown and only Mason and a hand full of others can issue an override to open all the container pods at once. Third, even if all the Xenos were able to be freed at once or one at a time an emergency station wide lockdown and containment order would be issued throughout the base and every guard, combat android, and static defense would be alerted and activated. And four, even if by some miracle, you were able to get the women hosts and at least a few of the Xenos to a docked ship and get it launched, it's highly doubtful you could make it anywhere before you were overtaken and either destroyed in space or boarded, remember this station has drop-ships, interceptors as well as a pair of fast attack Corvettes, even if the Saratoga is gone, that's still a lot of firepower, plus those ships are faster than any transport or freighter. And let's not forget that a long-range transport or freighter is what you are going to need, even if you were able to get onboard a ship, fly it out and evade all the patrol ships, where would you go and how long would it take you? And that's not even bringing up the very real possibility of being tracked down later on." Ryan hated to bring all this up, but he needed her to know the cold hard facts about this, it wasn't like they could just jump on a ship and fly it out and be safe and sound.

It was a lot to take in and in part she knew it, she just wanted to get out of this place, but she didn't want to leave these poor souls behind to suffer. "So what should I do, just sit here and do nothing until it's too late? Ryan, I don't know if I can keep doing this work and just watch what goes on without doing anything, none of them deserve what is happening to them, despite what their race may be."

"No Elizabeth, that is not what I am saying." Ryan answered back, "you just need to remember the facts and work around them, look at the problem, dissect it and find a solution, problem one, how do you free all thirty-six Xenos at once, figure that out then move on to the next problem. Which brings up this question, what if you are able to free them and you find out you're wrong, you've just put not only yourself, myself, your staff but everyone else on board this station at risk. You need to be absolutely sure beyond a doubt that that Praetorian is trying to communicate with you. Now I do have your back, but what you are asking is a lot, and if I am even going to consider thinking about committing to this in any way, shape or form I need actual solid proof of what you are saying is real, and if I was asking what you are asking of me you would do the same."

Nodding in agreement, she knew there was no way she could fault Ryan's logic or caution on this, it was a huge risk and one that would put their lives in jeopardy if they decided to go through with it. And it was a lot to ask of him if fact she may well be asking all of him if things went bad and Elizabeth knew that, but when it came down to it she had no one else to turn to.

"Alright, let me see what I can do." She replied back, "If I can get some form of proof and make you believe, will you help or at least think about helping?"

"Let's go one step at a time, get the proof first and we'll go from there. Does that sound fair to you?" Asked Ryan reaching into his inner jacket pocket and taking out the metal flask, uncapping the top off and taking a drink out of it then passing it to Elizabeth.

"Fair enough." She answered back, although it was not a definitive 'yes' like she was hoping for, in reality it was more than she was actually expecting. Taking a drink out of the flask, she capped it and passed it back to Ryan.

Both of them sat there in the small storage room now silently thinking about the shit-storm that would come if they indeed went through with this course of action. If they messed it up they would die, that was all there was to it, no second chances, no do-over's, death would be it and that's all there was to it. As it was, the two of them were very unaware of a very heated conversation happening not too far away that happened to fall in line with what they had been discussing.

xxxxx

 _'Have you lost all reason and senses?!'_ One of the cage Xenos, a rather large and scarred male mentally screamed at his hive brother. _'You have condemned and doomed us all, when the humans find out, when HE finds out our suffering will be a dozen fold over, what in the name of the queen mother were you thinking?!'_

The large Praetorian lay in the middle of his containment pod, he had decided to share with his hive brothers and sisters the not so small fact that he had tried to initiate contact with the human female know as Elizabeth Brooks, and that it had been partly successful, and that he felt that she was becoming an ally that could help them escape, on a more personal note, something that he had kept to himself, he had for some odd reason that he could not fully explain to himself found this human female to be attractive, even desirable, perhaps it was her quiet personality or the way that she seemed to look at them more than some oddity or a simple caged monster. She had stood up to the hated man thing known as Mason several times, and for that, he was coming to admire her.

His announcement to the others had been met with shock, and while most seemed to be in favor of gaining a few humans as allies that could help them, there was a small number that was vehemently against it and wanted nothing to do with the humans at all. They were quickly reminded that without outside help they would never be able to escape.

The massive Praetorian turned his head to where his hive brother, one of the ones that had originally escaped but was recaptured, since then, Mason had gone to great lengths to torture and punish him for daring to escape and even brutally kill one of the doctor's assistances. _'I feel the female human, the one who is called Elizabeth Brooks can be trusted, she seems to be sympathetic to our suffering and wants to do something to help. The other human male the one we know as Ryan maybe also be able to help as well if he is willing.'_

 _'None of them can be trusted, look what they have done to us, what they continue to do to us. They have no mercy, no understanding, they look down on us as mindless animals, they would destroy us if it suited their needs. They are of rot and corruption, they carry the taint of the creators and are walking the same path. Even knowing this you would put your trust in them and our safety.'_ The scarred Xeno argued out, trying to convince his brother the folly of this plan. He could never, would never trust the humans, not after what they had done to all of them. Even if there were a few ones that might be decent the risk was too great and the pain of what they endured ran far too deep.

 _'Not all, just the two of them, we can no longer stay like this, we need to escape, but we cannot do this by ourselves, we need the assistance of the humans, regardless of whether or not you like it or agree with it, it is the simple truth, we cannot escape this place on our own, we need their help.'_ The Praetorian stated firmly to his brother, without their help whatever plan they might have would evaporate before it was even conceived. _'Or would you rather have us stay in these cages for the rest of our lives however long or short that may.'_

The scarred Xenos hissed in anger at what his brother had just said, _'NO,'_ he screamed back at the Praetorian, _'I do not have any wish to stay in these prisons, how can you even say that, after what we have all had to endure, I would like nothing more than to be free of this hell and to slaughter every human that has harmed us!'_

 _'Brother please, they have hurt us all, but we do need the help of the humans, regardless of how we feel, even if it is just two of them.'_ A female spoke up, the small female warrior who had revealed herself to Elizabeth had been quiet most of the time during the discussion, until now. _'None of us have much love for the humans but he is right we do need their help to escape or to have a chance to escape, this is something we cannot do on our own. I too believe we can trust the two humans, they have been fair and even kind to us, at least as much as they can be.'_

The scarred Xeno snorted at that last statement, _'Kind...fair...what would these monsters know of kindness and fairness, they are a cruel and vile species, a blight for those like us, the very day, the very second we were born, we were ripped away from our host-mothers, they did not even let us bond to them or feel their warmth, we were taken and thrown into cold hard cages and then were inflicted with pain, I can still feel my host-mother dying and her mind screaming out to my own in her final moments, they would not even let us be with them as they died. No, my dear sister, their race is neither kind nor fair.'_

 _'We all carry that pain and will for the rest of our lives, all of us remember the cruel day each of us were born, the day we should have been allowed to stay and bond with our host-mothers, the day we should have been bathed in warmth and love but we were instead torn away and placed in cold and cruel confines and tormented without mercy.'_ The small female warrior stated firmly, _'however despite that we still require their help, I do not believe that all the humans here are as monstrous as you believe, yes many of them are, but not all of them.'_

Thinking of what his Praetorian brother and warrior sister had said the scarred Xeno drone said nothing for a while, deep down he knew that what they were saying made sense, they could not escape without outside help and the only outside help was the humans, still he could not bring himself to agree with what they were suggesting, the pain was far too deep, he could never forgive the humans for what they had done to himself and his hive mates. He shook his head slightly, _'no, we cannot trust them, none of them, they would betray us as soon as it suited them.'_

A deep and graveled voice broke in on the discussion, the other Praetorian who to had been silent spoke up. Standing up and turning to face the scarred drone's direction, while not as massive in bulk as his Praetorian brother was, this one had more of a barreled chest and thinner waist seemingly built more for speed and agility than raw brute power. _'Then what would you suggest brother, what should we do if we do not find allies or at the very least help from those humans that may be aligned with our plight and willing to help us, what should we do? Tell me, tell us all, what should we do?'_

 _'I don't know, I don't know!'_ The drone hissed out loudly in frustration which caught the attention of several close by personal who jumped and backed away at what they perceived as an unprovoked and sudden response. _'What I do know is we cannot trust the humans, to do so, even a little is to put our lives into their soft hands which is inviting certain death, and we have already lost one of our hive mates, would you have us lose another.'_

The death of their hive brother had been a devastating blow to the drone, the two had been very close, hive mates even, they would link and in private try and offer each other intimate comfort in whatever form they could and when they had escaped, the warrior had been shot to pieces and the drone had not only seen him but felt him die. It was right there the drone had simply shut down and had done nothing to escape from the station.

 _'And if we do nothing we will die regardless it will only be a matter of time, nothing more, and while I do not trust the humans I do agree with my fellow Praetorian brother, we need human allies to escape, it is a simple hard truth, and while none of us like that fact, it is something we need to contend with.'_ The Praetorian stated, there was a mutter of agreement to what he said, as reluctant as they were to, the vast majority did agree with what both Praetorians the small warrior as several others had said. They did need human intervention to escape.

 _'Then I hope that your decision does not condemn us all to a fate worse than what we are in.'_ The scarred drone bitterly sneered back in disgust, obviously not pleased with the choice to ask the humans for help, deep down he knew it was the only way, but trusting a human, even those as decent as the humans known as Elizabeth or Ryan might seem to be was asking a great deal, too much in fact. And it was a step he was not willing to take just yet, if the humans did agree to help he would keep them both under observation and if it looked like they were going to betray them, he would end their lives right there, it was as simple as that.

 _'Do you wish for events to repeat themselves, and have more of our kind brought cruelly into this world?'_ The small warrior said with a very hard edge to her tone, _'while you may not care for the humans, we all know that more of their females are now hosts and will give birth, we all felt the seeders die when they implanted the hosts, ten of them, ten more that will be brought into this place to suffer, ten more that will have to listen and feel their host-mothers die alone and afraid, and just like us they will not be allowed to be with them at the end.'_ The small warrior hated to bring that up to her brother, but it might be the only way to get her brother so see some reason in this situation.

Laying back down on the floor, he curled himself up into a ball, his tail coiling around his head and back, ' _Very well, for our unborn brothers and sisters I will go along'_ he said after a long pause, _'but I warn you, do not place trust or faith in the humans, in the end, they will turn on us.'_ What his sister had said and struck a very sore cord, but despite that he still had no desire to see the unborn young ones brought into the same cold and cruel conditions that they had all been birthed into. Tightening himself further into a smaller ball, the memories of his host-mothers dying came flooding back into his mind.

And while she had been human, she was his host-mother and that made her special despite what species she was and he wanted nothing less than to be with her once again, even if it was for just a few brief moments. But that was never going to happen, Mason had made sure of that, damn that horrible man thing, he silently cursed that man's name to darkest pits that the universe had to offer and hoped that he would rot for all eternity in one.

For the time being, everything else around him, all that was being said by his hive brothers and sisters slowly faded out and he no longer heard what was being said as he retreated further and deeper into himself.

Looking over to where his brother lay, the large Praetorian, as well as all of their brothers and sisters, could feel the drone's distress, the amount of never ending emotional pain and raw hurt, the agony of never being able to bond or be with their host-mothers. Even if they could never get off this station as the humans called it, maybe they could at least somehow make it their own. Either way, they all wanted this nightmare to be over and to make those that had done this to them pay.

 _'I will continue to try and communicate with the human female Elizabeth, the link is very fragile but with time it should strengthen some.'_ The large Praetorian stated, _'However I sense that she is still unsure if what she is experiencing within the dreams is real or not, there is a lingering doubt that keeps her from fully believing.'_

 _'Can you help her to fully believe and give her reassurances that no harm will come to her or those she may wish not to be harmed.'_ The other Praetorian asked.

 _'I believe so, the human known as Ryan has not harmed us, and none of the humans that work with the one known as Elizabeth have caused us any harm_. _"_ The large Praetorian stated, he knew, they all knew that once they were free it would be a blood bath and a fight, no not a fight, a war, once they were free the humans would attack them with everything they could get their soft fleshy hands on. And every human that was allied with them would be a viewed as a traitor and would be considered a target, they would need to stay out of the way unless they wished death.

The small female warrior spoke up, _'there are a few new humans that have done us no harm that are within Mason's group, should we give them the chance to join us or let them go should the opportunity arise?'_

There was a lengthy pause at what she had both stated and asked, while it was true that most of the humans that worked directly with Mason, had over time come to enjoy tormenting the aliens, as the humans seemed to view themselves as the superior species, there had been a few that had not gone down that road.

 _'If they continue to do nothing to us then we should give them the chance to escape with their lives or stay if they wish to.'_ The other Praetorian said, _'however if they should change and start to inflict pain and torment on us, they will die with the others that have done so to us.'_

The large Praetorian gave a slight nod in agreement with his brother, " _Agreed.'_ He stated, the fewer humans they had to worry about fighting back the better their odds were, not that any of the scientists would be a match for even the smallest Xenomorph, however fighting even a few less humans meant that their chances for victory improved, even if it was just by a small amount, right now they would take what they could get.

[At that moment, through the link, despite how weak it still was, he picked up a faint echo of Elizabeth's thoughts and feelings. She was exhausted and was going to be asleep soon.

At that moment, through the link, despite how weak it still was, he picked up a faint echo of Elizabeth's thoughts and feelings. She was still emotionally exhausted and was going to be asleep soon. _'She will be going to rest soon, I will try to contact her when she does.'_ The large Praetorian said, the truth was he was enjoying trying to communicate with Elizabeth, it gave him something to do other than pace around, sleep and talk with his hive mates, or try to endure more of Mason's experiments.

Lying down on his side he coiled up and waited for her to go to sleep. Now it was just a matter of time.

xxxxx

Locking her door and sliding a heavy dresser in front of it, Elizabeth's nerves were frayed and she felt like every shadow was someone that was going to jump out and make a grab for her. As she walked around her small quarters checking out all the spaces that someone could hide, within a few minutes she had to check out all the small dark areas and found no one and nothing out of place.

She had not seen or heard anything from Mason all day, and she was not sure at this point of that was good or not, she was also a bit disappointed that Ryan was not fully with her, though she could not fault his logic or reasoning on the matter, and the bitch of it was that if their positions had been reversed she would be skeptical as well and asking for proof before commenting to something as insane as what she had proposed to him.

Grabbing a bite to eat and taking a hot shower she found herself nodding off, she placed the small bottle of mace right under her pillow next to one of the kitchen knives the other on was under the mattress the handle barely sticking out, just enough for her to get a grip on it should the need arise, she prayed it would not.

Throwing the towel on a chair she climbed into bed and pulled the blanket over her, Elizabeth wondered if the Praetorian would try and contact her tonight, if it did happen that would be three for three, a little more proof that it was not a dream, at least for her, getting hard evidence for Ryan was another matter altogether and at this time she did not have any idea on how to do that.

Elizabeth felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier, soon she was fast asleep, her breathing slowed down and soon her eyes began to twitch as she entered deep REM sleep.

The void surrounded her and although it was not pitch black there was just nothing was there, save for her and the massive Praetorian that she stood face to face with. _Right that's three for three now,_ she thought to herself, _the same environment too and nothing's changed either, this is definitely not a dream._ She also had clear and cognitive thoughts as well, not something that would normally happen in a dream to most people, certainly never to herself. The fact was she rarely remembered dreaming and what she did it was only fragmented, and never ever had she had a dream like this three nights in a row with such clarity.

The Praetorian seemed to pick up on what she was thinking and looked to be pleased or as pleased as one of their race could look, that she was finally and fully convinced that this was not just some weird reoccurring dream.

"Ok big boy," Elizabeth said, "you've finally managed to convince me that I'm neither having some messed up recurring dream nor am I completely batshit crazy." She flat out stated looking around at the absolute nothing that the two of them were standing in. "However, there are a few questions that beg to be answered, one being how did this happen, and second what is it you want?" She continued, looking back up at the Praetorian who was cocking its crested head to the side slightly.

Reaching up the Praetorian tapped the side of his head with the tip of its deadly clawed finger, then slowly reaching out it gently touched Elizabeth's forehead. Immediately she felt that same odd itchy feeling in the back of her mind, the same feeling she had experienced only a couple of nights ago, the very same night she had the first dream.

"Is this how you communicate with each other, some sort of telepathy? She asked almost completely floored by the realization, it was one thing to come up with theories and speculations, but to have it confirmed or hopefully confirmed was an eye-opener. And to her delight, the Praetorian nodded in confirmation of her first question.

The second question would be a bit more difficult for the Praetorian to answer, while direct verbal language was impossible between the two and the link was not strong enough to engage in hive speech he would simply have to show her what they wanted. Reaching out he cupped her face with his large hands and leaned in pressing his forehead gently against hers, while in this mental dream the physical act was not truly necessary in order to show her what they wanted, it was more than anything a gesture of friendship, trust, and even considered a greeting amongst their own.

Elizabeth could still not get use to the idea of something that was so awe-inspiring, terrifying and massive to be so gentle with its touch. Even if this was, in reality, not actually physical contact that was happening between the two, the interaction was still for her a revelation, to say the least. A race that had been classified as one of the most dangerous and deadly species in existences was being almost uncharacteristically careful; almost tender with her.

The more and more she interacted with this Xenomorph, the more and more she wanted to learn about them now. At first she had kept a distance from them, her own work had of course taken precedence over her own personal interests, plus the hard fact that they at first had terrified her, the way they looked, moved, even how they seemed to look right through everyone, and the hostility that they displayed to almost everyone around them.

And now, now she was starting to see them as so much more, something far deeper and more intelligent than she or anyone on board the station could have ever guessed. Now that she was able to see them up close, she found an odd and graceful beauty in them that she had never seen before.

Easily picking up on all her thoughts he found himself delighted that she wanted to actually learn about them, it was a relief to meet a human that thought of them more than test subjects to be tortured, he did wonder if the human known as Ryan would feel the same way if communications could be established. It would be a bridge that would need to be crossed when the time came, which with any luck would be soon.

Now, however, it was time for some hard truths about what would happen if she did decide to help them, and what would happen to those around her and the ones that would not be harmed. the Praetorian brought Elizabeth into a chance of settings, no longer was the void around them, now they were standing inside the Xeno pits, or what was left of them, the containment pods were all shattered from the inside out from the way the debris was laying on the floor.

Slowly turning around, it took Elizabeth's mind a few minutes to fully register what all she was seeing, and even though she knew it was not real, that it was just a dream or maybe what she could call a mental construct, it felt real enough. Blood and pieces of people were strewn all over the floor, walls and even ceiling. What was once pristine white lab coats were now nothing more than crimson soaked rags. These kills were not quick or in any form merciful, they had been pulled apart bit by bit, chunks, strips, and pieces of the scientists that once filled the Xeno pins were scattered throughout the area.

Distance screams could be heard which eventually faded into silence, a slight gurgling, raspy sound caught her attention, walking over to the direction, the massive Praetorian following closely behind, a large group of Xenos were standing in a circle around something, what she couldn't tell, walking up to the group, they paid her no mind and almost seem to part to let her see what was at the center.

She didn't recognize what or who it was at first, only a bloody torso with the head still attached, minus part of the face, the arms, and legs were gone which looked to have been ripped off, whether all at once or a piece at a time she could not tell, a black substance coated the stumps preventing whoever it was from losing blood and bleeding to death. Short raspy gasps came from the individual, it wasn't until she saw the eyes, those same cold, dead eyes that she looked at almost every day.

"Mason," she whispered to herself, this is what they all wanted to do to that man, to make him suffer, to make him pay for all the pain, the suffering, the torment they themselves had endured, in short, they all wanted a piece of him, literally, and a piece each of them would have, in this they would not be denied.

Mason however never screamed or made a sound, he simply stared up at the Xenos who continued to slowly rip strips of flesh out of his body. Those cold dead eyes never blinking or closing, never even showing remorse or regret for what he had done to them, never even a single tear flowed from his eyes.

Even if this was just a dream it was all too real, Elizabeth felt sick to her stomach, turning away she refused to look at the carnage that was going on, while she could not blame them for wanting this, she had no desire to view it. "Is this what you and the others truly want, to kill everyone but those that have not harmed you? If I help you then I am responsible for each one that dies, when I became a doctor I took an oath to do no harm, can you understand that I made a promise that I would never harm another or if I could help it allow someone to come to harm."

Elizabeth felt a tinge of surprise from the Praetorian at what she had just told him, perhaps after the way they had been treated they just assumed, and maybe rightfully so, that all humans were more or less like the scientist and of course Mason. "It's not that I don't want to help you or the others of your kind to escape, I do, but if I comment to this, how many will die, I'm not just talking about the ones that you feel you are justified in killing I mean how many after that will lose their lives simply because they might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time or were scared and fought back out of fear or felt they had no other choice in the matter simply because they were following orders."

Giving her words some thought, he knew that whatever happened, if they managed to get free she would feel solely responsible for each death that happened. It was a human view, one that he did not agree with, he did not believe she would be responsible for anything that would or might happen after, it would be their decision to either kill or not to kill, it was as simple as that, why she should feel responsible for their actions baffled him, but then again she was human, a race that they did not understand all that well. Perhaps a bit of enlightenment was now in order, something to help her truly comprehend what they had all gone through.

The Praetorian reached out and gently give her shoulder a firm squeeze, in a second the scene changed again, Elizabeth not only found herself watching several women giving birth to Xenos at the station but she could somehow feel what was going through the minds of the newborn aliens and even the host women. A tilde wave of emotions, fear, pain, loss, an overwhelming need to be close to those that had just given birth to them. As she saw the newborns being taken away by the androids medics, she felt something else, anger, rage, and hate...terror.

And just like that the scene froze, time itself seemed to stand still, Elizabeth glanced up as the Praetorian walked past her and over to one of the women hosts that lay unconscious, standing at her side, he reached out and carefully even affectingly stroked the side of her jaw line. There was almost what sounded like a deep mournful sigh though far deeper and with a slight hiss.

Elizabeth walked around until she was on the opposite side of the bed from the Praetorian, she looked down at the female, "She was your host, your mother for a better word, wasn't she? You remember all this, being born?" Elizabeth asked, not really sure if she could believe exactly what she was seeing, for a race to have memories of being born with such clarity was unheard of. The more and more she discovered about them the more she felt she was truly starting to understand them. A part of her was wondering what else she might discover about them, but now was not that time, the Praetorian was showing this to her for a reason. Maybe to help her understand their reasoning for what they felt they needed to do and why it was necessary. Though she knew that as much as she might sympathize with them, in reality, she could never fully understand what they had been forced to endure.

Looking directly at her, the Praetorian nodded in confirmation to Elisabeth's questions. This human female had been both his host and mother, even as he, like the others, had slowly developed over the months inside of them, they had probed deep into their own host's minds, felt their souls, they all had wanted to meet the ones that carried, nurtured and protected them for months, to come out into the world, bond with them, and to protect them as they had been when they themselves had been so vulnerable.

Now all they had were the bitter and harsh memories of being ripped away seconds after entering into the world, never to bond with those that they should have.

The scene faded into nothing and for brief few seconds the void surround both of them, then high pitched deafening screams and screeches of agony filled the air. Jumping with fright Elizabeth whirled around her hand covering part of her chest, she found herself back in the Xeno pens, only now there were only fifteen of the aliens.

Some were in the clear containers, others were strapped into restraint gear and were being bent and contorted into positions that would have snapped or ripped a human into pieces. Several of the aliens that were still in the containers were being all but cooked alive by intense heat generators placed on top of the containment pods, others were being electrocuted as their bodies spasmed and twitched inside the clear prison cells.

 _Elizabeth panned her view looking around, burning what she was seeing into her mind, an all too familiar figure stood in the middle of the pens looking at what was being done, his gaze never wavering, no emotion shown on his face, those cold, dead eyes staring right through the Xenos as if he was simply looking at an insect that needed to be squashed beneath a boot._

The scenes in play started to speed up as if time itself started to accelerate, seconds quickly became minutes, then hours, days, weeks and so on. Even though the flurry of time as the tortures experiments went on from one brutal test to another, Elizabeth could recall in every small detail the sights, sounds, and smells that had flooded her mind. What she was now beginning to recall was the feeling of the experiments, not the full force of what the aliens had endured but more of a shadow of the memories. But there was still the smell of burnt, acidic blood and flesh, the feeling of muscles ripping and bones breaking, the endless jolts of electricity and the ravenous hunger from rarely being fed.

There were also the never-ending pleas for mercy that were never answered. Only the cold stare from those dead eyes of the hated man thing that kept them locked up.

The whole scene made her sick to her stomach, she wanted to vomit, to cry and most of all to rip into Mason and a large part of his staff for what they had done and still continued to do. While she had heard stories and seen a small bit of what he did to them, usually from a distance, but what she had just witnessed and felt was nothing less than an atrocity it was also firsthand experience for her, something that she would never forget.

Not wanting to see anymore Elizabeth turned around, ashamed of she was a part of all this, even if it was just a small part, she felt as guilty as all those involved, keeping her eyes to the floor not being able to even look up at the Praetorian. "I'm sorry." She whispered, she wanted to say something else anything else to try and give some sort of comfort or an apology but she was afraid that anything she said would sound fake and patronizing, besides what could she say after seeing and even feeling what they had gone though, even if it was nothing more than a small taste. "I'm sorry..." Her voice trailed off, not sure if she could speak anymore with her throat tightening up as she tried to hold back a stream of tears.

The scene faded out leaving only the void of nothing around the two of them. Both seeing and feeling the small human female's distress the Praetorian stepped up to her, knelt down and drew her in. His chin came to rest over her shoulder, as the long and deadly tail coiling protectively around her. It was not his intention to cause her such distress but it was, unfortunately, a necessity. If she was to help them then she truly needed to understand what it was they had and were continuing to go through and why there would be blood and death. Feeling her shiver slightly, he tightened his embrace around her, a deep rumbling sound emanated from his chest, reaching up he carefully ran his clawed fingertips through her hair, almost instantly Elizabeth began to relax.

Elizabeth did not say anything, the images were still running through her mind as she tried to process everything that she had seen and felt. Thankfully the Xenos deep rumbling and gentle stroking of her hair did help calm her down. All of this, all of it was far too surreal, she knew that she was physically asleep and that this was all some weird dream or as she was calling it a mental construct for lack of a better term. Whatever it was, it was something entirely different than anything she had ever experienced before.

"I'll do what I can," Elizabeth told the Praetorian finally, her voice somber and low, she knew that she would be handing out a death sentence to those that had harmed the Xenomorphs. But what they had done to the aliens was cruel beyond measure and there was no reason for it. She knew that she would be turning her back on her Hippocratic oath, even if it was just this once, it was one time too many. But what was the alternative, to continue to let the aliens be tortured and let more innocent women be brought in to be used as hosts and watch them die.

Either way for her it was a no win situation, she just had to make a choice that did the least amount of damage, or what she hoped would do the least amount of damage.

As much as the Praetorian might want to and would have if he had any power to, he, however, could do nothing to alleviate her own personal conflict. Most, if not all that she was thinking the Praetorian had picked up on even through the weak link, he had not only asked her but had just convinced her to sacrifice her own personal oath to do no harm. It was not an easy thing for him to do, but as she had thought to herself just seconds ago, what was the alternative?

If they were able to be free, to escape or take the area for their own, he would do what he could to make it up to her, to see that somehow her oath was restored. But for now, it was time for them to separate from the link and return to sleep.

He would communicate with her later on, perhaps in a night or two after she had some time to think and reflect on what he had shown her. Maybe try to strengthen the link in some way, though without actual physical contact it would be near impossible. The fact that they were able to communicate in this way as well as they had been was nothing short of a small miracle.

For now, she needed rest.

As the link slowly faded away, Elizabeth could feel the Praetorian's presence start to drift away, her mind now heavy as a warm darkness started to take her. And just before she entered a dreamless state she thought for a moment she could hear someone speak to her, a powerful and deep voice that reverberated through her mind, a voice that only said one word.

 _'Sleep.'_


	18. We All Fall Down

CHAPTER 17: We All Fall Down.

xxxxx

Tea. For Doctor Elizabeth Brooks tea had been a part of her upbringing, her family culture, her way of life, she drank it as a child, a teenager, and continued to drink it as an adult. She could distinguish the subtle nuances and tones of any kind of tea depending on the type, what leaf, herb or berry was being used, whether it was a light white, a balanced green or a stout black, even the herbal teas she was able to pick up and distinguish what was in infused within. Overall a strong mint tea was her favorite, piping hot in a nice large ceramic mug, never a plastic one as to her it spoiled the taste, letting the leaves steep for several minutes before drinking the beverage.

She had brought in a large amount of the stuff when she had been reassigned to Eclipse Station, close to a dozen different types, not knowing how long she was going to be stationed there and not sure whether or not she would be able to get resupplied at any point, for her it was a taste of home in a place that was all too far away.

Elizabeth was now on her second large mug, sitting in bed with a big, thick comfortable wrapped around her, she had called in as soon as she had woken up letting the shift manager and her crew that she was not feeling well and was needing to take the day off. While she was physically feeling alright, the images of what she saw and even felt were still replaying over and over in her head.

But even now, her most beloved beverage, something that would cheer her up in almost any situation brought her no comfort this time. She felt trapped by the decisions she was thinking about having to make and it did not help that guilt was wracking and gnawing at her. When she had come on board she had a purpose, a mission, a drive that kept her focused on what she needed to do. She hadn't even thought about the long-term ramifications of what would happen, or the lives, innocent or other that were now destroyed or would be destroyed in the future.

It should have been a simple choice, made a decision that would sacrifice the fewest lives possible. One of the problems was she didn't know what that decision was, if she did nothing and kept on her current course and let the unknown players behind the scene get control of the Xenos and have their way, she had no idea what purpose they would be used for, how many of them would be bred or what would happen. If she was able to free the Xenos, she knew a lot of people on Eclipse station would die, that in itself was a given, but in the long run, would it save more lives than it cost?

Taking another long sip of the hot, mint tea, her mind ran through the events that the Praetorian had shown her, one thing that hadn't come up was what would happen after, if they were not able to get access to a ship large enough for them all, what then, they would still be stuck on the station and she had no doubt that one of two things would happen if the station could not be brought under control, either the affected pod sections would be separated and jettisoned from the main hub or the station would be outright destroyed, either by war-ships or by a self-destruct.

It was something that everyone onboard was made clearly aware of before they were brought on. An outbreak was unacceptable and all options were on the table if it ever did happen, which included sacrificing the entire station and everyone onboard.

However her first priority was to get proof for Ryan, something tangible, physical, that would convince him and get him on board and help her. The next time the Praetorian contacted her it would be something she would talk to him about. Elizabeth caught herself as she realized that she had just referred to the Xeno as a 'him', for some odd reason she couldn't just dismiss the feeling that referring to the Xeno as 'him' made sense in some weird way. Maybe it was the fact that she was starting to identify with the alien more than just some odd specimen for studying.

Reaching over to the small nightstand next to her bed, Elizabeth grabbed her personal datapad. It was completely isolated from the local station network and therefore no one could access it remotely to see what was on it. It was one of the few pieces of equipment from home that she had brought on board, mostly for entertainment, reading, music, or just for writing personal notes down on that she wanted to keep private.

She needed to get her head clear and figure out what to do and start trying to come up with a plan. With any luck something would come to her, Elizabeth just hoped that it would come sooner than later.

xxxxx

Sitting in his office, Doctor Ford Mason looked and listened over and over again to the video footage of the Xeno pens, his focus was on both Doctor Brooks and Lab Tech Ryan Anderson. While he did not care for whatever meaningless relationship the two had formed, their unusual interaction with the Xenos did cause him some small amount of concern. Most notably was the way two of the Xenos were acting toward the two, a small warrior and a massive Praetorian, neither one of the Xenos had ever displayed any aggressive actions to the two staff members, in fact, the two Xenos almost seemed to be friendly and looked like they were trying to communicate in some unusual fashion, mostly with what looked like gestures and body language.

Mason had made it a vital point to have his own network of hidden security cameras placed around the Xeno pens and lab areas as well as having a few well placed bribes to have certain other sensitive areas bugged so he could monitor in to see what trouble was brewing and make arrangements with very high level personnel to make sure the trouble that was coming for him simply disappeared or was dispelled. He knew all too well that both Commander Snyder and Director Collins were looking for any excuse to lock him away or to have **him** just simply disappeared.

Of course, when it came down to it he simply did not care.

In fact the work on this station was, in his mind, a waste of his time, the powers outside the station, investors for all he knew and for all he might have cared, for whatever reason wanted the Xenomorphs, and a lot of them, hundreds if not thousands of the creatures, and they wanted a way to breed them quickly and even more important quietly. And in such a way not to leave a trail of bodies that would draw attention to them.

He had his own personal work and research that he desired to work on and attend to, it was probably the only thing he ever truly cared about in his life. And that work was something that he had been promised would be fulfilled, if he did certain powerful and wealthy individuals a favor and worked on this project and kept an eye on what was happening with it and report back discreetly anything of interest should it come up, he had of course reluctantly agreed to their terms.

And now these two insignificant staff members were putting his own agenda at risk with their actions, he continued to look at the vids, the way the two Xenos were interacting with Ryan and Elizabeth was off, and not just those two but most of the other Xenomorphs seemed to behave differently when either one or both were in proximity. Forwarding to more recent interactions, he saw Elizabeth was alone standing in front of the cell with the largest of the Xeno Praetorians; it was standing fully upright, it seemed to puff its chest out, raised its crested head, and the tail arched up in almost what would have been defined as a sensual manner. The alien was displaying itself for her to see, to him, it didn't look to be an act of aggression but quite the opposite as if it had chosen her for something. Whatever these beasts wanted with her did not concern him, nor did he care, if it wanted her so much then it should have her.

Since she had come on board, Doctor Brooks had been little more than an annoyance to him, an irritant, something to be swatted away and forgotten about, perhaps now was time to scratch that ever-present itch and be rid of it.

Switching off the video recordings, he tapped on one of the new more recent audio uploads that had been marked as urgent. Even in this place, he had a few secret assistants that attended him in keeping an eye on things and filtering information to him that was deemed important.

As he listened to a recorded conversation unfold, his left hand balled up into a fist so tight that his fingernails cut into the skin, warm, crimson liquid slowly started to drip from between his fingers and onto the floor a few drops at a time. A cold rage filled his core as he continued to listen to the audio log that had been sent to him.

Ever since he had been born, most emotions were something that he had never felt, not happiness, sadness, fear or even grief, the only emotion that ever seemed to come out when things did not go his way, was a cold intense rage, all he wanted to do when he felt it was hurt others, it didn't matter how it was done, only that it was done, be it by himself or through others. When it came to interacting with most people and living creatures he never made any kind of connection, the ability to do so was simply not there for him.

His parents had tried to seek medical help for him when he was young, to see if it was something that could be fixed, cured or at the very least treated, but it was to no avail, the doctors could never find anything physically wrong and the therapists were completely baffled as to what was causing his condition. However his condition was not without its benefits, the lack of being able to feel most emotions as well as not being able to make any sort of connection with others left him without any sort of distractions to pursue his own interests in the sciences, something that he immediately excelled at.

It also gave him a very callous view of how the world worked, both the people in it and most of the known universe in general. He began to see everything and everyone in it as little more than an unimportant speck, a hollow shell that held no value, something to be stamped out if it became an inconvenience.

And right now that is exactly what had happened, someone had become an inconvenience and even a possible threat. His hand moved slowly over to the keyboard and with a hard press of his finger he stopped the playback of the recording.

Getting up from his workstation Mason slowly walked toward the door, as he approached, the mechanical door slid open with a slight whirring noise granting him passage right into the Xeno pens. He never even acknowledging the presence of his fellow coworkers and staff as he walked passed them, to him none of them existed or were even there. The few that looked up at him saw a cold murderous look in his eyes and they quickly got out of the way and put as much distance as they could between themselves and the doctor, no one daring to say a word to the man as they were afraid to incur his wrath. Within a few moments, he found himself standing in front of the containment pod housing the massive Xenomorph Praetorian who was laying on its side curled up with its tail wrapped around itself.

The alien stirred, its crested head lifting up slightly and turned to see who was close by. Upon seeing the hated man-thing Mason as they all referred to him as, the Praetorian unfurled itself from the floor and was standing in a few seconds, facing the doctor, the Xeno's lips peeled back partly in a threatening display, thick drool began to drip from the alien's mouth pooling on the floor. It took a step forward and then another until it was at the cell wall, leading down until he was only a few inches from Mason's face, he let out a long menacing hiss.

Never once did the Doctor flinch as he looked right into the maw of the massive alien, even seeing the deadly inner toothed tongue that could punch right through meat, bone and even sold metal, never once was there any sign of fear or intimidation that betrayed his calm and stone like demeanor. Only his ice-cold rage-filled eyes gave a hint to any emotion that he might be feeling.

The alien tilted his head, lips fully peeled back it gave another menacing hiss only much louder and longer, the slick tongue slid out slightly opened and closed in another threat display. Only to no avail, Mason only stood there glaring at the alien, no sign of fear at all much to the Praetorian's annoyance.

Just for a split second, the expression on Mason's face changed, a twisted contortion of utter rage, hate and fury formed and then just as quickly disappeared. His hand little more than a blur of movement hit the shock button on the main panel, the floor panel lit up and hot tendrils of electricity arched out licking and raking across the Xenos thick biomechanical, bony hide.

Agonizing, enraged shrieks erupted from the Praetorian, the Xeno froze in place, unable to move as electricity course and pulsed through its body, only the arms, legs, tail and domed head quivered and shook giving any sort of movement to the creature what so ever. Thick drool flew, splattered and slowly ran down the transparent containment wall.

Mason stood there holding the shock button down, minutes passed by as he continued to coldly glare at the massive Xeno, who's body continued to violently shake, as its head reared back, unexpectedly the doctor flinched back slightly as a shiny black mass filled his vision with a loud thud that shook the whole containment pod.

The Xeno brought its head up, glared back at the human doctor with equal part rage and hate, its lips fully peeled back, drool cascading from its mouth and pooling onto the floor. With another quick lunge forward, it slammed its head into the pod wall repeatedly over, again and again, each hit shook the container, the dull sound of the impact echoing throughout the Xeno pens.

The staff looked at the exchange between the two with utter horror and fear, each one of them was terrified that the massive Praetorian was going to somehow break through the containment pod, if that happened they doubted that even the guards and combat androids that were on station, who had armed their weapons and were waiting for the worse to happen would be able to stop this Xeno. The human guards glanced over at each other, worry and panic filled their eyes, their fingers on the triggers of their weapons, each one praying that they wouldn't be the ones having to have a showdown with a full-sized Xenomorph Praetorian. If it came down to that, they knew that the chances of surviving that encounter would be all too short-lived.

The hits were getting louder, harder and faster, impacts that were jostling the containment pod, as the Xeno looked to have gone into what amounted to be a berserk frenzy; electrical jolts that would normally incapacitate the aliens in just under a minute seemed to have no effect on the creature anymore as it continued to slam its head into the containment wall, thick yellow splatters now covered the impact area. The whole pen was now filled with deafening hisses and screeches from every Xeno, each one of them was angry and enraged now.

Mason stood his ground acting as if nothing of importance was happening, his hand pressed firmly down on the shock button, not even flinching as the Xeno repeatedly struck against the containment wall. His cold gaze still locked onto the Xeno as it hit the clear wall over and over, the yellow acidic blood coating the containment pod area more and more with each hit. A couple of more solid hits and the alien seemed to finally stagger slightly, less than a minute later it dropped to its knees and then toppled sideways down onto the clear floor plating with a heavy thud, a steady stream of yellow blood flowing out of a large gash on its forehead which pooled onto the floor.

With the Xeno incapacitated and no longer moving, Mason stood at the pod for another minute and watched as the alien's body jerked and twitched from the electrical jolts, finally the Doctor's lust for inflicting pain temporarily stated he released the button and stepped back. Looking down at the fallen alien with utter contempt and loathing, personally he would have liked nothing better than to slowly burn the lot of them to death, but the Xenos were needed, requested by the investors, to be used by whatever their desires were, not that any of that mattered to him, he simply wanted to be done with this little project and go on to his own studies and agendas.

But now that was in danger, and that was something that he would not tolerate. Turning around he walked back to his office as if the whole ordeal had never happened, passing by the stunned staff members, ignoring their looks of disbelief and horror as to the events that had just happened. As Mason entered his office and the door closed behind him, most of the looks that had been directed his way now turned to the downed Praetorian.

Some of the staff edged closer to the pod to look and see what if any damage had been done, a few were wondering if the alien was now dead, no one had any clue what had set Mason off, nor were any of them about to inquire either. It wasn't until the Praetorian's tail twitches and the crested head moved slightly did the onlookers realize it would take more than what Mason had done to kill the large alien.

His whole body felt raw and numb from Mason's not so gentle treatment, not to mention his head was killing him where he had used it as a battering ram, thankfully that would go away soon enough as the blood had already stopped flowing and the wound would start to heal up soon. Glancing up he saw that several of the human scientists were staring at him with mixed looks of disbelief and horror.

 _Let them gawk if they so desired to_ , he thought silently to himself, he and the others would give them another show soon enough, one that they would never forget...at least for those that would be lucky enough to survive.

 _'Brother...brother...'_ He recognized the voice of his small warrior sister, her voice was panicked as she was trying to communicate with him. Even if some of his fellow brothers and sisters did not see what had happened, _all_ of them had heard his mental screams and felt his rage and fury when Mason had started to torture him, they all knew what had just happened.

' _I am unhurt...mostly.'_ He said, just laying on the cold floor, not moving any more than he needed to, resting to regain his strength.

 _'He knows, that monster knows, your interactions with that human female have placed us all in more danger than what we were in before, whatever he did to us before will pale in comparison to what he will do to us now, I hope that this reckless plan was worth it, for we will all pay the price now.'_ The scarred drone announced, fear and panic laced his own mental voice, he started to pace around in circles his claws gliding across the smooth surface of the containment pod, his breathing quickened and the warm saliva began to flow more quickly with his heightened state of panic setting in.

' _Calm yourself brother, he may not know,'_ the other Praetorian chimed in trying to put his brother's mind at ease, something that was not working out as well as he had hoped, _'even if he has seen our brother and the human female interacting he cannot possibly know the truth, he may suspect something but that is all.'_

' _It will be more than enough for him to continue to torture us, and for what, what was our crime to them, what did we do that was so bad that they needed to punish us from the day we were born?'_ Asked the scarred drone to his Praetorian brother, other than for the pain to stop and for Mason to die a slow horrible death, an answer was something that he and all the others wanted.

But for now, they all knew that no answers would come to them, possibly never at all.

 _'He knows nothing brother, and so what if Mason has seen my interaction with the human female Elizabeth, in his eyes we are nothing more than animals and nothing we do with prove otherwise, and that will be his downfall.'_ The massive Praetorian said, his gaze shifting over toward his drone brother.

The drone stopped his pacing, returning the Praetorian's gaze, _'I pray to the great mother that you are not wrong, I pray that this plan of yours works, if it does not...'_ The drone's voice trailed off, after there was nothing else to say, if it did not work, they would all be damned for the rest of their lives.

Looking at the spot that he had repeatedly hit over and over, the Praetorian smiled to himself, while not visible to human eyes, he could see it, a small, tiny, insignificant imperfection that was now in the containment wall, an imperfection that would over time crack and splinter out, it just needed a little more coaxing. Picking himself up, his fingers glided through the pool of acidic blood and with a quick motion, he wiped the blood over the tiny spot as he stood up to his full height.

Soon, very, very soon.

xxxxx

No dreams or communication from the Praetorian had come to Doctor Elizabeth Brooks that night, but for some reason, an odd feeling of dread and nervous tension had started to wrack her mind earlier that afternoon, she didn't know what it was, nerves perhaps, but she felt that something was off and just very wrong. Even for a brief second, she could have sworn she heard screaming from somewhere, but only for a second and then it was gone.

Even without any dreams, she felt somewhat rested as she woke up and got ready for her morning shift, however she was dreading running into Mason, but maybe if she just kept to herself and focused on her work for the time being she could avoid the Doctor for a few days. He felt like a ticking time-bomb just waiting to go off, it was no wonder everyone was doing everything they could to stay away from him or work on exactly what he wanted. Everyone in the lab, even the security guards were all terrified of him, the only one that didn't seem scared shitless of Mason was Commander Snyder, though she wasn't sure if he was just putting on a brave face or if he really wasn't scared of the Doctor. And if he wasn't, she really wanted to know what his secret was.

Taking it slow and easy and peaking around each corridor she was more than a bit relieved to make it to her office area and start in on her work, as a bonus she found a fresh pot of coffee, compliments of Ryan ready for her and her staff who had arrived a little bit before her. That relief was quickly replaced by dread as she looked at her morning status updates.

Mason had done it, ten more women had been impregnated all within the last twenty-four hours, now the clock was now ticking down, they had two months, that was **if** Mason had done the alterations like she had requested, before the Xenos were born and after that, one month's time before the chemical imbalance took the lives of the hosts. Three months total and that was not going to be enough time and it would go by far too quickly, she just prayed that her theory was correct and that physical contact between the hosts and the newborn Xenomorphs would fix the imbalance.

For the rest of her shift, Elizabeth's mind was in an unfocused daze as she and her staff tried to work on the problems before them. Elizabeth didn't even realize until one of her assistants had spoken up that they had worked well over ten hours and that their shifts had ended a while ago. Letting them go so they could get some rest, Elizabeth elected to stay a while longer to finish up some formulations for the computer to run simulations on overnight. Another hour passed by before she finished up and decided to call it quits for the night.

Locking up the lab, she decided to stop in and see if Ryan was still up and working, stopping by his office she knocked but no one answered, opening the door she saw that his equipment was still on and running, figuring he might be in the Xeno pens, she decided to swing by and take a quick look and see if he was working there, and to see how the Xenos were, one Xeno in particular.

Slowly walking to the pen area, she glanced through the window into the area, she saw Ryan walking away pushing one of the large carts that he would use to feed the aliens with, from what she could tell it was empty so maybe he had just finished his rounds. Looking around she didn't see Mason, letting out a sigh of relief, maybe the man had finished up for the day and had left the area.

Swiping her card through the card reader, with a slight mechanical hiss the door slid open, upon entering the large room, from what she could see most of the staff, besides a few that decided to stay late, had left for the night. Quietly walking around the containment pods, most of the aliens seemed to be sleeping, a few were still awake and regarded her with familiarity giving her low soft hisses that she could barely hear, none of which seemed threatening at all, more as a greeting from what she felt.

Elizabeth stopped dead in her tracks as she came to the large pod that contained the Praetorian that had been communicating with her, she stood frozen and tried not to fly into a panic or look as if anything was wrong, the large alien was laying on his side with a massive gash in his head that was scabbing over, the pool of acidic blood still just a few feet away where he lay, yellow streaks and spots were still visible on the pod as the blood had dried up.

At first, she feared that Mason might have somehow killed him, it was only when she saw his chest expanding and contracting with each breath that she let out a small sigh of relief knowing that he was alive, hurt, but still alive. She felt something else, deep concern, even pain in her chest as her heart started to speed up, she wanted nothing more than to open the cage and go in and help him. Offer him some comfort, clean his wounds and make the fucker that had caused him this kind of injury pay with blood. It was right then with a stark revelation that she started to wonder if that was why she had been feeling off, maybe she had somehow picked up on whatever had happened to the alien. It was also right then that cold terror gripped her heart and started to squeeze, had Mason somehow found out, did he now know, and if so what was next?

Had she been so reckless with her interactions that she was blind to the security cameras in the pens? Sure her contact with some of the Xenos might see a bit off, even unusual, but surely not enough to warrant this kind of attack, and not enough to draw this kind of attention. Maybe, just maybe Mason had gone off one of his tirades and just happened to pick the Praetorian to take his aggression out on.

She hoped that's all it was and he had not found out what they were up to. However, a part of her gut was telling her the exact opposite.

Acting casual, or as much as she could with her heart racing and cold beads of sweat running down the side of her face, Elizabeth turned around and slowly walked away wiping the drops of sweat from the side of her face. She scanned the room hoping that Ryan would be back soon, she wanted to know just what the hell had happened and was hoping he would have some answers.

Passing by a few more of the pods she stopped at the containment pod that house the small warrior Xeno, the small alien was up, kneeling in front and seemed to be waiting for her, it tilted it's head to each side and gave a slight hiss and if it too was greeting her.

Placing her hand on the pod, Elizabeth just looked at the small Xeno, she wanted to smile she really did, but seeing the Praetorian laying down, wounded like he was, gave her nothing but heartache and turmoil within. Whatever little bit of joy she might have had when she came here tonight had been ripped out the second she saw the massive gash in the Xenos forehead and the pool of blood right next to it... to him.

Right then as if someone had yanked the floor right from underneath her feet and sent her plummeting into a dark and bottomless chasm she felt suddenly and completely alone, absolutely useless, and utterly terrified, she had no plan and she had no idea on what to do or even how to protect the Xenos much less how to get them safely off the station. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to do," She whispered to the small warrior, not even able to look at the alien in shame, her gaze was just locked to the ground.

The small warrior heard what Elizabeth had said, and even felt the emotional distress bleed through the fragile and faint mental link and just how completely hopeless and isolated the human female was feeling. Placing her hand on the clear containment wall just opposite Elizabeth's hand, she let out a mournful hiss, it was not fair to place this burden all on one individual especially one individual who seemed to be so completely lost on what to do. Her brother had developed feelings for this particular human, one of the reasons he seemed so dead set on having her try and help them, but in reality, the warrior was not sure what the human doctor could do.

When her brother had recovered and healed she would talk to him privately and see what could be done, an alteration in the plan was in call for, something that would not endanger all parties involved.

Elizabeth was about to step away from the pod and leave for the night and get some sleep, she would see about catching up with Ryan tomorrow and ask him about what had happened, provided the Praetorian didn't communicate with her after she went to sleep, but for now she was feeling like complete shit and just wanted to be alone for a while and get some sleep. With a black flash of movement, the Xeno was up to its full height and hissing in rage, its lips peeled back fully bearing its deadly steel colored teeth, hot thick drool cascading down from its chin to the floor pooling in a sticky mess.

For a second Elizabeth thought that the small Xeno warrior had for some unknown reason had decided to turn on her, it was a stark realization that made her blood run ice cold and her body go numb when she realized that the warrior was not even looking at her, but at something slightly off to her left and behind. There was only one person that could set the Xenos off by just showing his presence, turning around she found herself face to face with just that person.

Mason.

While she had never even gotten close to getting used to how his eyes looked with that cold, dead stare of his that had always sent chills down her spine and a sense of dread right into her heart. This time, however, she wished to god that was how his eyes looked. While his face was strangely calm, only an emotionless deadpan look to it, never once betraying his own feeling. His eyes, however, told a completely different story, there was a hard darkness to them this time, a madness, something that had seemed to even surpass the cold murderous fury that he would display from time to time when he was torturing or experimenting on the Xenos, this was something completely different.

She stepped back until her back was pressed up against the containment pod, the not too distant memory of Mason having her in this exact same position against this very pod while he verbally ripped into suddenly came back to mind.

The warrior's face was less than an inch from the clear pod wall, loudly hissing and screaming at the man. And it was not just the small warrior, almost all of the aliens were now awake, up and looking like they all wanted to tear into Mason himself, each one had its lips peeled back, either loud hisses or deafening screeches erupted from them.

Just like before Mason never even acknowledged them, his hard stare focused solely on Elizabeth, everything else around him vanished. Finally, he took a step forward, he was only less than a meter from her, "Do you remember what I told you, what I would do should you ever interfere with my research?" He said quietly, his voice was emotionless...almost, while there was no rage or anger, it was laced with a cold, icy undertone to it. But it was more than enough to push Elizabeth into a panic attack.

Her heart was beating so fast and so loud in her chest that she swore that it sounded like drums being pounded on in a rapid rhythmic beat. Her hands dropped down to her side, the right one hitting against something hard inside her pocket, for a second her mind clicked, the can of mace that the Commander had given her, it was in her lab-coat pocket. Slowly placing her hands in her lab pockets her right hand tightly gripped around the can, all she needed to do was stay calm and wait to see what would happen with Mason.

Faster than she could even blink, Mason lurched forward his right hand gripping around her throat, his fingers squeezing deep into her neck muscles with an iron, vice-like grip. Reflexively Elizabeth tried to take a breath and found that no air would enter her lungs. Panic started to set in, random chaotic thoughts filled her mind, as he squeezed harder and harder, dark spots started to form in her field of vision that popped in and out.

The small warrior was in a full frenzy now, screaming, clawing and raking at the containment wall trying to get out and help the female human, however, her efforts were futile and useless, not even the smallest of scratches were on the clear wall.

Her hand jerked up, just inches from Mason's face, the small metal container in hand, Elizabeth's thumb pressed down on the button that was set on the top as hard as she could, a loud hissing sound followed by a slightly yellow colored liquid that violently sprayed out of the nozzle hitting the enraged Doctor directly in the eyes.

Elizabeth had expected the man to drop to his knees covering his eyes and start screaming...that never happened. Mason's grip did loosen up slightly, his head tilted away slightly as the liquid continued to spray over him. Five seconds, six seconds, at eight seconds the small container was empty, the toxic, hot smell of mace filled her own nostrils and she wanted to gag, but Mason's grip was still firm, though just loose enough from her to breath slightly. His face was drenched with the military-grade mace and his eyes were bloodshot, but the man never once screamed, yelled or made a single noise.

Tightening her grip around the can, with whatever strength she had, she raised it up and slammed the bottom of it down against his head, "FUCK YOU!," She screamed as the edged lip of the can ripped into his skin just above his left eye leaving a deep gash, dark red blood began to flow down his face and onto the floor. Fright was now replaced with rage and anger, she wanted him dead, to hell with whatever oaths she had taken about doing no harm, this fucker needed to die right now, Elizabeth slammed the empty mace can into his head several more times before Mason whose face was now a twisted demonic look of raw hate and rage lunged forward, his left hand thrusting forward in a quick motion.

Cold, cold and shock...that was what she now felt, that and an odd tingly feeling that started to spread out from her core to her whole body, moments later numbness started to set in. Mason was just inches from her face, how had he moved so quickly she didn't know, and how had he not dropped to the ground after being sprayed in the eyes with military-grade mace at point-blank range, much less with the repeated blows to the head, blood freely flowed down the side of his head, for a second wondered to herself if he was even human.

Right then, a deep sharp, stabbing pain in her gut made itself known, refusing to scream, she glanced down, Mason's hand which was gripped tightly around something was pressed into her stomach, blood, this time her own poured out. His hand started moving to his right, this time she did scream, screams that echoed throughout the whole area at the sharp, hot pain of herself being opened up, the empty can of mace falling out of her trembling hand, landed on the floor with a slight metal clank and rolled away.

Boiling anger, rage...hate beyond human measure, those emotions filled the room, permeated it, almost every human that was there, who up until now was just starting at Mason, either in shock of what he was doing or was too scared to act and help Doctor Brooks, now cringed at the waves of violent emotions that now bombarded their minds, a mental assault that made most now want to run and hide as if they were nothing more than small prey being hunted by an all too large predator that was about to rip them apart, possibly something that was not too far from the truth. What followed was an ear-ripping shriek of fury, with heavy, loud thuds of something hitting a hard surface.

Looking over in the direction of the noise, one of the lab assistants immediately started to back away from the containment pod that housed the Massive Praetorian Xenomorph, it was slamming its full weight into the pod, now in a blind rage, yellow acidic blood was coating a large single spot, the Xeno would back away, and then launch itself, head down striking the same spot over and over, thick strands of drool poured from its mouth.

Another strike and another, a loud cracking sound filled the air and a single long crack went up several meters in the clear containment pod, one more hit one more crack appeared, smaller cracks started to spread out from a center point, another hit and the pod rocked forward slightly, the lights flickering off and on for a few seconds.

The Praetorian's head and face were now coated with its thick, yellow, acid blood, his lips were peeled back in raw animalistic aggression, bearing the metallic colored sharp teeth, each hit, each strike caused more cracks to appear, more blood to smear and coat the pod wall, the pod rocked more and more from the internal assault.

"That fucker's about to break free!" Screamed one of the research doctors, who had gone pale with raw terror at what he was seeing. A loud crunch, and a piece of the pod's wall caved out as the Xeno slammed his head partly through it, a nightmarish scene of the snarling black chitin face coated with yellow blood pushing through with its deadly teeth bearing at all who could see, a mix of acid and hot drool dripped onto the outer floor eating small holes into the plating along with the feral sound of enraged hissing at everything that moved.

"Get security in here, and gas that fucking thing right now before it breaks out!" One of the lab techs yelled, finally gathering his wits as the Praetorian quickly withdrew its head back inside, backed away and charged again. Slamming himself into the pod with another loud crunch, the hole widened up as the lights in the pod started to flicker more. Small tendrils of smoke from the acid burnt holes in the plating began to trail up, the smell of acid and electrical fires started to fill the area.

One of the doctors bolted over to a console, and hurriedly started to punch in his access codes, "Get the hell away from that pod NOW!" He screamed just as a thick green gas erupted from the bottom of the pod filling it, some spilling out from the gaping hole in the side, another loud screech filled the air as black limbs could be seen flailing and cutting through the thick green gas, in seconds the screech faded away only to be followed by the sound of something very heavy hitting the floor.

All this time, Mason never once glanced over at the chaos that was happening as his eyes were focused on Doctor Elizabeth Brooks. Her breathing becoming raspy and shallow, gasping for breath as she held her hand over the open wound in her gut. Whatever Mason had used to open her up with, he still had it firmly pressed inside of her.

She spasmed and coughed up blood, spitting whatever she could in Mason's face in defiance. He still had not said anything beyond what he had said to her earlier, no snide comments, no last-minute jibes, nothing. She didn't know what was worse, someone who took pleasure in hurting others or the fact that he seemed to show no emotion at all about what he was doing.

Not that she would have taken any comfort in insults or some verbal rant from him, but at least if he had done that it would have been...human. Not this cold, deadly, silence, in so many ways he seemed more alien than the Xenomorphs.

Mason's hand moved up from her throat to her head, his fingers tightening around her face. With a swift motion she found her head being jerked forward and then back, dull, blistering pain erupted from the back of her head, and her vision seemed to spiral and fade. Over and over he slammed the back of her head into the clear containment pod, red blood spattered over the area with a sickening sound of wet bone crunching. Elisabeth's eyes rolled up into her head, blood trickled out of her nose, mouth, and ears, her whole body going limp as her arms and hands fell to her side.

The small warrior was frozen in place by what she had just seen, not moving, not making a sound, just standing there in total disbelief of what had just happened. While Mason had been cold, cruel and twisted in his treatment of both her race and his own, neither she nor any of her kin had ever seen the human attack one of his own kind like this.

Letting go of the blade, Mason's hand reached over and slammed into the shock button on the containment pod, the bottom lit up and bolts raked over the Xenos frame, sending the small warrior screaming and collapsing onto the floor. Grabbing his access card he swiped it and pressed the release button on the pod, the door slid open with a slight hydraulic hiss, leaning over until his lips were just next to her ear, "I told you I would see how long it would take for them to strip the flesh from your bones." He whispered to her, and with a single fluid motion, he threw her into the containment pod, her body landing next to the warriors with a dull thud. Hitting the close button on the control pad the door sealed shut with a metallic click.

Elizabeth's body twitched and jerked, causing her blood-soaked hair to make random bloody patterns on the clear floor surface. Thick blood continued to flow out of her gut wound coating the floor in dark crimson red.

Mason just stood there looking, as the small warrior came to its senses, he fully expected the creature to start ripping into her. The Xeno looked right at him, hissed and then looked down at Elizabeth, leaning over the wounded women, the alien seemed unsure what to do. He was already becoming disappointed that it did not attack her right away and was wondering why it had not. Despite the odd interactions that had gone on between the two, it was a killing machine, nothing more, nothing less, so why was it not killing the female doctor.

Reaching out, the alien placed its hand over Elizabeth's gut wound, the other hand slowly reached out and gently ran its fingers along her neck and face. The Xeno let out a low pitched moan, something that no one had ever heard in the lab before.

If Mason was dumbfounded or confused he never once showed it, he, however, was growing impatient, this was taking far too long, they were supposed to kill on sight, not show curiously or even affection. He reached up to press the shock button again, only to be interrupted by an enraged scream from behind.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" Ryan's voice boomed from behind, the tech charged Mason and slammed himself full force into the Doctor. Both went flying across the floor and slid right into the neighboring containment pod. Ryan being slight faster, backed up before Mason could even react and was now straddling the Doctor, his fist clenched so hard his knuckles were turning white. Without thinking at all, just running on raw adrenaline and anger he slammed his fist into Mason's face, drawing his arm back he hit the man over and over.

Mason never even uttered a single sound, no screams, moans of pain, or even a single word as Ryan blindly continued his fevered onslaught, only looking at the tech with those cold, dead eyes. The tech screamed every curse word that was in his vocabulary as he repeatedly pounded Mason's face over and over. Blood coated the Doctor's face and splattered on the floor and the outside of the containment pod as his nose was now broke and collapsed, his eye sockets were shattered and jaw was even broke and sitting at an odd unnatural angle.

Ryan didn't even know how long he had been hitting Mason, during his own assault on the hated doctor all he saw was red. When he came out of the storage area and saw Elizabeth laying inside the containment pod, bleeding out and Mason's hand going for the shock button on the pod he simply lost it. He didn't know how many times he had wanted to hit and beat that man to a bloody pulp, but today, today was going to be that day.

Raising his fist for another strike Ryan stopped himself, Mason's face looked like it had just been sent through a meat grinder, put in reverse and ran through again; after all that the man just stared back up at Ryan, never making a single sound. Looking over at the containment pod that had Elizabeth and the small warrior who was leaning over her, Ryan snapped back to reality. He didn't know how bad Elizabeth was hurt, but he saw that blood was everywhere inside the containment pod.

A small rectangular object caught his attention that lay just a few feet away from him, Mason's access card, the man had dropped it when Ryan had tackled him. Getting off of Mason, Ryan leaned over and grabbed the card off the floor, stabbing pain short right through his right hand, and up his arm, looking at this hand he could see that some of the bones were broken; one jagged piece was even protruding out of the skin. He didn't even know he had been hitting Mason that hard, everything was just a red, hazy blur.

Trying to ignore the pain, he ran over to the pod, his heart bottomed at what he saw, it wasn't that there was blood everywhere, it was also that her body was shaking, almost convulsing as her eyes would keep rolling up into her head and then back down over and over. Blood from her gut wound, dark and thick, continued to gush out coating the Xeno's hand as it tried to keep her from completely bleeding out. Swiping the card and then quickly pocketing it, Ryan hit a button of the panel and the door slid back open.

He heard people screaming at him to close the door and that he was going to get them all killed. He didn't even care at that point, leaning in he was just a couple of feet from the small Xenomorph, the alien looked right at him, he swore that he could feel waves of fear, concern, sadness even despair coming from it.

"I really don't think that you are going to hurt me, but if I'm wrong, then just make it quick." He whispered, looking at him for a few more seconds the Xeno then looked back down at Elizabeth. "I need to get her out of here, she's bleeding to death and I don't want to lose her." His voice was still just a whisper, loud enough for just the alien to hear but no one else.

Looking back over his shoulder, he saw that armed security personnel were storming in, some armed with stun rifles others with heavy pulse rifles. "Crap." Ryan muttered to himself, looking back at the alien, "don't move at all, otherwise they may shoot," he warned before looking back at the security forces.

Several of them were heading in his direction, rifles at the ready, "Get that fucking pod closed right goddamn now!" One of them ordered.

Ryan didn't move, nor did the small warrior, both of them were afraid that any sudden movements could cause the security forces to open fire. "I need a medic in here right fucking now!" Ryan barked at the approaching armed guards.

"Did the Xeno do…" one of the guards was about to ask when he was cut off as Ryan shot him an angry glare.

"The Xeno didn't do this, that fucking piece of shit over there did this to her." Ryan nodded to Mason who was still laying on the floor starting up toward the ceiling blood gushing from his facial wounds. "He gutted her and threw her in the pod, now I need some help right now."

"Sir, the Xeno…" The same guard was about to protest when he was promptly cut off again.

"Hasn't done a damn thing, now please help me get her out of this pod and somebody get a medic in here right now!" Ryan yelled, turning back to look at the Xeno, he forced himself to calm down, "I need you to back away from her," he said in a soft but stressed tone, "they won't help if you're this close…please."

Nodding slightly, the Xeno withdrew her hand from Elizabeth's stomach wound, only then did Ryan realize just how bad it was, Mason had opened her up almost from end to end, it was a miracle unto itself that her intestines hadn't spilled out onto the floor, even more so that she was still alive, though barely and every second that passed by her chances got smaller and smaller.

Ryan placed his broken hand under her head for support or as well as he could, he was so focused that he didn't even know that the warrior had spotted his injuries, she had witnessed, with much delight, as Ryan repeatedly beat Mason into a bloody pulp, in fact all the Xenos had experienced some joy and satisfaction in seeing their tormentor get his ass handed to him in a most violent way, she had not realized that he had so badly injured his hand in the attack.

Placing his hand on her chest and grabbing her shirt for some support, Ryan was about to carefully pull Elizabeth out of the pod, when the small warrior grabbed his uninjured hand and gave it a light squeeze. Ryan's mind blanked out for what seemed like just a few moments, not really knowing what had just happened, he glanced down and saw that the Xeno had a firm but not overpowering grip on his hand, it wasn't pulling him into the pod but for whatever reason it had just reached out and grabbed him. However, for just a few moments, he could feel this odd itchy feeling deep in the back of his mind.

He could hear more screaming right behind him, though it didn't register at least not at first, the voices were distorted, muddled, almost as if they were underwater, he could hear them but could not make out the words that were being spoken, to him they were distant and broken. Slowly his gaze returned back up to the small Xeno that was still holding his hand, and right then everything returned to normal.

The guards were yelling that they needed him to get out of the way so they could take a shot and that he needed to move right now. Letting go of his hand the small warrior backed away and sat hunched down looking at both he and Elizabeth. The fuzziness and itchiness from his mind quickly passed, "help me get her out," Ryan said and started to pull, one of the guards cautiously assisted, slowly and very carefully the pulled her out of the pod and laid her down on the ground. The other guard had his rifle trained on the Xeno and no doubt would have fired if it had so much as flinched.

Getting up, Ryan tapped the close button on the pod and the door sealed shut with a loud metallic click as the locks engaged. He gave a slight nod to the Xeno who was still sitting in the same spot and had not moved.

"Where's your med kit at?" The guard asked who had been pointing his weapon at the Xeno the whole time.

Ryan pointed over to a corner pillar, a large white box with a red plus was latched onto it. "There." He replied still somewhat dazed for some reason. As the guard raced over to get the med kit, Ryan knelt down looking over Elizabeth, her face was white, and breathing was shallow.

"Medics are on the way, should be here in under a minute." The guard who had helped pull Elizabeth out told him. "What the hell happened in there, what was all that about?" He asked Ryan, looking right at him.

Ryan just looked back at the guard with a confused look, not knowing what he was asking, "What do you mean?"

"You zoned out for over thirty seconds, as soon as that alien grabbed your hand, you just froze, didn't move or say a word…nothing."

Shaking his head, Ryan didn't even recall that much time passing by, a few seconds maybe, if that, but not over half a minute. "I don't know, I really don't know." The tech answered back, his heart sinking quickly, she had been his only friend in this place and now he knew he was going to lose her, he didn't see her making it, there was too much trauma to her body and too much blood loss.

The other guard came back with the medkit in hand and broke out several of the large pads of packed gauze and placed them over Elizabeth's open wound, applying as much pressure as he dared to do, the pristine white gauze packs quickly turned red. Reaching out with his good hand Ryan pressed down on the pack to help keep the pressure on the wound.

"Medics are here!" Someone screamed out, Ryan couldn't make out who it was, but the three of them were soon joined by several medics who shooed everyone out of the way so they could do their job. Ryan just blankly looked around at the scene, a couple of more medics were now treating Mason, lifting him onto a stretcher to get him out of the area and no doubt patched back up. Ryan did what he could to remember what had happened in just a short period of time, telling one of the medics everything that had happened, or as much as he himself could recall.

He looked over and saw a large group of heavily armed guards at the Praetorian's containment pod, for the first time he saw the large hole in the pod that had been smashed out, the acidic yellow blood that was all over the place and the large Xeno that was just laying inside the pod not moving at all. He couldn't even tell if the alien was alive or not, gods he hoped that the big guy was still alive, an engineering crew was gathered around as well and looking to be doing some very hurriedly repair work on the breach.

A few more armed guards walked in and right behind them was Commander Snyder who was armed with a heavy pulse rifle.

It just a very short time, everything had just gone straight to hell.

xxxxx

Over twenty-four hours had passed since Mason had gutted Elizabeth, over twenty-four hours since Ryan had jumped and beaten Mason's face to little more than a bloody pulp. In that time Ryan had been treated for his injuries, as well as being placed in custody right after that.

He had spent close to four hours being questioned by Commander Snyder, he had been expecting to find himself in some dark hole being integrated and possibly even tortured, however, that much to his surprise and relief never happened. Ryan had told pretty much everything that he could without giving away the not so small plan between himself and Elizabeth for trying free the Xenos and get them off the station.

His blossoming friendship with Doctor Brooks, the fact that he knew what Mason had done to her when he forced her to watch one of the females become impregnated, that she had gone to the Commander to lodge a formal complaint and he even knew about the Snyder's quiet investigation into Mason. And while the Snyder was not exactly happy that Doctor Brooks had shared that bit of info with the Tech, he didn't seem to hold it against her. And he didn't seem to think that Ryan had leaked info to Mason about what Snyder and Elizabeth were up to.

It wasn't until Snyder quietly brought out a small area jammer and activated it, that the Commander informed him that just a few hours after the attacks in the Xeno pens, one of his subordinate had come across a listening device planted in the Commander's office, after a sweep they had in fact found collectively well over a dozen listening devices in the operations area, Commander's office and other sensitive areas.

And while they couldn't prove it, at least not yet, they figured that someone was working for Mason and had planted the bugs in those areas and that the Doctor was being fed info on what was happening in those areas, which always seemed to be how the man was always in the know about everything that was going on. Quite possibly the reason that Mason had attacked Doctor Brooks in the first place, was, according to Snyder's theory was that Mason had found out she was working with him to help file an official complaint and while it would not have gotten Mason kicked off the station, it would have given the Commander the authority to more closely monitor the Doctor, clamp down on his activities and put a much tighter rein on him overall.

When Ryan had asked Snyder what was going to happen with Mason, the sad truth of it was that he did not know, if it had been up to him or Director Collins they would have gotten rid of Mason a long time ago, but it wasn't up to either of them, when it came down to it, that call was by the investor or investors of the project, and that was the final word, if Mason was to stay there was nothing anyone could do about it. However, if that was the case the man would be kept under tight supervision and that would be that despite what anyone said otherwise.

Nodding, Ryan finally got the courage to ask if the Commander knew anything on how Elizabeth...Doctor Brooks was doing or if she had even survived, his gut was turning over and over not knowing the answer, but also fearing the answer. The only good news was that she was still alive, however in critical condition, the gut wound and blood loss had been the easiest part to deal with and repair, what was the tricky part was that the back of her skull had been shattered and both massive swelling and hemorrhaging in the back of her brain had occurred. And that part had the medical staff the most worried.

While she was alive and on life support in the ICU, no one knew if she would pull through, in fact even if she did survive and pull through, there was the all too real possibility of permanent brain damage and that she might never be the person that she was before.

Ryan had almost lost it at that point, while he was able to hold most of his grief in, more than just a few tears ran down his face. Giving himself a few minutes to collect himself, his last inquiry was to what was going to happen to the Praetorian Xeno that had almost tore through the pod. And while the Commander wasn't entirely sure, as it wasn't up to him, once again, that decision would be up to the investor or investors in this project.

However, he did suspect that there was the very real possibility that the creature would be disposed of, probably spaced more than likely. As it stood the Praetorian had been moved to an isolated, secure room and placed inside another pod, far away from the other Xenos as it was deemed far too dangerous now, rabid even. By now Ryan's head was pounding with a headache, far too much had happened all too soon and way too quickly, and while he wanted to scream and shout and try to defend the Praetorian's actions, telling the Commander that all the alien was more than likely trying to do was come to Elizabeth's defense, he knew that as soon as he even opened his mouth, and said anything close to that, that his ass would be in a brig or in a mental ward, either way, he wouldn't be able to help anyone. So he did what was necessary and kept his mouth shut and quiet on the matter.

As it stood, Commander Snyder had a difficult decision to make, while Ryan had saved Doctor Brook's life, he had, by opening the containment pod, placed the whole faculty at risk, and while it was understandable why he did it, it was a decision that he had to disagree with, even if it meant saving one life, the tech had jeopardized the lives of everyone on board. There was also the fact that Ryan had attacked Mason even if it was to save Doctor Brooks, and while the Commander, personally had no problem with that, as station Commander, one of his duties, which he hated was to make sure of Mason safety and wellbeing.

A duty he genuinely despised.

He didn't want to punish the tech to harshly if he didn't have to, as he looked it, the kid had guts and heart, even if he did act stupidly without thinking by going into an open Xeno cage with a live Xeno inside is something no one unarmed would ever do in their right mind, and he had also beat the hell out of Mason, something almost everyone on the station wanted to do, but until now no one had dared to.

For all that had happened Ryan had gotten off lucky this time, at least for now, the Commander had placed him under house arrest, he would be allowed to perform his duties however he would be accompanied by a combat android that would monitor his movements at all times, and when not on duty he would be confined to his quarters until further notice. Which as far as he knew might very well be a long time.

Before that, however, Commander Snyder allowed him to go and check in and see Doctor Brooks if he so wished.

Accepting the Commanders offer, Ryan left the Ops area and was escorted directly to the medical area, while he couldn't go into the same room that Elizabeth was in, he was able to see her through a large glass observation window. Her face was still very pale and she looked so fragile now, her head and was bandaged up and in restraints as to immobilize it. A tube had been placed down her throat to assist with her breathing.

He didn't' even try to fight back the tears this time, all he could do is stand there and watch, and pray that she would pull through and make a full recovery. "I believe you." He quietly whispered to her through the window placing his good hand on the glass. "I'll do what I can." It was shit timing for him to come around, but something in the back of his mind told him that she had been right all along and that helping the Xenos was the best way to help her.

After a few minutes he turned around and walk away, rubbing his bandaged hand, he had two broken fingers, both his middle and ring finger, his other fingers were bruised all to hell, probably to the bone by the way it felt, while the pain meds didn't help all that much they did take the edge off a little. He didn't even know just how hard he had been hitting Mason, but he had to admit that each hit, each punch, each strike he landed on that man felt so good. Since day one he had resented and even hated that man, and each day that resentment had built up a little bit more. And that resentment, dislike, and hate had just been unleashed in a matter of seconds, but what he hated more, was what had to happen, that things had to go that far and spiral out of control.

And now Doctor Elizabeth Brooks was paying a heavy price for it all.

As he was leaving with his newly found android chaperone, he placed his good hand inside his lab coat pocket and his fingers hit something inside, small, thin and hard, something that he had all but forgotten about until now, he remembered the small card that he grabbed and placed in his pocket, no one had asked about that, perhaps no one knew, maybe not even Mason, for all anyone knew it was lost in the fight. Hell, for all anyone knew maybe it fell through the floor grates and was lost.

If his duties would allow him to still feed and take the reading from the Xenos, then maybe just many he could see and possibly even free the big Praetorian who was now isolated and alone, and hopefully, the big guy was only being guarded by just a few light model combat androids now, that is if they were both lucky.

And while it was a thin one it was a possible silver lining nonetheless. As of right now, he would take what he could get.

xxxxx

 **Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story.**


	19. Letting Go

**Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much taking the time to read this story.**

CHAPTER 18: Letting Go

xxxxx

In the deep void of space, running through its FTL transit tunnel, the heavy cruiser stealth ship bit by bit made its way closer to its destination. No one inside the ship knew what was going to happen when they arrived, no plan had yet been made on what they would do when they did finally arrive, all anyone had figured was that when they did finally make it and got on board was that it was going to be a violent and bloody battle.

Light paced footsteps echoed throughout the empty corridors of the Saratoga, ever since the battle with the mercenary forces and the space walk to shut down the homing beacon a couple of days ago, Shawn had been restless, rarely sleeping and more often than not finding himself wandering aimlessly around the ship. It had not helped that the night terrors were starting to come back, and while Shadow, Ghost, and Alese had helped keep those horrible dreams at bay, he could feel them starting to return stronger than ever.

If someone had asked him what was causing it he could have told anyone right there that it had been putting on that damn cloth coffin as he called the spacesuits now and going out into the vacuum of space. He had been so grateful that Shadow had gone with him, without him there he had doubts that he would have made it to the homing beacon much less making it back.

Trying to clear his mind, he headed for a spot he had found the night before, as he walked, the lights flickered going out for a few seconds and then coming back on, at first it had been a few areas but more and more of the ship's lighting systems were starting to become affected, the culprit he knew was the EMP weapons that the mercs had fired at them as the four of them had tried to escape the asteroid field and just how many missiles and torpedoes the Saratoga had been forced to eat in that narrow escape.

He hoped that it was just the lighting itself and not something more systematic of a larger developing problem, so far no alerts or warnings had gone off, at least not yet. Hopefully, the maintenance androids could resolve and track down the problems. One problem, however, thanks to the mercs EMP assault, was that they were down nine of the valuable androids due to their electrical systems being overloaded and shorting out, thankfully the units could be repaired, it would just take a few days to get all of them up and operating again. They could not afford to lose even one, it took everything they had to keep the ship working in proper order.

Reaching his destination, Shawn pressed a button on a panel; the door slid open revealing a moderate sized fairly plush lounge and observation room that was located up on the mid dorsal section of the ship. Plopping down into a nice comfortable sized lounge chair, Shawn brought up his data pad, punched a few buttons, music filled the area, the acoustics as he had found out was far better in here than in CIC. The lights both on the baseboards and ceiling dimmed to a soft glow and began alternating between reds, greens, blues and everything in between giving the area a nice relaxed vibe. And being able to relax was something all of them needed right now.

Leaning back he reached over and tapped a button on a control pad on the wall, the enclosed ceiling started to part away to the void only to reveal that it was an external blast shield that was opening up to expose the overhead transparent observation dome underneath. The room was a decent sized one, there were as he had found out numerous observation rooms, some smaller, some larger scattered around the ship but this one as far as he was concerned had the best view. And while it wasn't the biggest on the ship, it felt the most comfortable to him, a simple square shaped room with several dozen chairs and almost a dozen couches mixed in with tables, and a lengthy twelve foot very well stocked bar at the far side of the room.

Sinking down into the chair, he looked up and let out a deep, relaxed sigh, as the ship traveled through the transit tunnel, the walls of the tunnel were a collage of semi lucent swirling colors that streaked by. As Shawn look he could see the stars which were normally white points of light, they now looked blurred and seem to shift in colors going from a blue to red hue depending on their location.

His mind finally started to relax, he looked around the lounge his eyes panning back and forth, the lighting, music, everything just made this area seem so peaceful and warm. An idea flashed through his mind, getting up he walked to an area next to one of the walls, looking around he eyeballed some measurements and started writing a few things down on his pad, taking several long strides he turned sharply ninety degrees and took more steps and stopped.

Jotting some more down on his pad, he returned back to his chair and started making some plans, a couple of hours went by before he finished up, he would delegate a couple of the maintenance androids for this task, it would only take them a day or so, maybe less, he smiled as he sent the order in, this was going to be good, something that they all needed.

Leaning back, he felt good, far better than he had a few days ago, a weight seemed to have lifted itself from his shoulders. Figuring he would linger around for a bit longer before shutting everything down and return to the sleeping room, he had been surprised that Shadow had stayed asleep when he wiggled free from the Praetorian's gentle embrace and made his escape.

The lights blacked out for several seconds illuminating the room with the natural surreal light of swirling colors from the transit tunnel and then blinked back on, moments later the lights flickered off and back on several more times before staying on, there was a slight bump and the transit tunnel was gone and the normal blackness of space returned.

Scrambling up out of the chair, Shawn started scrolling through the command functions, "Computer status report."

 **"MAIN POWER TO FTL DRIVE FUNCTIONS FLUCTUATING, INSTABILITY INCREASING, UNABLE TO MAINTAIN STABLE FTL TUNNEL, PRIMARY SUB-LIGHT DRIVE SYSTEM NOW AT SIXTY-SEVEN PERCENT OF OPTIMAL LEVEL."** The computer replied in its normal monotone voice.

At that news, Shawn just wanted to throw the damn tablet away and get off this boat, if it wasn't one thing it was another, and then after that another, the shit just did not seem to stop for them. "Are there any other ships in our current vicinity?" _And for god's sake please say no, please say no._ He silently thought to himself. With the way their luck had been going a whole damn armada would be waiting for them.

 **"NO SHIPS DETECTED IN CURRENT VICINITY, NO FTL TRANSIT SIGNATURES DETECTED IN CURRENT VICINITY."** The computer replied to his inquiry, Shawn let out a deep breath that he had been holding; maybe this time the four of them could avoid any drama. If he was right, then the fix for their little problem would take a few days. A few days that they could not really afford to lose, but having the ship suffer what might be a catastrophic failure before getting to their destination was not an option.

"Computer, send all malfunction reports on the current system power loss to my station in CIC," Shawn ordered, shutting down the lounge area and closing the blast shield. Ever since coming on board, he seemed to have spent most of his time in CIC than any place else, even the sleeping room. Taking the now all too familiar route to CIC, a path that he now swore he could have walked with his eyes closed, Shawn entered and walked up to captain's station sat down in the chair and started looking over the reports.

Several of the reactors that had been in the vicinity of the EMP blasts were becoming erratic and bleeding power, the primary sub-light drive engines and the FTL drive had become unstable and were now losing power too. There were also several sections across multiple levels that had been in the EMP blast zones where the power fluctuations were happening and the problems were spreading.

"Computer advise recommended course of action to resolve power loss problems on main power reactors, as well both the FTL drive and sublight engines and affected areas." Shawn requested, already guessing at what he was going to have to do, he had hoped that the problem would fix itself but instead had only gotten worse.

 **"ADVISED COURSE OF ACTION IS A FOLLOWS, RECOMMEND SHUTTING DOWN AND RESTING ALL AFFECTED REACTORS AS WELL AS PRIMARY SUB-LIGHT DRIVE AND FTL ENGINES."**

"Shit," He muttered to himself, resetting a reactor was a long and carefully calculated procedure, it wasn't as if he could just flip a switch off and turn it back on and have everything be alright, it could take a day sometimes several for a reactor to power down and then it would have to be primed and restarted, slowly building back up to optimal power levels. The engines, however, thankfully were a far easier piece of equipment to deal with; those could be shut down until they were cold, and then turned back on allowing a warm up procedure. Hopefully, though it would take care of the current problem, at least until another one came along and tried to bit them in their collective asses.

"Estimate time on powering down affected reactors, and restarting them?"

 **"ESTIMATED TIME FOR COMPLETE REACTOR RESTART PROCEDURE IS FORTY-EIGHT TO SEVENTY-TWO HOURS."**

Shawn just shook his head, he couldn't believe this was happening; it seemed like the universe for whatever reason was out to make all their lives as hard as possible. However, the sooner he did this the sooner they would be back on course. "Computer, begin affected reactor shut down procedures, shut down both the FTL and sub light drive engines. Began engine restart procedures when reactors are at optimal levels, have all remaining reactors distribute power throughout the ship, priority systems are as following, life-support, CIC functions, sensors, lighting, the brig area and defensive systems if necessary."

 **"CONFIRMED, REMAINING REACTORS WILL BE RUNNING AT EIGHTY-SEVEN PERCENT CAPACITY. BEGINNING SHUT DOWN PROCEDURES OF AFFECTED REACTORS. BEGINNING SHUT DOWN PROCEDURES OF FTL DRIVE AND PRIMARY SUB-LIGHT ENGINES."** The computer announced, initiating the shutdown procedures, the lights for a few moments dimmed and then came back though not at their normal brightness. Looking at one of the monitors, the display readout for the affected reactors showed them starting their power down procedure, the temperature and power levels were slowly starting to drop off. It would still be a day before the reactors went cold and were able to be primed and readied for a restart.

"Keep me posted of any other problems," Shawn said, feeling very tired now; maybe finally he could get some sleep. "Which, hopefully, there won't be any."

 **"CONFIRMED."** The computer answered back.

Walking out of CIC with his data pad in hand, he headed back to the sleeping room, any power adjustments he would make tomorrow to help reduce the stress load on the reactors. For now, however, the only thing he wanted at the moment was to feel Shadow's embrace and to just get some sleep and rest. Upon entering the sleeping room, the three Xenos were still coiled up and none of them seemed to have moved at all since he left several hours ago. He would have thought Shadow would have been up and following him the minute he got up. Perhaps the Xeno was coming to realize that sometimes humans needed some alone time or maybe he was just out cold and had never even woke up.

Carefully stepping around and over them, Shawn found his spot and sat down.

' _You have been away for a while, is everything alright, I felt a shift in the movement of the ship.'_ Alese asked, raising her head to look at him and propping herself up slightly.

Shawn leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead, his hand slowly, lovingly caressing her long domed head. A deep rumbling came from deep within her chest, at his touch. "I was restless and needed to walk it off," he whispered to her not wanting to wake up the others, provided they weren't already awake and were simply waiting for him to return, "we dropped out of FTL and are back into normal space, seems those EMP weapons the mercs threw at us are playing havoc with some of the reactors, electrical systems, and even the engines. Had to start the shutdown procedure to do a full restart of the affected reactors and engines, it should resolve the problem, but for the time being, we'll have our collective asses and tails hanging out for all to see for about the next few days."

 _'Which means we are vulnerable and could be attacked as before.'_ Alese stated, concern laced her voice and rightfully so, she did not want a repeat of what had happened with the human mercenaries. Luck and/or good fortune had been with them, more or less that time, the next time she was not so sure about. If by some chance they were found, they could be attacked and boarded all over again. Not something any of them wanted to do again, but if it did happen this time they would be far better prepared for it.

Shawn continued to slowly stroke and caressed Alese's carapace while pressing his forehead to hers and slowly began to rub up and down trying to alleviate her fears, "It's doubtful that'll happen, there aren't any ships in sensor range and no FTL transit tunnels were detected. So we should be safe for right now since we're invisible to sensors. And there is power to the defensive weapons." His voice was very soft, calm and quiet, even relaxed now. "So even if someone spotted us and tried to board they'll get a very nasty surprise."

It was something she picked up on right away, with the gentle rubbing of her dome with his forehead and hands, his calm voice; it was one of just a few times since their escape that she felt safe and warm. Pressing in slightly accepting his affectionate gestures, she rubbed her forehead to his, her mind slightly slipping into Shaw's own, right away she picked up on the intense warmth of his mind that was directed to her and the deepening feeling he was having toward all of them.

He moved down and gently kissed her thin transparent lips, being so close he could see the skull features under her dome, for him, however, none of it mattered anymore, despite how different they looked and were compared to his own race, all he could now see was a graceful beauty, something that he now wanted to protect, cherish, hold and love unconditionally. Since meeting them he had looked into something that was so absolutely different from himself and those like him and had found a place that he now felt he was starting too belonged to.

He would do whatever it took and whatever was necessary to protect them, and he knew that they would do the same for him, no matter the cost.

Alese didn't say anything as she was enjoying the affection Shawn was giving her, while she wanted and did crave more of it, she knew that she would not get that tonight, he was tired and in need of rest and sleep, but a few more minutes would not hurt, as she returned his affection, her slick lips dancing across his. While to her it was an odd and unusual way to show affection, she had to admit to herself what he was doing it did feel nice, it was also nice that he was being more forward in his feeling and was coming out of his enclosed shell.

She pressed in a bit harder into their kiss, her mouth opened up and her tongue slowly snaked out and made its way into his mouth, the normally deadly teeth at the end gently and playfully nipped on his own tongue, gently pressing down on the sensitive flesh, never once drawing blood, never hurting him, they would never hurt him, ever, she slightly clamping down her pulled just a tad bringing him in that much closer.

' _Cheater, no fair.'_ Shawn mentally poked at her playfully, a bit caught off by the act, as unusual as it might have been he did find himself enjoying the interesting tongue play with her.

A sly mental chuckle echoed in Shawn's mind, _'You started it my love, I'm simply enjoying it.'_ Another light playful nip and Alese slowly withdrew the toothed tongue, the teeth ever so lightly gliding across Shawn's own tongue sending shivers down his spine. He was now seriously wondering what else they could do with them.

 _'Later on **we** **will** find out,'_ she answered him, picking up on his not so private thoughts that were still bleeding out, 'but for now, you should sleep, I can feel how tired you are.' Alese said, nuzzling the side of his face.

"Party pooper," Shawn replied back with a smile, Alese gave him another mental laugh as she returned back to her spot and curled up. Lying down, Shawn found himself in an all too familiar hug a long black arm suddenly wrapping itself around his torso and pulling him into a tight and warm embrace.

' _Mine.'_ Shadow jokingly whispered as he spooned back up again his human, his long black tail coiling around Shawn protectively. Adjusting his head, his toothed tongue came out and playfully started to groom the hair on the top of Shawn's head. The teeth would ever so gently clamp down onto a lock of hair and then slowly the Xeno's tongue would pull back.

Shadow found the taste, feel and the scent of Shawn's hair to be quiet pleasant and even more than a little alluring, if anything it was one of the human's best features and a huge turn on for the Praetorian, the feel of the hair follicles as they would glide through and over his inner teeth, the odd softness to them, even the scent and taste of the natural oils.

' _And mine.'_ Shawn replied back, closing his eyes, enjoying the ministrations that Shadow was giving him.

 _'You might feel more comfortable if you removed those clothes, I would not mind the feeling of your soft skin against me as we slept, and I think that you would look much better without those things draping over your body .'_ Shadow suggested running the back of his fingers against the side of Shawn's face.

A slightly nervous feeling hit in the pit of his stomach, it was that god awful uncomfortable feeling he now had if anyone saw him naked with all those horrible burn scars on his back and legs, in all the time that he had been on board, he never once had shown or told any of the Xenos about it. It always made him feel ugly and self-conscious, while he doubted they would care about the scarring, it had always been a sensitive issue for himself.

"Maybe later I will," Shawn answered back, feeling a bit guilty about that, a part of him really did want to just strip off all his clothing and to feel Shadow or really any of the Xenos rubbing their bodies up against his, it was something that in the back of his mind and even heart he seemed to be craving more and more the longer he was with them. Almost as if the more base instincts and cravings were seemed to be getting closer and closer to the surface and he found himself wanting to let go and give in.

Just the mere thought of any of them rubbing, caressing, and exploring his soft skin made his heart skip a few beats with excitement and heated arousal. Or the possibility of going further than that, a lot further entered his thoughts, the feeling of Shadow or Ghost pressing up against his back then slowly penetrating and entering him, or him entering Alese.

Quickly he pressed down those thoughts before he started projecting them, if he hadn't already. He knew that once things got started, it wouldn't stop. Not that he would have minded, but right now he was just way too tired.

 _'Party pooper.'_ Shadow replied, jokingly throwing Shawn's own words back at him in fun, as he continued to groom Shawn's hair.

Closing his eyes, Shawn reached over and placed his arm over Shadow's own, within a few minutes he soon drifted off into a nice deep sleep.

xxxxx

James Taddem paced back and forth in his cell, he was finding that as a prisoner, boredom was his biggest enemy, thankfully the guy who had captured him and Amy had left him a basic data pad, with no network access of course, but with a great deal of reading material, music, and vids to pass the time. He had read some but now he was feeling more than a bit restless, working out and even pacing back and forth had done very little to alleviate it.

Thankfully Amy had not been as noisy and obnoxious as she was when she had first woke up after being captured, she seemed to have mellowed out and calmed down a little, but only a little. She had finally washed her pants, although complaining about it the whole time, and when she had completed the small task by letting them dry, praised herself continuously as if she had completed some monumental task.

From the first day he had met her, he wondered just how she had managed to make it on a mercenary team. She was a liability, there was no doubt about that, but nobody, not even the Captain had figured out just how the hell she had been picked. According to what she had told everyone, her family was very wealthy, and that they had promised her she could be anything she wanted. If she had acted this way at home, maybe they wanted her gone, he mused to himself. He wondering what her home life must have been like for her to be like this.

She still complained endless about the food, not that he was a big fan of protein bars, MREs, and dried rations, but it was better than starving to death.

"Feel like getting some exercise?" A voice spoke up from behind, James turned around a bit startled, seeing the guy standing in front of the cell door with an all too familiar black form towering just behind him. "You look a bit restless, figured you could stand to get out of the cell for a bit."

"Will..." James nodded at the alien, "he or whatever be coming along?"

"Actually they," as soon as he spoke up another alien walked into view and stood next to the large one. James saw that it was the drone with a large amount of scarring on its dome, "and yes, they will. Don't worry they have no reason to harm you unless you give them a reason to." Shawn stated flatly.

Getting out of the cell even if it was only for a few minutes would be nice and he could walk off some of this pent up energy, he just wasn't sure about the company, he still was having nightmares about the attacks, and standing only a few feet away was the cause of his nightmares. "Fine," James said, figuring it would be one hell of a way to face his newly founded fears.

Unlocking the door, it slid open and ever so slowly James walked out, half wondering if he was going to be grabbed and taken somewhere, not that he could have stopped them regardless if he stayed in the cell or not. The last time he was this close to one of the Xenos it was looking right at him its maw opened up, drooling and he remembered seeing that horrible, white toothed tongue ready to pop his head right open.

"Look, man, just relax," Shawn said, seeing how nervous the merc was. "Like I said, they are not going to hurt you unless you give them a reason too."

James looked over at Shawn and just shook his head, "That's pretty goddamn easy for you to say, you weren't on the receiving end of what they did. You didn't see first hand what they did to the team I was on or how it was done. The way they were torn into I still see their faces when I go to sleep and hear them screaming, do you understand where I'm coming from on that?" James stated, his word while hard also had an underlying tone of fear and understandable nervousness.

Shawn knew all too well that this kid was still scared, and rightfully so, he was in a situation that he shouldn't be and like all of them, way over his head, but they would all have to cope and deal with it as best as they could, "Your right, I wasn't there in person when your merc teams got hit by them, and personally I'm glad I didn't have to see what happened. However for what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to go through that I really am, but the fact is, you guys weren't invited onboard, and we did what was necessary to survive and I did what was necessary to protect them and given the choice I would do it all over again without hesitation. And I want you to fully understand what I'm about to say, I know all too well what it's like to see the faces of the dead when I go to sleep, I understand that all too fucking well, a lot a people that I cared about and even loved died and there was nothing I could do to help them." Turning around, Shawn started to walk away before he said something that he might regret. "so you coming or not?"

For a second James thought about staying in his cell, but he didn't know when he would get another chance to walk around and he could use the exercise, calling himself an idiot for going with this guy he followed with the smaller Xeno right behind him. For a while no one said anything, James just followed his guide or guides as it were around the hallways of the ship, going up several levels, he kept glancing nervously back behind him at the other Xeno, who thankfully made no moves to bully, harass or even intimidate him., the alien just simply followed behind him.

"You want some coffee, we're next to a mess hall, or something to eat other than those shitty protein bars and dried rations?" Shawn asked, jerking his thumb at a pair of double doors they had stopped in front of.

"Sure, why not," James answered, following them into the mess hall. Under guard from Ghost, James loaded up on some coffee, soup, and some reconstituted meatloaf, sitting down across from Shawn who was sipping on some coffee already, the two Xenos paired off, Shadow hunkering down next to Shawn and Ghost next to James.

As James quietly ate his food, the silence between them all was more than a bit awkward, each one trying to gauge the other, finally, Shawn broke the silence, "So you mind if I ask you a couple of things?"

"Your ship, your rules," he said, "Should I consider this an interrogation of sorts?"

"Not really, more like a friendly Q and A if that's alright. As I told you, you'll be staying here for a while, kind of like to get to know the people that are on board, even if they are…prisoners." Shawn said, having a very hard time saying that last word, for him it felt dirty to even say it.

James took a sip of his coffee, and set it down on the table, "Alright," he said, looking right up at Shawn. "What do you want to know?"

"Just how old are you anyway, you like you're about what twenty-two, maybe twenty-three, seems a bit young to be in a merc outfit? The few mercs that I've met are way older, and usually had some sort of military background, or worked in law enforcement and have seen some sort of combat." Stated Shawn, trying to break the tension and get some sort of conservation going.

James was quiet for a bit, it was a sore subject, but one that he had to deal with on a day to day basis, he just didn't like sharing his story, especially with complete and total strangers that seemed to be in cahoots with a deadly alien life form. "Okay, here it is, if you want to know my life story, let me lay it out for you, and to answer your first question I just turned twenty-one about a month ago. As to the other question, I wanted to serve, so I tried to join the marines when I was eighteen, I wanted to be a part of something that was greater, nobler and bigger than I was, I wanted to serve and protect those that couldn't protect themselves. And that was it, I didn't care about greatness, or glory, or even becoming some sort of war hero, I just wanted to serve. So I signed up, and I was two weeks away from finishing up basic training when I got my ass handed to me by my own fucking body. Asthmatic, found out that's what I was, and not a little, severe case of it, so I was cut, two weeks from finishing up basic, two weeks from getting my first assignment and I was dropped, just like that."

Taking another drink from his cup, he slammed the cup down on the table, probably harder than what he had intended to. "My DI was pissed all to hell about it, told me I had so much potential and that the corps was going to lose a good soldier, but that there was nothing they could do about it. So that was that and I was out, my condition was, of course, treatable according to the doctors, so after I managed to get it under control I went and tried to find some way else to serve, either couldn't get into places because of new tighter standards or it just wasn't what I wanted. So I decide to get in with a merc unit and see how that panned out. I was lucky, or so I thought, the ship I was assigned to had a good reputation and the captain was well respected and level headed. Even the officers and crew had a reputation of being well trained and disciplined. So I thought to myself that maybe I could serve, it would be on a lesser level but I could still in some capacity serve those that needed it."

Leaning back in the seat, James spread his arms out and looked around. "And now here I am, my first mission out and look what happened, my squad gets wiped out, and I get caught. So much for being able to fucking serve with any sort of distinction and honor." James snapped, leaned back up his arms crossed, anyone could clearly see that he was devastated about his crumbling dream and was barely holding it in.

"Look, for whatever it's worth, I am sorry, I truly am and I wish that things hadn't ended up like they did, but it's done and it can't be changed," Shawn said, taking another drink from his coffee mug, hoping to ease the man's state a bit.

"I'm not asking for pity on what happened, it sucks but hey that's life, now you seem like a good and decent person for the most part, and probably like myself you're here under less than ideal conditions, so I get why you did what you did, believe me, I do. You apparently care about them and you were willing to do what was necessary to protect them. I understand that and if our situations were reversed I would probably do the same thing, but they aren't. The simple fact is this, we're on the opposite sides of the fence here, it was my job and duty to recapture this ship with the aliens alive if possible and you were trying to protect them. A real life and death game of capture the flag in some respects." James said, realizing that the analogy was probably not the best one to use, even if it was somewhat accurate.

"Yeah, except the flag, in this case, isn't a piece of cloth, it's a heavy stealth cruiser with enough firepower to level a large city in short order that can go undetected." Shawn stated flatly, "And I'm sorry to say this, well no, I'm not actually, I'll be damned if I let this ship back in the hand of those on that station, or anyone else in that organization or whatever it is, nor am I letting them recapture my friends either. Now while I don't know what exactly was being done with this ship, I do know that from some of the flight logs that I've managed to get access to, that this ship has gone deep into the uncharted areas as well as some of the other race's territories, and my guess is that it wasn't on any mission of peace, prosperity or even good will. Probably to either spy, collect date, hell I wouldn't even be surprised if some of the other races were even abducted for research purposes, and if that is the case, IF somehow they got wind of it, what do you think that the repercussions would be?"

James didn't say anything for a while, while on the surface it may have sounded like a not so veiled threat, his gut feeling was telling him that it wasn't and that this guy, whoever he was just laying out the facts, nothing more. A valid point had been made, everyone knew that because of the mega corps especially because of corps like _Weyland_ _-_ _Yutani the human race was not in the best standings with most of the other races, that and the arrogant, fearful nature and short sightedness of the congress and senate had led to more than a few close calls._

"Not good." James finally said, knowing full well it was an understatement.

"No, it would not be good, not at all, the last time we had a fleet of alien ships in orbit above earth and in the sol system, it was a warning to us, a warning to mind our manners or face some very dire consequences, and even if it was a couple of hundred of years ago, while to us it might be ancient history, to some of the races involved in that not so little display of force, it's not," Shawn said, as he looked over at Shadow who the whole time had been carefully observing the merc, just as Ghost had been doing as well. "Seems that we didn't learn our lesson on when to stop acting as if we own the whole damn universe and that there are some places we just should not tread," Shawn stated, his voice being distant and very odd sounding as if he was recalling something from a long time ago.

James shifted his position, becoming a bit more uncomfortable with the way Shawn's voice had just changed briefly, something about it seemed very unnatural for those last few seconds, "Can we talk about something else if you don't mind?"

"Sorry about that, a bit of a sore spot for me. You'll understand as you get older." Shawn replied, "I'm guessing you want to ask me a question or two now."

"If you don't mind, yeah I would, like for starters, what is your name, I can't very well keep calling you 'Hey You or That Guy', so something other than that would be nice, even if it's not your real name."

Shawn's eyes shifted over to Ghost, the Xeno was looking right at Shawn now. _'Well, your opinion, both of you.'_ Shawn mentally inquired to both Shadow and Ghost.

 _'I sense that he is as far as human's go is an honorable one and that he is looking for something to be a part of, I believe that he could be an ally and perhaps a friend to us given time and even the chance to prove himself. That is IF he is so willing to, if you tell him your name only tell him your first name and nothing more,'_ Answered Ghost, who returned back to observing the merc.

 _'I do agree with Ghost, while this human is scared and unsure of what is going to happen, I too sense that he does have a good soul and is an honorable human, perhaps it is good that I did not kill him in the battle.'_ Shadow said, looking directly at Shawn for a few moments then returning back to looking at the merc.

Rubbing his temples, Shawn was still not entirely sure about this, it wasn't that this merc or James Taddem as he had found out when going through the mercs equipment after transferring him to the holding cell, didn't give him any bad vibes or anything like that. He just wasn't sure about giving a possible enemy information, however, if he could become an ally, his skill set, no matter how limited could come in useful, especially if he had basic combat training.

"It's Shawn." He said, "Though I'm sure you'll understand if I don't give you my last name."

James nodded, "I understand, mine's James."

"So now that we are on first name bases and all that good stuff, I'm sure there are a few more questions that you want to ask me."

"I am curious to know just how the hell you ended up on this ship and not dead for starters." Asked James, he had been curious from the start about how someone had wound up on this ship and seemed to somehow befriend the Xenos. If anything it even seemed that a few times he had seen their interaction that it was a bit past common friendship.

Taking another swig from his coffee cup, Shawn sat the cup down, "Well, the very short of it is this, either they or the ship's computer picked me up and rescued me, was stranded in space and given safe haven, I agreed to help them out and in return they would let me work on my ship. Since then, well things kind of went from weird to bad, to deadly and back to well I'm not sure, maybe normal or as normal gets on this boat, and now we're in the lulls of waiting for the next big disaster to hit."

"I'm guessing that from what very little you told me, trouble follows you or all of you?" James asked, suspecting that the stripped down heavily edited version of what he had just been told left out well everything. Not that he could blame this Shawn guy, he was playing it safe and acting with caution, just as he would have done in the same situation.

"Maybe, that's one way to look at it, another way is this, maybe the universe is trying to toughen us up for whatever is coming next." Looking up at Shadow, Shawn reached out and rubbed the Xeno's shoulder some, Shadow leaned into it right away, his body posture relaxing some. "You mind if I ask you something, just what the hell is up with that other Merc?"

"Oh for god's sake…" James said, almost choking on his coffee at the fact that she had been brought up, "you would have to bring her up, her name is Amy, Amy Trevor, and when it comes down to it she's no merc, at least as far as I'm concerned, hell she can barely fire a rifle as it is. She talks all big like she's going to own the whole damn galaxy, but she is so far removed from reality I honestly think that there is something mentally messed up upstairs. She keeps claiming that her family is wealthy and rich and that she is going to be this grand admiral and she is going to command this vast armada and go out and conquer the galaxy, or something like that. We all kind of blew her off for the most part."

Nodding, Shawn couldn't disagree much on what James had told him, just from the small number of interactions he had had with Amy, which was as few as possible; she had truly left a bad impression with not only him but all the Xenos. Shadow was still itching for a reason to rip the doors off and go towering in after her, not to necessarily kill her, but just to frighten the hell and piss out of her. "I kind of got the impression of her being someone's little, spoiled princesses and maybe became a merc for the thrill of it or just to get back at her family."

"I'm not sure how she got to be a merc much less with a top unit, unless someone paid for her to be there, which from what I've heard does happen, you get sponsored or have a wealthy family and if you or someone else has the cash you can pretty much get placed anywhere. Course from what I've been told, people like that don't last long." Taking a few bites of the meatloaf followed by some soup, James let out a satisfied sigh, "stuff tastes pretty good after days of MREs and protein bars, but like I was saying people that pay to get placed don't often last long, in fact the fatality rate for any recruit is around seventy-five to eighty percent with in their first five missions, after that, if they survive those first five missions their chances for survival dramatically increase, at least according to the training I received and from what Commander Ortiz told us."

Looking at Ghost then back to Shadow, Shawn turned back to James, "Maybe it's time for Miss Amy Trevor to grow up a bit." He said with a slight smirk.

At hearing that Shadow's lips peeled back in a frighteningly demonic and twisted smile, oh how he was going to love this, whatever it was Shawn was planning he wanted in. Both he and Alese would like nothing better than to teach that spoiled little youngling a lesson. Everything about that human female infuriated them, the way she talked, the way she acted, not only irritated but borderline enraged the two of them to no end.

Seeing what could have only been considered an ungodly, monstrous smile creep across the Xenos already frighteningly looking face, James paled and was close to losing all bodily functions on the spot. The long stringy bits of drool dropping off from the teeth and chin did not help either, giving him... her...it for all he knew, a far more vicious look.

Looking up at Shadow, Shawn had to stifle a laugh, covering his mouth with his fist and coughed several times. At seeing James he knew that the young Merc was scared shitless, but the look of Shadow's face was completely priceless, although James could not see it, Shawn could see and make out the subtle details and facial expressions that most humans would miss when looking at a Xenomorph. _'_ _Damn, you look like you're about to tear someone's face off with that smile, you might want to rein it back a bit, I think that our mech friend is about to lose his shit and I mean that literally.'_

 _'Fine, but I want to know what you have planned for that little bitch.'_ Shadow said, his facial expressions returning back to normal.

 _'When I come up with something, believe me, you'll be the first to know.'_ Shawn looked back over at James who was still staring white faced at Shadow. "Sorry about that, Amy has rubbed him the wrong way, well not just him, but you get the idea."

"That was kind of, no that was very fucked up. How are you used to them?" He asked, drawing in several slow deep breaths, getting himself calmed down.

Shawn just shrugged his shoulders, "Took a little bit, but once you get used to them, it's not really all that different from being around anyone else, anyway I…" Right then his pad started to beep an alarm interrupting what he was saying. "Well we're going to have to cut this short," Shawn told him, looking at his pad, "I've got some stuff I need to look into, I'll grab some food for Amy and see if she has mellowed down a bit."

Shadow let off a slight low hiss at the mention of her name. Oh, how he wanted to teach her a lesson, how the universe was not hers and she was not the center of all. How he wanted to rip that snide, self-important, egotistical, arrogant attitude out of her and beat her with it, if it came to it, he would go down there and remove her from that cell and run her down from one end of the ship to the other, over and over.

"Easy there big guy," Shawn said, rubbing the Xeno's crested head for a few moments, right away he could feel the tension melt away and Shadow started to relax. There was no denying it, Shawn had Shadow wrapped around his little finger and the big Xeno knew it and loved it.

This was something that had not gone unnoticed by James by any means, the way Shawn interacted with the aliens, the silent looks they would give each other and not brief once either, or the way Shawn affectingly touched the large Xenomorph, it wasn't like the touch or petting of an owner to a pet, this was far more intimate, personal. And also the look he would give, well all of them, it had always been this soft, warm, gentle look of absolute commitment.

James had seen that look before, many times in fact, though never from him or anyone to him, but from family members, friends, it was the look of someone that was in love and not just some teenage high-school romance crush either, this was the look of someone that would go to hell and back over and over without question or would do anything for those he or she loved.

It took his brain a few moments to really register what he was seeing and a little longer on what he was thinking. While inner-species pairings did happen between humans and some of the other races, they weren't that common for the most part, at least not within colonel space, to say nothing of earth itself, in fact most that did happen were out on the far edge of the colonel space territories mostly within the outermost worlds that were on the fringes of known space. Thanks to the rise of the anti-alien hysteria over the last few decades many of the inner-species pairs that were living in the human systems often found themselves being, harassed, bullied and forced out, either by laws being manipulated to put pressure on them to leave or in some cases outright violence. In fact, many mixed human/alien couples would up and leave the inner and mid range systems and move into the territories of their partner's respective race.

People were becoming angry for the sake of being angry, or just afraid and hateful, and all that negativity was being directed toward anything that wasn't human. In many cases even teachings, historical facts were being whitewashed and in some cases re-edited making the human's look like the victims and all the other races the aggressors. Even the normal B.S. propaganda had become far more radical and extreme; it was quickly becoming an all or nothing attitude. And many extremist groups were popping up and were more than happy to go for the crazy ride.

If that was the case, then he wondered just how people back home and in the inner and middle systems area would react to seeing this kind of pairing, if that was the case, the Xenos were unlike anything anyone had ever come across, the only exception might be the hunters and even then they were far less **alien** than the Xenos. James figured most would shit themselves and run off screaming if they ever saw one first hand.

That is if what he was reading was in any way accurate.

Giving Shadow a friendly slap on the arm, Shawn got up and walked over to the food area getting a tray ready to take down to their other 'guest'. Heading back down to the bring area, placing the food tray down on the long table, Shawn closed and locked the brig door with James back inside. "Believe me, I don't like this any more than you do, and once we've finished doing what we need to do, you'll be released, but until then you'll have to stay here."

Nodding, James sat down, "Thanks for the exercise; it was nice to walk around for a bit and get some better food."

"Well, the foods not that much better really, but you are welcome," Shawn replied back, grabbing the tray from the table and walking over to the cell that had Amy in it. Setting the tray down on the door shelf, "Alright, let's try this again, and let's be a bit more civilized than before." He said, immediately noticed that Amy's paints were no longer on the floor and that the mess had been cleaned up. Well, finally some progress.

Getting up from the bunk, she walked over and looked down at the tray of food, soup and what looked like some meatloaf, for her it was far beyond acceptable but going a few days with only a protein bar or two had left her very hungry. Reluctantly she grabbed the tray, half tempted to throw it back in his face and start screaming at him, however, she changed her mind at seeing the tall black figure just hanging around the corner, not saying anything she took the tray and walked back to her bunk and tentatively started to eat.

"Well a little better than last time," Shawn muttered to himself under his breath, he then felt Shadow's displeasure of the mercs attitude; his Xeno was just waiting for Amy to do something stupid. "Not that I'm trying to start anything but most people usually say thank you, it's considered polite and a common courtesy, you know manners and all that."

Amy turned her head and just glared at him, How dare he, how dare he talks to me like I'm some commoner, I'll show him, I'll show all of them. She mentally seethed to herself, her hand gripping around the metal tray ready to throw it at his stupid head. It was right then, she remembered that that god awful, horrible, ugly alien was close by and that if she did anything he might come in after her, with that thought in mind her hand loosened up some.

Turning around Shawn began to walk away, "Guess not," he said walked out of the area, Shadow and Ghost were right with him.

 _'So, what is it that you have to attend to, I can sense from you that it is not another problem with the ship.'_ Inquired Shadow, he could sense that Shawn was up to something but he wasn't sure what it was, from the almost giddy feeling he was sensing from Shawn, in fact, he seemed almost happy about something, right then he knew it had nothing to do with the female merc at all or even the ship. Now his curiosity was very much peaked.

"It's a surprise, that's all," replied Shawn, trying not to think about the little project that was being worked on even now in the upper observation room by the android workers.

 _'What surprise?'_ Asked Shadow, trying to get a hint, glimpse or anything, if their human was happy then something must have happened, something good, or he had come to some sort of decision, yes that must be it, he decided.

Stopping, Shawn turned and look right up at Shadow, placing his hands on the Xenos' hips drew himself in close, the tips of his fingers lightly gliding across the shiny, moist black flesh. "You do know what a surprise is, don't you?"

 _'Yes, I do, and most if not all surprises that we have had usually ended up with us in a great deal of pain.'_ Shadow stated, his fingers running through Shawn's hair the claws lightly caressing the back of the scalp.

"Don't worry, I can promises you that no pain will be involved with this little surprise, though the longer I have to wait to work on it the longer it'll be before I get to show it to you all."

Ghost placed a hand on one of Shadow's dorsal tubes, _'Come brother, the longer you delay him, the longer we have to wait for our human's surprise. Besides you are very pent up right now and could use some exercise.'_

 _'Very well, however, I doubt that exercise will help with me being **pent up**_ _as you say,'_ replied Shadow, turning and walking away with Ghost, leaving Shawn to work on this surprise for them.

"Trust me the three of you will love it!" He shouted as the two Xeno walked down the corridor. When they had disappeared Shawn turned around and bolted for the elevator and made his way up to the observation room.

xxxxx

Even with the ventilation systems running full blast in the observation lounge the smell of welding smoke and scorched metal filled the air and stunk, sticking to everything it seemed. Lifting up the protective visor, he looked at his little project, the metal frame along with multiple heavily reinforced cross sections was looking good, the androids had done all the heavy lifting, while Shawn had personally done much of the hands on welding and small corrections.

He had completely lost track of time, and it was either very late or very early, not that time seemed to have any real meaning anymore, any real time schedule was shot now, he slept when he was tired and slept as long as he wanted to, he rarely even kept track of time anymore, its concept was slowly becoming almost meaningless.

Taking a long drink of water, Shawn looked up at the observation dome, the clear, bright stars always shined, he could vaguely recall what a real sunrise or sunset looked like. Not that it had ever been anything spectacular from the moon, maybe on earth, but he had never once set foot there, nor on any other planet for that matter. That was one thing that he did want to see, a real sunset and sunrise on an actual breathable air filled planet and not something that was under a protective pressurized dome.

He was getting tired, but going to sleep was one thing he did not want to do right now, he could hold some of his thoughts back, even keep some stuff from Shadow, Ghost, and Alese if he really worked on it, but when he was asleep a lot of it came bleeding out, oh he wasn't worried about his little surprise to them, it was the other stuff, the night terrors that kept creeping back and seemed to be trying to undo all the work that he had managed to overcome. Ever since that damn spacewalk he and Shadow had done, his own personal demons had been pounding at the back of his mind, trying to make a comeback and when they did it always seemed to be a bit worse than before.

It seemed like no matter what kind of progress he made there was always something to reach out and pull him back inside of his shell. This time, that was not going to happen, as much as he hated those night terrors, as much as they had debilitated him in the past, this time even if they did come back, he was not going to let him dictate how he lived his life anymore. He had his Xenos and they had helped him more than any therapist ever had.

Slamming the face shield back down, he cranked up his music and started to finish up the welding, if he could get this last little bit done then everything would be ready very soon. He thought about a couple of other nice not so little discoveries that he had found when wandering around the ship and seeing what was hidden within. In about another hour he finished up, going over every square inch, scrutinizing it carefully, seeing no real flaws in the work, he gave himself a satisfied nod and smile. It would hold together just fine and work.

The two androids could finish up what little heavy lifting work needed to be done as well as take care of the final details, right now he needed a long hot shower to get the stench of scorched metal off of him. Turning off the welder and stowing it out of the way, Shawn closed the blast shield, turned off the music and lights and headed to grab that hot shower and then some much-needed sleep.

After cleaning up, Shawn made his way back to the sleeping room, on entering he saw as before the forms of the three Xenos curled up in their spots. For a better part of a minute, he stood there just looking at them, in the short time, a month maybe a month and a half, it was hard to keep track of time now, and it seemed so much longer. It felt like a lifetime ago since he was brought on board from his stranded ship, he wondered how much had he really changed in just the relatively short period of time. So much had happened, and it wasn't just getting run down, shot at and escaping a bunch of mercs, it was also the bonding with the Xenos, the ability to mentally communicate with them, feel what they were feeling, even falling in love with them, and if he guessed right that was just the tip of what might be a very deep iceberg.

 _'You seem to be deep in thought.'_ Ghost commented, rising up to a sitting position and crossing his legs, his tail coiling around himself, the drone's head swung over to look right at his human.

Nodding, Shawn entered and sat down next to Ghost, and opened a private link as not to wake up the others, _'I'm fine, tired, but I'm doing okay. Just remembering when I first came on board and how much had happened. I didn't happen to wake you up did I?'_ He asked placing his hand on the side of Ghost's dome and slowly rubbed the moist length, his fingers feeling over the scars that still remained. The scarring was all but fully healed up, the discoloration was still there along with the slightly raised scar tissue on some of the larger more recent injuries. Shawn's heart ached every time he looked closely or felt Ghost's dome. What he had endured was inhumane cruelty that should have never happened.

 _'No,'_ Ghost answered back, _'I sleep off and on sometimes, I had been awake for a little while when you entered. I have been getting edgy since we have decided to return to Eclipse station.'_ Leaning his head into Shawn's rubbing, a deep rumbling emanated from his chest and echoed thought out the resin covered sleeping room. _'Mmmmmm, yes, right there is good, that spot, yessss,'_ Ghost cooed a low lengthy sigh or hiss that came from his maw followed by a thin string of drool, the drone loved the treatment that Shawn was giving him.

 _'Have they been asleep for long?'_ Shawn asked looking over at Alese and Shadow who were curled up together unmoving, not even a twitch from the tips of their intertwined tails had happened when he had entered the room.

 _'Mmmmm…A few hours, maybe more,'_ Answered Ghost his voice relaxed and affectionate, _'I was able to help relieve some of Shadow's pent up energy, ran his tail from one end of the ship to the other several times over, it seemed to have worked, at least for now.'_ Nuzzling the top of Shawn's head, Ghost let out a small mental laugh, _'he kept wondering about this surprise of yours is, was on his mind the whole time, I admit both myself and Alese are curious.'_

 _'He can be single minded in his pursuits at times that's for sure, as to this surprise, well you'll find out soon._ _' S_ hawn replied, adjusting the position of his hand and scratching the other side of Ghost's jaw line.

Neither one said anything for a while, simply content to enjoy each other's company, it had been a while since the two had had a chance to bond together in any form and now was just as good of a time as any. Shawn found all the right spots to scratch and rub on the side of Ghost's head and jaw, while Ghost re-wrapped his tail around both Shawn and himself. Draping his arm over Shawn's back, Ghost started to run his long fingers gently running through Shawn's hair.

 _'This is nice, we need to do this more often,'_ Shawn said, his voice relaxed.

 _'Neither time nor events have not been on our side lately, perhaps now that will change, I would very much enjoy having more time like this with you, even a chance to be more intimate if you would allow that,'_ stated Ghost, the thought of being alone with their human, the chance to explore his body and have their human do the same to him, to be able to bond even further, perhaps even to mate, he truly looked forward to that day.

Shawn didn't reply for a little while, his mind and heart almost in a weird tug of war and internal conflict about what could have been considered social norms. While he had gotten past the physical looks of the Xenos, and even had come to love all three very dearly, there was a part of him that still thought the idea of multiple partners at once, even if all parties involved were consensual, was still a bit weird, and overwhelming.

Having an alien partner and lover, even lifelong mate, while still was outside the human social norm, he could handle, the thought of Shadow and him being that way, taking that final step didn't bother him, in fact, if anything he wanted it. But having Ghost and Alese as well, for him, seemed to make things completed, even though he knew it wasn't. He knew that as a group it wouldn't be a problem, it was just that damn constructive human social upbringing that was getting in the way, and part of that he was going to have to let go in order to make this work. Something that deep down he did want, it was just a matter of getting past more of those damn barriers, barriers that society had put up in this case.

 _'I would like that, it's just…'_ His voice trailed off not really being able to finish up what he wanted to.

 _'_ _You are conflicted in this.'_ Ghost stated, he could feel the slight emotional turmoil that Shawn was dealing with on this particular subject. Humans could be such odd and unusual creatures at times. He wondered if they would be better off as a species if maybe they were more straightforward with themselves, the personal barriers, rules, laws, social norms, they constantly surrounded themselves with, while some of what he learned was necessary for protection, many seemed more for control and were created out of fear and even anger or hatred and were done by powerful individuals or small groups that did not have the best interests of the group as a whole at heart.

 _'_ _There is still this part of me that wants to hold back, one on one it doesn't seem to be a problem but when it comes to all of us being, well, intimate together at once, then I guess I get scared for some reason, there's no logical reasoning behind it, I can sort through the pros and cons of it and for me there are no cons but still I get, I don't know, weirded out some with the thought of multiple partners at once, I know it's stupid, I know it doesn't make sense, but I start getting these conflicted feelings and thoughts and…'_ Shawn just threw his hands up in complete frustration, _'and I don't know what to do about it. And it doesn't seem right to keep holding you all back like this, I love you all and I truly mean that, I would do anything in my power for all of you, especially Shadow, and when I look at him...'_ Shawn stopped, it just couldn't say the words; it didn't seem or feel right to even bring it up that in some way he preferred the big Praetorian over Ghost and Alese.

Despite not saying anything directly, Ghost had picked up on it, though it wasn't hard to figure out, both Shawn and Shadow had developed a strong connection almost right from the start. And while that kind of strong connection from the beginning, as uncommon as it was between two Xenos, did happen in hive society, it was probably ultra-rare for a human and Xeno to form that strong of a bond so quickly and under such unusual conditions.

 _'_ _You are drawn to him more than you are to either I or Alese.'_ Ghost stated matter of matter-of-factly, _'Shawn, there is no shame in that, it is just the way things are, and from hive memory, it is the way things have been and do happen with any group among our kind, there are those that are simply drawn more closely to others. It does not mean that others are loved any less, the connection is simply that much stronger.'_

 _'It still doesn't help that I feel guilty about it, I feel like in some way I should love you all equally, not love one more than the other, I mean if I had to choose one over the other two...'_ Shawn started to say only to be cut off.

 _'You would choose Shadow, it is as simple as that, it would be a hard choice but you would choose with your heart.'_ Ghost told him, _'Your bond with him is very strong, you know this and if the situation ever came up where Shadow had to make the same choice, he would choose you,_ _a_ _nd none of us would blame or fault either one of you for that choice. My hive memories do show me that your feelings are not alien even to my own kind, there have been groups, not unlike ours, where a pair were emotionally connected to each other much stronger than to the rest of the group, and even they did feel a certain level of guilt for that, but it is something that we deal with.'_

 _Shawn wanted to argue the point with Ghost, but he knew Ghost was right, if there was ever a situation, god forbid it ever did happen and was forced to choose one or two out of the three, it would be Shadow. And if it did happen, no matter what the choice was, he would hate himself for it, thankfully, right now, such a thing was only a 'what if' situation and nothing more than that, he prayed it would stay that way._

While Shawn didn't verbally or mentally agree out loud, he did nod slightly, yielding to Ghost's logic and insight. _'_ _Yea well, while I can agree with your logic on the part, I don't really like it; I hope that it never comes up...ever. I just don't want you and Alese to feel like you're nothing more than a convenient stand in for Shadow if he isn't around. Which brings up something else, I'm not even sure where or how to start on this, I admitted my feelings finally and yes that helped a lot, but what is the next step, I mean do we all just go and have a giant foursome or something?'_

 _'Is that what you want, would you feel comfortable with that?'_ Ghost asked, not completely against the idea of all four of them piling together and mating until they were all spent, even though for him, he would prefer some one on one time.

 _'I don't know, what I do know is that Shadow wants to either make love or fuck me, probably both until we both passed out from sheer exhaustion, and I would let him too, hell I would welcome it, one on one I don't have a problem with, but when it comes down to it, you, me, Alese, Shadow, this isn't a solo or even a semi normal relationship, certainly not for me, and I bet not for you guys either, and I don't know how to approach it. I haven't been with anyone for years, and now I'm in a group where everything is or can be shared, so that's taking a while to get used to and I guess I'm also afraid that I'll disappoint or be inadequate, it's not like I've ever been a marathon lover or anything close to that.'_

While there were some concerns that Shawn was bringing up that Ghost did agree with on a certain level, for them all, Shadow included, it was indeed an unusual grouping, for them the humans had always been the monsters, the enemy, the bringers of pain and torment, and now one of them was part of their hive, their family, and things in that regard were on the cusp of going much further. However Ghost could tell that his...no, their human, was way over thinking everything, he should just learn to listen to his heart and go with that. Let nature take its course and everything would work itself out.

 _'Shawn, no one is placing any expectations on you, except for you, none of us are expecting you to be able to mate for hours or even days on end nonstop. Shadow desires you greatly, you know this, but he also knows that you still need time, he can sense how nervous you get and even how unsure you still are, and that there are still barriers, he has no desire to push you, yes he does play with you but he knows that you have certain set boundaries and will not go past those unless you so desire. Would it surprise you to know that I have never mated in my entire life, not once, even after we came aboard this ship, Shadow and Alese, yes, they have mated and many times after we were alone on this ship before we picked you up. And much of that was to form and strengthen their bond and to help heal emotional wounds. But in all this time I never once have ever felt the pleasure of entering another, being able to caress their bodies or feel what it is like to enter their mind while mating. To feel the warm pleasure of first penetrating someone thrusting and climaxing over and over, yes I have hive memories, but that is different from experiencing it yourself, I can only guess that when my first time comes I may only last a few seconds.'_ Ghost admitted.

Shawn was surprised by this, while he hadn't ever seen any of them mate, which didn't mean it hadn't happened after he came on board, he had just figured that they would be going at it whenever the mood struck. _'I would have thought that the three of you would have had sex already, did you not want to or were you rejected in some way, not that I can see Shadow or Alese rejecting you.'_

Ghost shook his head, _'_ _no my love, I was never rejected from Shadow or Alese, they offered themselves to me many times, I was the one that rejected them, not because I did not want to but at the time I was very how do you say...broken goods, even more so before we met. You have seen some of my memories, some of what Mason and his people did to us, to me.'_

 _'Yea and it sickens me to this day, every time I think about it I get sick and angry and I just want to rip those fuckers apart for what they all did to you and not just you but all of your kind.'_

Ghost had never opened up that much to Shawn about what had happened to him at Eclipse station, the little bit that Shawn did see from the link was far more than what Ghost had wanted the human to see, however perhaps 'talking about it' might help add some more clarity. _'Specimen zero-one, that is what they called me, I was the first one that was born in that place, the oldest of all of them, and also Mason's favorite to work over. At first, it was about them gathering date, but as time went on, for some of the other scientists it became something far more perverted. There were times his lab crew would render me unconscious then move me to a lower isolated area, those times it was not about research, or experiments, for those few it was about control I think, power. They would as you humans say, violate me sodomize me, rape me, sometimes for hours at a time. At first, they would thrust probes into my vent, sometimes deeply and painfully; then after a while, they grew brave, they then started penetrating me themselves. I hated them for it, but at the same time... the physical feeling after a while, was pleasurable and I partly like it, I even started to crave it. It was the only physical pleasure that I had even known from that place, and it was far less damaging than what Mason did, at least at the time I thought so.'_

 _'So when Shadow and Alese offered themselves to you, you felt shame or sick from what had happened?'_

 _'Yes, the damage was deeper than I had thought and was far longer term. I couldn't bring myself to engage as much as my instincts might have wanted it; I couldn't, at least not then. Every time I would try I would have visions in my mind of what those few scientist had done to me, the positions they would force me into, what they would penetrate me with, the names they would call me.'_

 _'Ghost_ _I am sorry, I truly am, you went through hell, being raped and violated over and over and here I am going on about my petty and stupid complaints.'_ Shawn told him through the mental link.

Shifting his position to face Shawn directly, Ghost ran his hand down the humans face, the claws ever so softly gliding across the warm skin, leaning in until both of their foreheads touched. _'_ _What happened to me is done, and nothing can or ever will change that, what I went through has given me a deeper and far greater appreciation of what I now have and who I am with. Your concerns are valid, not petty, we all understand that you are trying to adapt yourself to our needs and what we are, just as we are doing the same for you, I believe your race refers to it as middle ground, yes. What happens between us, ALL of us will happen when it is suppose to.'_

 _'_ _Alright_ _,'_ Shawn said agreeing, _'so, let me ask you this then, let's say that if the offer was given now would you be alright with it?'_

 _'Yes, I believe I would be, are you offering yourself to me to be mated with, hmmmmm?'_ Ghost asked, playfully nudging Shawn's face and neck, there was a sly and humors undertone to his mental voice as a mischievous smile peeled back on his lips some.

While not completely floored, Shawn was taken back unexpectedly by this sudden forwardness from the normally quiet and reserved Xenomorph. _'_ _You've been taking lessons from Shadow haven't you?'_ Shawn blurted out.

Letting out a series of loud stuttering hisses, _'I admit the look on your face was priceless my love, and yes I was joking, well at least in part. But for now we should get some rest, you can sleep with me if you would like.'_ Suggested Ghost, laying down on his side, extending his arm to Shawn in a welcoming gesture.

 _'Agreed, I'm about to fall asleep as it is.'_ Replied Shawn, laying down next to Ghost, who wrapped his arm around Shawn and pulled him in close, spooning up against the human, with his chin resting on the top of Shawn's head, his tail coiled around in its usual protective manner. It was an act that Shawn had come to recognize not only as a protective instinct but also an act of trust and affection, even as they slept, they would guard him and make sure harm never came.

Laying his arm over Ghosts' Shawn gripped the Xeno's hand, almost on cue their fingers intertwined and gripped together. "Thank you, for everything." Shawn whispered, closing his eyes, while Ghost didn't say anything, he could feel a mental warmth envelop his mind, it was Ghost's own special way of saying 'you're welcome'.

Before drifting off to sleep, Shawn thought about tomorrow, it would be a good day, a change for them all to relax and have some fun for once. Yes, a good day, a fun day, he smiled at the thought as sleep took him.

xxxxx

"Mayday, mayday, mayday...this is Darrius station, we have multiple fires on all towers, all levels, situation catastrophic, I repeat this Darrius station to any and all vessel we have catastrophic station failure, we are issuing a station wide evacuation order, we request any and all ships in the area to help with rescue and retrieval of survivors. I repeat this is a general mayda..." The voice in Shawn's ear piece cut out with a loud search as fire erupted through the operations area, giant plumes of liquid fire burst out of the station's superstructure and flowed gracefully out into the airless void. Globs of the liquid chemical fire separated from the main stream and floated away coating and sticking to everything that it touched.

Hurriedly Shawn continued to make his way across the long catwalk, if he could get to a shuttle he could get to safety and get picked up by one of the returning ore and gas ships that would hear the distress call. The kilometers high towers all around him, with the large hardened mains and tunnels that connected and snaked all around, began to split and rupture, spilling the deadly contents into space, creating a small sea of multi-color liquid fire all around him.

Disengaging his mag-boots, and grabbing the safety railing he pushed off, propelling himself forward, keeping himself only a few feet above the catwalk itself, no time to walk, no time to think, just act, get to the shuttle and get away.

Distress calls filled the coms channel, screaming, begging, and pleading for help, voices which would end in a brief terrifying scream and then nothing, just silence, only to be replaced moments later by another voice screaming for help. He had to press on, there was nothing he could do to help them.

A massive cloud of fire erupted out of the top of one of the towers, vomiting the contents out into space, liquid fire, chard and scorched metal, remains of the personal in that area if anything at all. All he could do was to keep on going that was it, nothing more.

More screams, more pleas for help, someone to save them, they didn't want to die like this, to be burned alive or die in the airless cold void. Then there was silence, nothing, no coms, no chatter, only the sound of his rapid, heavy, breathing as he tried to get away.

 _Shawn..._

Someone had called his name, it didn't seem to come from his headset, more from his own mind, familiar somehow but distant almost a faint echo, stress, fear, nothing more, need to get away, get to the shuttle.

Only less than a kilometer away, just a few more minutes and he would be on the shuttle, if the station would stay together for a while longer, long enough for him and others to escape. Glancing off to the right, the bottom of the station cracked, split, and opened as a river of liquid fire came bleeding out, white and red hot chunks of station debris flew away, tumbling and turning over and over until they were nothing more than specks against the starlit curtain then nothing.

 _Shawn.._

There is was again, only louder, not from his coms unit, he could feel an itch from the back of his mind, something odd, familiar, almost welcoming. Pushing off, trying to go faster and faster, no time to think on such odd things, need to escape, to get to the shuttle, get away.

Not looking away as what was happening to the bottom area of the station, he saw it, a massive gunmetal gray section of the station covered in fire, tumbling over and over coming right at him. His breathing quickened, his heart pounding away in his chest, beating faster and faster until it felt like it would seize up in his chest. All he could do is look and brace himself for the impact; nothing he did to get out of the way would make a difference. The massive station debris would hit him, most likely he would die right there at the impact if he did live it would not be for long.

His whole body shook at the impact, the breath was knocked out of him, and everything went numb, the catwalk, was now little more than a chunk of crumpled metal that split and folded like wet paper. He didn't see the metal debris anymore, only the void as the spun out into the depths of space. Darrius station was burning brightly as it came in and out of his field of view.

 _Shawn!_

That voice came again, deep within his mind, panic filed it, something familiar about it, he wanted to go to that voice now, where was it, where are you...help me.

A sudden hissing sound filled his ears, it was, no it wasn't that, for a second something came to his mind and simply evaporated. A loud crunching sound echoed in his helmet, following by high pitch screeching sound, metal slowly grinding against metal. A crack started to form in his protective visor.

Shawn's breathing sped up, no...not this way, not in space, not the void. The crack split and quickly started to spread across his visor, then up and out in all directions, the sound of air being sucked out as well, he could see tiny ice crystals forming in front of him as the air escaped into space.

Another loud metal grinding metal screeching sound ripped through his helmet, more cracks, this was it, he could only hope that it would be quick, for a split second, there was nothing, no sound, only a deadly calm, he took another breath, one last breath, the visor then shattered out in shards and for a split second there was the sound of an explosion and air escaping and then nothing, the void took its place, pulling the air from his lungs, he gasped only nothing would come, cold, so cold, his skin started to turn red and swell, he could do nothing but gasp for air that was not there, his lungs, ached, burned, spots formed and then darkens closed in.

This was going to be it, his tomb in the deep recesses of space, long forgotten by all, never to go home for his final resting place...

 _SHAWN!_

The voice tore into his mind, fear, panic, not his, someone else's, he felt something grab him from behind around his torso, at the same time something grabbed both sides of his face, warm breath washed over him, all he could see was the void, stars filled his field of view; then shimmered. There was something else, a shape, darker than night filled his view, the outline of an elongated crest was only feet in front of him, long thin arms reached out and drew him into its grasp, his lungs burned so much, ached so much, all he wanted was air, to breathe, one more life giving inhale of air.

Wildly he's arms flung out, only to hit something solid, smooth in some spots, rigid and hard in others, warm and moist. He tried to breathe, but nothing, no air. His name was repeatedly screamed with in his mind, voices, several, a mix of both male and female, the voices were scared, terrified, there was desperation as they called out his name over and over.

Space, the stars, the burning station wreck that had once been Darrius station faded out, his mind reeled for a few moments, not sure where he was or what had just happened, had death finally come to clam him, was what he had seen…was seeing, the reaper come to take him away. _Shadow_ , the word ran through his mind, he should have known that...name, yes name, name to someone, someone he wanted to go to, to be with.

Shawn's eyes slightly started to come into focus, his lungs burned, and hurt so much, he tried to breathe in, only nothing, no air, his whole body arched now, his legs and feet dug into the floor as he tried to push himself forward only something was holding him in place.

SHAWN! The voice boomed through his mind, and just like that everything came back into focus, he was leaning on Shadow's crest, his arms wrapped around the Xenos head holding on for dear life, everything was starting to become blurry, strong arms were holding him in place, not only Shadow's but Ghost's as well, he tried to take a gulp of air only nothing, his throat was constricted and no matter how much he tried he could not breathe.

 _'_ _Head...back.'_ Shawn mentally croaked out, Ghost gently grabbed Shawn's head, tilting it back there was a loud gasp as air rushed in filling up his lungs as he was finally able to breathe, taking in deep breaths over and over. "Oh shit." He groaned, his body wracked with fatigue and ached, collapsing forward onto Shadow's dome, his hands gripped the large crest for support, Shadow was kneeling on the ground to get as low as he could to support Shawn's body. "Okay, that one was seriously fucked up." He muttered.

 _'We know, we saw everything,'_ Alese said, rubbing Shawn's back, trying to get him to relax and calm him down, _'we tried to wake you, tried to reach out to you, but you were too far in.'_

Letting out a slight and all too nervous chuckle he turned his head to look at the female Xeno, "Night terrors...again, never had one this bad though, it felt like I was there all over again, I mean really there. Too real, don't like it." Shawn panted, his heart was still racing and his whole body was covered in sweat and was trembling.

 _'You were flailing around, kicking, screaming, we tried to wake you up, but nothing we did helped, and then you stopped breathing.'_ Shadow said, his voice wracked with nervous tension and fear, Shawn knew that he was scared at what had just happened. And he wasn't the only one either, all of them were.

"I didn't hurt anyone did I?" He asked knowing full well that there was no way he could ever physically hurt any of them without a weapon, but he was still concerned never the less.

 _'_ _You popped me in the front of my dome with your elbow when this started, but you probably hurt yourself more than you hurt me, your elbow will no doubt be sore in that spot for a while.'_ Ghost answered, still a bit surprised by how hard Shawn had hit him; while it hadn't really hurt him all that much, it had more than anything surprised him, revealing that their human was somewhat stronger than they had realized.

"Sorry about that," Shawn apologized, letting go of Shadow's dome as he sat down on the floor leaning into Ghost and checking his elbow, it hurt and a nasty bruise was starting to form, that spot was going to be sore for a while. Rubbing his face he released a lengthy groan, as everything was still way too fresh in his mind. Going on that spacewalk had dug up a lot of bad memories, memories that he had been trying to either get past or suppress and now, it had just blindsided him with the force of an out of control freighter.

 _Ever since_ Darrius station had gone up he had been haunted by it, nightmares at best, the worse was the night terrors where he would relive what had happened over and over again, sometimes waking up bruised and bloody from thrashing around, more than once a few broken bones had occurred. It had all but dictated his life for years now, and nothing had helped, at least not until he had come on board the Saratoga and met these aliens who in their own right were running away from their own nightmares as well.

For the first time in years, he had started to feel at peace, and even a few times found himself happy, though that had been interrupted by the mercs and their relentless pursuit, and getting shot had not helped either. That spot was still tender, however, the life jelly that Shadow and the others had used on him and phenomenal healing properties, what would have taken weeks if not months to fully heal had almost healed up in a manner of days. And now, once again, his own fears were running rampant damaging what little peace he had found since coming on board.

It was ridiculous; stupid in fact, he had kept all this in, and for what, so afraid to get close, so afraid to open up, and what good had it done, Shawn doubted he would ever be truly over what had happened with Darrius station but maybe he could put it past him.

 _'Do not apologize,'_ Ghost said, placing his hands on Shawn's shoulders, _'you had no control of what was happening to yourself while you were asleep.'_

Nodding, Shawn was thinking about where to start with this, every instinct in his core was telling him to bury it and keep quiet about it, that they didn't want to hear about it, the Xenos had more important issues to contend with than his bad dreams and memories. The more rational part of his mind, however, was telling him the exact opposite, that he did need to get this out in the open and put it behind him, that if he did not he would be haunted by this for the rest of his life, maybe if he finally did get it out he could at least face it and put it in the past. And maybe, just maybe if the nightmares did come again, they would not be quite so bad.

"Thirty-two thousand," Shawn finally stammered out, pushing his fears aside, it was time to get this crap out in the open, maybe move on if luck would have it. He honestly did not know how much the Xenos knew of that day, maybe only what he had dreamed about and what he had told them, maybe more, it didn't matter either way.

Shadow looked right at him, a slight look of confusion on his face told Shawn everything, they didn't know, none of them had looked that deep into his memories, _'Thirty-two thousand?'_ Shadow asked, unsure what Shawn meant by that.

"That's how many people died on Darrius Station when it went up that day, around thirty-two thousand; while there was never an exact death count the figures were around that number, it's kind of hard to make an exact count where there are so few bodies left. I was one of only a couple of hundred survivors. It was a massive station, far bigger than anything I had even seen or heard of, but even then we were packed in there so tightly. And from the first day almost it was a death trap, poorly built, second hand or salvaged equipment, anything the suits could do to cut costs and save themselves a few credits, and all at our expense, that damn place was chewing us up and spitting us out almost daily."

No one said anything, Shawn figured the Xenos were simply staying quiet and not wanting to interrupt what he was going to say, though there was an overwhelming sense of shock and even anger from this bit of news that he was now telling them. Not anger toward him, but toward those that were responsible for this travesty.

"There wasn't any warning at all, everything happened so damn fast, there had been three of us that managed to get into some emergency space suits and get out of the station and if it hadn't been for Slam my Forman we would have all died right there. But he managed to keep us focused, got us out and onto one of the catwalks and headed for the shuttles, the station was on fire everywhere, connecting pipes were rupturing and venting out this liquid chemical that was burning even in space. Then the towers start to go up, first the one above us than the areas below, but Slam kept us going forward, that was all that mattered, then the catwalk got hit by debris, the other guy that was with us, Thomas, died right there, cut in half, a few minutes later, Slam was hit by a massive chunk of tower, sent him flying off into space, I don't know if he died right there on the spot or not. And right after that the remains of the catwalk I was on took a hit and sent me spinning off into space." Strangely enough, Shawn's voice was far from emotional as he spoke, more detached and even bordered being monotone as he told them what had happened as if he was recalling the events but there was none of the emotional outpourings that should have come with the retelling of such of a traumatic event.

"I was in space for over five days, just tumbling over and over uncontrollably and headed right toward this big gas giant that the station orbited. At first when it happened Darrius station would keep going in and out of my field of view, and for a while even though it was getting smaller and smaller it was getting brighter as it kept burning, then slowly as I got further away, nothing. Thankfully one of the returning ships that were out mining gas picked up my emergency beacon and rescued me; if it hadn't been for that and the water in the emergency survival pack I would have died out there. When it happened, I thought I was going to die, just didn't know how. There were a few times I had considered popping my helmet off and just ending it, but needless to say, I never did."

"The mining company we worked for gave us, the survivors, a lot of money as compensation, the thing is there aren't enough credits to make the pain of losing those close to you or the nightmares go away or to alleviate the guilt of living through something like that or having to face the families of the ones that didn't make it. And that last one was the worse, how do you say I'm sorry that I lived and your son or daughter, husband, wife, and so on died. Even to this day, there is still a part of me that thinks that maybe it would have been better if none of us had survived. The mining company paid me over twenty million credits, some got less some got more, it was enough that I could have gotten a nice lavished place and did whatever I wanted to, hell I could have bought a small fleet of courier ships and got a nice little business going. Funny thing is, the money I got from them doesn't even seem all that important, never really did, it always felt, I don't know...dirty...tainted somehow. But despite that, I bought my little ship, fixed it up and then promptly ran away, hid, did whatever I could not to face all this pain and guilt. And now here I am, with the three of you."

"I never told anyone that until now, not my therapist, not even my family, they could never understand what I or any of us had gone through. All I wanted to do was move on and forget it, but never could, and constantly being asked how I was doing or if I was alright, didn't help, after a while, it got to be frustrating, soon after that I just wanted to be left alone and that was that."

Ghost wrapped his arms around Shawn's chest and pulled him in close, his chin resting on top of Shawn's head. _'We are sorry you had to go through all that, and that so many of your kind died a meaningless death.'_

 _'I am curious to know something, what happened to the humans that were responsible for creating this station that caused the deaths of so many of your race?'_ Shadow said, bringing himself in closer to Shawn, reaching out he brushed Shawn's cheek with the back of his fingers.

"Nothing," Shawn said, he reached up grabbing Shadow's hand giving it a firm squeeze, "nothing at all happened to them, other than paying out the settlements in compensation to the survivors and delaying paying anything to the families of those that were killed. They were able to manipulate rules and laws, no one was ever held accountable for all those that died. The only thing we were to them was little more than an expendable labor force, even with the destruction of the station and the millions of credits paid out, the company heads had made billions in profits every year. We all went out there with the hopes of making a living and better lives for ourselves, to be a part of something that was bigger than what we were, not to be chewed up and spat out like we were nothing more than garbage."

The anger that all three Xenos felt had transformed into a hot burning rage for those that were responsible for this atrocity. Those humans as far as they were concerned should be slowly torn apart limb from limb in front of all those that they hurt. They needed to be severely punished and nothing would ever change that. Maybe when all this over and their kin had been rescued and a home had been found, the ones that were responsible would be hunted down and vengeance would be extracted, flesh for flesh, blood for blood.

Shawn had felt that rage as well years ago, wanting to go out and hurt them but over the years that rage had died out at the realization that nothing would ever happen to the corporate suits that had sent them to that floating death trap. They were too rich and had many connections to keep them safe and well informed. Now that rage was little more than a dull hurtful ache, a reminder that some needs would remain forever unfulfilled.

 _'How can you remain so calm about what they did to you and so many others, do you not feel the need to take revenge, to punish those that were responsible for what happened, do you not feel hate for them.'_ Shadow asked almost taken back by just how detached Shawn was being at what he had just told them, it was if he had just given up.

"You think that I don't want revenge, believe me, I do, I still feel anger and hate toward those corporate fuckers, they made off with billions at our expense, at our lives, I use to rage and scream about how unfair it was and that they all needed to be punished, that they should all be put to death. Hell most of us that survived felt like that, but after a while, we came to realize that no matter how much we wanted to get even with them we couldn't, they were giants in the field, and we, all we were to them were ants that they could step on at any time. It didn't matter how much we got out of it, we were all powerless to do anything. So we all did what we could and tried to move on and put it past us. Even if we got revenge, even if we killed every one of them, it wouldn't bring back anyone, it wouldn't fix anything, the dead would still be dead, and the pain would still be there. Besides as good as it might have sounded and still does to some extent, when it comes down to it I really have no desire to become a murder, I'm not sure I could live with myself then."

 _'But what they did to you and the others of you kind...'_ Shadow was about to protest before Shawn cut him off, those humans need to be punished, put down for the betterment and safety of others if they could get away with it once they could do it again.

"It's in the past and won't change anything, the dead are dead and nothing will bring them back. Besides as satisfying as it might be, death is too good for them, you really want to punish them and make them hurt, make them suffer, you take everything away from them, their wealth, their power, their assists, leaving them broke and destitute with nothing to their name. Believe me, it would be a far more fitting punishment that ripping them apart limb from limb."

While there might have been some appeal to that course of action, personally Shadow would have much rather sunk his claws and teeth into those that were responsible, it would have been far more satisfying and straight forward way to deal with such filth. To clamp down on their heads lift them up, snarl right in their faces, see the fear in their eyes, listen to them beg, scream, cry just seconds before death took them. If by some off chance he ever came across those humans, he would make sure there would be no mercy for them.

The intense feelings that Shadow was bleeding out as he thought about what he would do seeped into Shawn's mind, he picked up easy enough on the hot rage within as well, letting go of Shadow's hand Shawn reached up and placed it on the front of Shadow's dome. "I know what you would do, what all of you do, and I appreciate it I truly do, but it won't change what happened and I wouldn't ask you or any of you doing anything to compromise yourselves, besides this is a distraction that we can't afford right now."

"I can't keep dwelling on the past like this, the nightmares, the guilt of surviving something that I had no control over. If I go hunting those bastards down…I don't think that's a road that I would ever return from. I realize that in your own way you would see killing them as justified and to be quite honest I would too, but I'm afraid that if I...if we start down that path, then it won't end with just them, if we go after them then who would be next, the next shit corporation that might do the same thing or the next one after and so on, or this secret group that imprisoned and hurt you , Ghost, Alese and your kin, or what about the Weyland-Yutani corporation, the worse of all of them? If we do this then it won't end because there will always be someone else, and I know enough to know when to walk away, as much as I hate to, as much as I want to fight those corp suits that did this to me and so many others, I know that this is a fight I can't win."

 _'It is not right that you would be willing to let them go so easily, after all that happened to you and the deaths of all those other humans and for what, this human concept of wealth and power.'_ Shadow replied back, as much as he wanted to agree with Shawn on the reasoning he just couldn't, from his viewpoint, they had hurt his mate, their mate, even if it was years ago, he wanted to do something to even the pain out.

"Shadow I'm making a choice on this, to let it go...all of it, now I would like to think that the universe has karma or maybe a way of balancing itself out and that they will get what's coming to them, and yes, maybe it's naive to think that way, but it is my choice. You remember what you told me after I was shot in CIC, that you made a choice, you chose me over vengeance, well I'm making the exact same choice, I'm choosing you…all of you, even your kin who I have never met over vengeance, I'm making a choice to make sure you all get a chance to go someplace safe and have a chance at a life a real life, not go on some quest to get revenge in what might become a never ending fight."

None of the Xenos knew how to respond to what Shawn had told them, that he was willing to set aside his choice of revenge over them, even if he now had a ship that could make it very easy to obtain.

Shadow leaned in and rubbed Shawn's chest and neck with the front of his dome, _'I will respect your decision, my love, the fact that you would choose us over personal vengeance, it is not an easy choice, you show more restraint than I ever could.'_

Rubbing Shadow's dome, Shawn closed his eyes and took in several deep breaths, "Well I still hope that you feel that way after what I have to show you." Shawn replied, trying to get the courage to go through with what he needed to do in order to be free of this baggage or at the very least try and drop a good portion of it and leave it behind.

 _'What do you mean?'_ Shadow asked, leaning up so he could look right at Shawn in the eyes, while he couldn't tell what Shawn was about to show them, he could pick up that it was something that was bothering him greatly.

Getting up out of Ghost's embrace, Shawn stepped away a few feet. "You know how I've always been hesitant about removing my clothes to sleep with you?" He asked removing his shoes and socks.

 _'Yes, you always seemed to be apprehensive about something, what it was we did not know, but we never wanted to press you to find out, we all thought that you would tell us when you were ready.'_ Ghost said, his head cocking sideways some as he observed Shawn.

"It wasn't you, any of you, it's just something I've always been ashamed of, just more baggage that I've been clinging onto for years, now it's time to let go of that too," Shawn said, as he slowly started to undress himself, letting his clothes finally fall off he turned his back to Shadow, Alese, and Ghost for them to see. There was a chorus of surprised and concerned hisses.

Once again he could feel hot boiling rage from all three of them, not to him but to those that they felt were responsible for his injuries. Deep and rough ugly scarring covered all of Shawn's back, the area of his upper arms, and spots on the back of his legs and thighs.

 _'Shawn what happened, who did this to you.'_ Alese said, coming up behind him, her claws carefully trailing down his back, the mere touch sent shivers throughout his body.

"Plasma fire, it happened a couple of years after I started working on Darrius station, I was one of the lucky ones if you want to call it that. When it happened I was in the very outer area of the fire with a few others, melted my clothing right into my back, arms and part of my legs. The ones that were closer to the fire weren't so lucky, when the fire was put out the rescue crew couldn't even find any of the bodies, all that was left of them was ash. I spent a better part of six months in the hospital, the doctors weren't even sure if I would live or not when we were brought in, being in the burn ward and having to endure debridement was not exactly pleasant, even with all the painkillers they pumped into me I could still feel what the doctors were having to do to me."

Ghost and Shadow were right behind Shawn, their claws and fingers slowly going over the scar tissue, the tip of Shadow's finger ran over the still tender bullet wound. _'Why did you not say anything about this?'_ Shadow asked.

"I was ashamed to and wanted to keep it hidden; after it happened while there was a lot of sympathy for the accident, but beyond that, well you would be surprised by just how disinterested people can become when they find out you're a walking scab."

 _'SHAWN, you are NOT a walking scab.'_ Alese chided him, absolutely horrified that he would even consider himself that. _'If someone called you that, they need to have their tongue ripped out.'_

"Sorry, I had to develop a defense mechanism of sorts when it happened and dry humor seemed better than just giving in to self-pity and depression, but yes, that comment was thrown around a few times at me."

 _'_ _You have nothing to be ashamed of,'_ Ghost said, _'none of this matters to us, you are you, with or without the scars.'_

"I know," Shawn said turning around to look at the two male Xenos, "it's just hard because when something like this happens you sort of become undesirable and after a while, you figure, well that's it."

Shadow ran the tip of his claw lightly over Shawn's, neck, chest, down to his stomach, there were other scars from accidents long ago that had healed over, but were still visible on the front and sides of his torso. _'_ _You are far from undesirable,'_ he purred.

The light touches from Shadow, sent both a mix of shivers and waves of border line ecstasy running through out Shawn's body, it had been so long since anyone had even come close to touching him like this and even then it paled in comparison to what he was feeling from Shadow, the way the very tips of the deadly claws every so lightly glided down his smooth and soft skin was almost enough to send him over the edge. He wondered silently to himself just how far he was willing to go and how much of himself he was willing to let go of, to give himself to them fully and without question, there was still that tiny sliver holding him back from giving himself fully over to them, but even now tiny sliver was quickly disintegrating.

Ghost shifted and positioned himself behind Shawn pressing himself up against his back, the slick black bio-mechanical flesh rubbing against soft, scarred skin, his hands reached down and ever so gently the flats of his fingertips going up and down slowly caressing Shawn's sides and stomach at first, gradually making his way down to his outer thighs and then inner thighs. _'Do you still **feel** undesirable?'_ Ghost seductively whispered into Shawn's mind, leaning his head down his inner tongue came out and playfully nipped and tugged on the side of Shawn's ear, neck, and shoulder, warm breath washing over Shawn's soft skin.

"Gods no." Shawn gasped, trying to catch his breath, he was completely at their mercy now, he barely even noticed that Alese was standing right at his side, her hands now stroking and caressing his face, hair, and torso. Every touch, caress, stroke and playful nip pushed him further and further toward the edge of climaxing, at this point, he was more than willing go charging and jump right off.

Slowly each of their minds connected to the other, enveloping all in a mental sea of warmth and arousal, every touch was heightened, and each now feeling what the others felt. Shawn let himself go and simply floated in the mental warmth and arousal that was the hive collective for all of them. Within seconds, he lost his sense of self, and drifted within the minds of the other Xenos that continued to touch, stroke and fondle him, he no longer could tell what pleasure was coming from the mental sea that he and the others now floated in and what was physical anymore, all of it bled together and fed back in on itself.

For the first time since meeting them, there were no barriers, all was open and laid bare before them, while he had been able to sense their feelings toward him, a part of him had always been doubtful that their true feelings were as strong as they had led on. Shawn now knew that he had been wrong about that, if anything their feeling were far stronger and more potent than they had confessed to him. How they had been able to maintain control as well as they had and not act out on raw animalistic instinct sometimes, he would never know, not that it mattered now, this act, a bonding ritual in many ways, not just some random passing act of carnal pleasure, it cemented everything for them, he now knew, not just felt, that he was truly a part of them, a part of their hive, their family, now and forever; he welcomed it, embraced it.

He was theirs and they were his, and nothing would ever change that.

All his uncertainty finally melted away and the mental walls that he had held up crumbled around him and were gone. The last thing he physically remembered before the mental sea of the hive mind washed over him overwhelming his senses was Shadow pressing himself up against his naked body and caressing him.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, he felt liberated and truly free.


	20. A Day Of Rest And Play

**Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story.**

 _xxxxx_

 _ **Warning: Intense sexual situations ahead, you have been warned.**_

 _Chapter 19: A Day of Rest and Play_

 _xxxxx_

To say that Shawn McNeal at this time had most certainly gone down the rabbit hole feet first was a vast understatement if there ever was one. The hole he had found out and would eventually remember in due time had been a much deeper hole than he had ever realized.

Opening his eyes slowly, at first Shawn was not entirely sure where he was, his thoughts were slow and sluggish like he was emerging from a very deep and long sleep, even his body did not respond at first, and everything felt different...off, it was almost as if his perception had somehow ever so slightly shifted. At first, he couldn't discern if he was still within the deep ocean of the hive collective memories of his three Xenomorphs or if he was now indeed actually awake.

While his mind was still fuzzy and he was having a hard time getting his bearing in any way, his whole body felt like it was floating weightless even though it was filmily still on the floor of the sleeping room, or at least he hoped it was. He did come to the realization that he was awake, at least partly, though his body still would not respond to any commands. Finally he recognize that he was in the sleeping room, unsurprisingly with Shadow curled up around him, he was facing toward the Xeno this time, not being spooned up against as his normal position, his head rested on Shadow's neck and shoulder area while the big male had his chin gently pressed up against his shoulder blade, arms wrapped around holding him, legs bent up and the tail completely coiled around both of their bodies.

Ghost and Alese were sleeping around them, with Ghost spooning up against Shawn's back and his hand resting on Shawn's side his fingers curling up on his stomach, Alese resting comfortably just above them, her head resting on Ghost's flank.

After what seemed like minutes or maybe even hours, he couldn't tell, at some point when he was deep in the hive collective time had all but stopped, all there had been was himself, Shadow, Ghost, and Alese, and for that period of time, however long or short it was, the outside universe had simply ceased to exist for them all. No worries about the Saratoga, Eclipse station, or being hunted, it was just them and no one else.

He couldn't remember anything in particular as it was all a random jumble of images, sounds, and feelings. He did recall a few things that seemed to stand out, warmth, humidity, darkness but he could still see, and movement all around, coming from the walls, ceiling and even the floors, a massive crested head with four arms outreached eagerly beckoning for him to come, a queen perhaps. A jumble of landscapes as well, some forests, some barren rocky terrain, others rolling hills. Also, ships, white curved ships that almost looked organic in design as if by some mad and twisted science they had been either grown or birthed, there was also a feeling of cold dread that went with that image but as soon as it had appeared in his head it was gone, nothing more than an odd afterthought perhaps.

It would take a while to sort it all out if he could remember any of it that is and if he did, no doubt he would need help from his Xenos doing so.

Shawn finally got his head to turn ever so slightly, his eyes started to focus in and gradually his senses returned back to normal, or as normal as he would now call it, everything in some weird way seemed to be heightened. He felt Shadow's warm breath run down his back, the way his chest would extend out and then back in while he inhaled and exhaled. Shawn felt something else, deep and relaxing, a slow repeating thump-thump feeling at his back, he realized that it was Ghost's heartbeat that he was feeling.

Letting out a content sigh, he nuzzled up against Shadow, pushing his head further into his neck area. If given the choice he would have stayed like that for a very long time.

 _'_ _Good morning my love,'_ Shadow's deep voice resonated throughout Shawn's mind.

There was something different about Shadow's voice now too; it seemed far deeper, richer and baritone also it was much clearer now, while he had no trouble hearing them before, now it seemed as if he had almost been hearing their mental voices through a distorted filter. Whatever had happened within their link last night had cleared the few remaining boundaries, either that or it was him finally releasing all of that excess baggage that he had been carrying around, maybe a mixture of the two. Either way to him it felt like he was truly hearing Shadow's voice for the first time.

"Somehow I doubt that it's morning," Shawn replied back sleepily, his hand reaching up and playfully scratching the underside of Shadow's dome.

Purring loudly at the attention their human was giving him, Shadow brought Shawn in tighter with his embrace. _'I'm sure that it's morning somewhere in the universe right now.'_

"Good point, how long have we been asleep anyway?"

 _'Why does it matter, we are together, warm and comfortable, that is all that should matter.'_

As if on command a loud unpleasant rumbling sound came up from Shawn's stomach, along with the painful tightening and contracting stomach muscles. "Cause right now I'm more than a little hungry and would like to get something to eat."

 _'Good point, yes, food would be good right now,'_ Shadow replied, his saliva glands starting to work up at the thought of even the bland tasting human food. He too was getting hungry, it had been a few days since he and the others had eaten.

"Why don't you and the others meet me in the mess hall in about an hour and we can get something to eat."

 _'Why not now, hmmm?'_ Shadow asked, feeling that their human was up to something, maybe it had something to do with that surprise he had told them about yesterday. For a split second he did think about peeking into Shawn's mind and getting a glimpse but thought better of it, it would not do to violate their human's trust, though since last night Shawn's mind had become much clearer and easier to read.

"Well for one I need to run by CIC and see how the reactors are doing in their powering down sequence," answered Shawn as he continued to rub and caress the underside of Shadow's dome, his finger pressing in just a bit harder, sending waves of pleasure down Shadow's spine to the tip of his bladed tail.

 _'_ _Keep doing that I may never let you leave, mmmmmm,'_ purred Shadow, not wanting to let Shawn go anytime soon, the human had hit another sensitive spot on his body one that even he didn't know he had. Later on, he would need to get Shawn to go over every inch of his body and find all the spots, something that could take hours or even days. Oh yes, he was looking forward to that.

While it did take several minutes Shawn was finally able to prop himself upon his arm, his whole body felt wrecked and he was still feeling a bit disorientated, the room seemed to spin and was making his stomach a bit queasy, not a very good combo to go with the hunger pains he was already feeling. Holding off on heading up to CIC or to get anything to eat, Shawn practically draped himself on Shadow's side waiting for everything to clear.

 _'Easy,'_ Shadow said, _'it seems you are experiencing some unexpected after effects from our hive link last night, you were in very deep with us.'_

Turing his head around to get a better look at Shadow, Shawn half nodded in agreement, or as much as he could. "Don't remember that much to tell you the truth, just random bits and pieces, some parts seem clearer than others. I seem to remember being in a hive I think, and there was a queen, some different planets, and some weird looking ship. But other than that it's just a jumble of stuff."

 _'It may come back to you or it may not, to my knowledge no human has ever gone into the hive memory like this, that's not to say it has not happened before, it's just that none of my hive-line has any memories of it.'_ Shadow said, bringing his hand up to Shawn's scarred back and gently running his claw tips down the rough texture of the old burns.

"That feels nice," Shawn said, enjoying the gentle stroking of Shadow's claw tips, closing his eye his mind started to wonder some, "whatever happened to your hive-line, do you know with the memories that you have?"

The Praetorian was quiet for a few minutes, as he searched his memories for any kind of answer, as the more recent memories ran through his mind. _'Only that we were still at war with our creators, we were on a desolated planet of some sort, different from where we came from, perhaps a colony or a base that was set up by them, there are memories of us fighting; we had won and tried to live on in peace but there was something else, a weapon that the creators had unleashed on us, an act of desperation to wipe us out, something like ourselves, alive and organic but designed solely to kill us. That is all, nothing beyond that. Why do you ask?'_

"I was just thinking about where this organization got the eggs from, perhaps once we get your brothers and sisters off of that station, we could try and find out what planet your hive was at, maybe there are still some of your kin there or at the very least some of the eggs."

 _'After all that you have done and still do you would want to do this as well. I do not know where my hive is or even was, it may not be there, it's possible that the few of us that were on that station is all that remains. But even still it would be nice to know, but how would we find out?'_

"Maybe this Eclipse station would have some info, I could try and hack the systems once we get on board, if the station's systems are in any way similar to the systems on this ship, I might be able to build a data cracker or two specifically designed to work with that tech, there are a ton of spare computer components in storage that I could use and it would be one hell of an upgrade from the crap equipment I have now. It's also possible that this ship might have some flight logs in their records; I can start with that first and see if I can find out anything."

 _'Thank you, for everything.'_ Shadow whispered into Shawn's mind, coiling his body as best as he could he nuzzle the side of Shawn's face, coating it slightly with a bit of drool. _'How is your arm doing?'_ He asked remembering that Shawn had accidentally hit Ghost in his dome with his elbow when he was having his last night-terror.

Flexing it a bit, Shawn groaned some as a bit of sharp pain went up his arm, he could see that a nice sized bruise was there, though not a bad as he would have thought, "It still hurts some, but it could be a lot worse, at least I didn't break anything, I still feel bad about what happened."

 _'It was an accident, you had no control over what your body was doing when it happened; we all know this.'_ Shadow said, trying to reassure him.

"Yeah, well I still feel guilty about it," Shawn replied, slowly getting up and out of both Shadow and Ghost's grip, he straightened himself up and stretching out, he felt so stiff; his sides and lower back hurt, probably from staying in the same position for too long, though he had no idea how long he had been asleep. "So meet me in the mess hall here in an hour and we can all get something to eat."

 _'Mmmmm,'_ was Shadow's only reply as he took in Shawn's naked form who was standing right next to him.

"Soon there big boy, soon," Shawn said, feeling Shadow's arousal happening within his mind, the newfound clarity was something else, he was picking up on almost everything Shadow was projecting, including just how much he cared for him and just how aroused the Xeno was getting, which was a lot lately, it was also having a visible physical side effect for Shawn as he found himself starring to stiffen some. As he had mentioned it to Ghost, Shadow could be very single-minded in his pursuits, not that he really minded, it was nice to have someone or rather three someone's very interested in him. And despite how that there were three of them and that they were completely alien to his own species, for the first time he found himself very comfortable with the idea of the whole group thing.

 _'_ _Your body said otherwise, I can see that you wish it as well, perhaps now...hmmm...yes.'_ The Xeno purred, his hand running up the inner part of Shawn's leg.

Shawn had to fight to regain any sense of control now, he didn't know if it was just the heightened connection or something else going on, but either way, if he stayed there any longer he was going to pin Shadow to the floor, or at least try as best as he could. "Really...really...really need to check on the reactors..." Shawn squeaked backing away, trying to get his clothes on.

 _'Please tell me you are not going to wear those dreadful clothes; you look much better without them on.'_

"Hey, I still get cold on this ship, besides I'm only wearing my pants and shirt, nothing else...see," he said lifting his bare foot and waving it at the Xeno, "So, yay, progress."

 _'I can keep you warm you know, inside as well as out,'_ _S_ hadow purred, a loud rumble echoed through the sleeping room, loud enough now to awake both Ghost and Alese who lifted their heads wounding what was going on.

"Mess hall an hour or so," Shawn said leaving the sleeping room much to Shadow's disappointment.

Shawn bolted up to CIC as quick as he could to check on the reactor readings, his mind was swirling with raw arousal and lust, it would be hell to walk this off, and even a long cold shower would do no good he figured. If this was how strongly most Xenos felt emotions, then he wondered just how had Shadow, even Ghost managed to keep from getting an erection day after day, something he had never seen from either one, not even a peek. Maybe it was some ungodly self-control or maybe they could just sport a chubby, full or otherwise right on command. And if they could, he still had no idea what their equipment looked like, they needed to be able to mate with a queen in order for her to produce eggs, right, and queens were at least around twelve feet tall, so they probably weren't small by any means, at least not by human standards.

Stopping in the hallway, he leaned over, took in some deep breaths and tried to calm down some; it did help...if only a little. If he had stayed in that room for another minute he would have completely lost control and he had no doubt that either he would be riding Shadow with for everything he was worth or Shadow would have him pinned to the floor going all out. Either way, it was something that he could feel was going to happen very soon.

His stomach growled again with that painful knot of hunger reminding him that he needed to eat.

Quickly making his way up to CIC, he checked on the readings, the reactors were getting close to being cold, about another eight hours he figured, maybe less, which meant that he must have been asleep for close to around fourteen hours maybe more. No wonder he felt so stiff and sore and that would certainly explain why he was so hungry now.

With that done, Shawn made a fast pace beeline for the mess hall, getting there in record time, he went to the back cooler and brought out a couple of largely covered trays one at a time and set them down on the table where they had eaten last time before being so rudely interrupted by the mercs. Grabbing some much-needed coffee he went to the back kitchen to prepare himself while waiting for the others to show up. Today he hoped would be a nice, fun relaxing day and what better way to start it off than with some real actual food.

Nibbling a bit here and there as he prepped and cooked his food, mostly to keep the ever-gnawing hunger pains at bay, he was finishing up getting his plate ready when the doors to the mess hall opened up and all three Xenos entered.

Each one came to a dead standstill, as they taste-tested the air, there was something very familiar in the air, a scent, altered somehow.

 _'Shawn...what is that delicious scent?'_ Inquired Ghost seeing the two large covered trays sitting on the table, his head cocking to the side a bit, _'it_ _smells like...meat.'_

Walking up to the table with his own tray in hand and set it down, Shawn lifted the lids of both large trays at the same time, revealing a large mound of square cut meat on each tray, red, bloody and juicy. "Dig in and enjoy." He said with a wide smile on his face.

All three Xenos just stood there almost stunned, their saliva pooling from their mouths, it had been months since any of them had any meat, or at least synthetic meat, as the real stuff was never fed to them.

 _'Where did you find this?'_ Ghost asked, all three Xenos quickly coming up to the two mounds and grabbing some of the square blocks of meat and tearing into them.

"When I was wandering around a couple of days ago, I found what I guess is an officer's mess hall, a couple of big nicely well-stocked walk-in coolers along with several massive freezers, there were pallets of this stuff stacked to the ceiling with room to spare stored in both freezers with loads of other premium quality food in there, guess the offices get top choice of food on this ship while the enlisted guys the crap stuff."

 _'Lucky for us,'_ Shadow commented, pounding away at another piece of meat, the red juices dripping off his chin. _'I had almost forgotten what meat tastes like.'_

Sitting down at the table, Shawn started to cut into his own few pieces of cooked meat, shoving the stuff into his mouth. "Dear god that is good, I haven't had meat, synthetic or real for years, I had forgotten what it tastes like. At some point, we really need to check out the rest of this ship and see what other surprises we can find." He said trying out some steamed vegetables and some yeast rolls that had been flash frozen and vacuumed sealed.

 _'I assume this is the surprise that you were talking about?'_ Alese said, coming up behind and rubbing his shoulders, _'_ _thank you, you have no idea how much this means to us.'_

"This, well this is a surprise, yes, but not the one that I was talking about. I'll show it to you after we finish up." He replied back cutting off another piece of meat and eating it, "I think that you are going to love it."

After about thirty minutes both of the large trays were completely empty, Shadow, Ghost, and Alese were crouched around the table, each one happy and content and very full, it had been so very long since any of them had what they would have called a good meal, while the MREs, protein bars and dried rations were enough to sustain them, very little of it did they actually like.

Shawn also was in a dreamy daze, his plate was completely clean and he was not moving a bit if he could help it. "If I could eat more I would, but that would require me to move and I don't want to do that right now." He commented leaning over and resting his head on Ghost's shoulder.

 _'It has been far too long, thank you for this wonderful and delicious feast.'_ Ghost said, his tail coiling around Shawn's waist and draping over his legs. The drone leaning back up against Shawn, his own hunger sated, now it was time to relax.

"You'll all welcome, it's been a long time since I've had food like this as well." Shawn glanced up at Shadow, something that he hadn't noticed, but now did was that there were large chitin flakes on his dome that were peeling off around the edges and it seemed that the ridges were being more defined and even thicker, also his crest looked larger and more pronounced too. "Is it just me or is your crest getting bigger, and a lot more defined, I just noticed the flakes that are peeling off."

 _'Yes, I have been going through a very slow molt to become a full Praetorian, though it normally does not ever take this long, perhaps it is something to do with Mason's alterations, there were two of my other brothers that had become Praetorians within a matter of weeks, not so many months like myself. I should be in the final stages were my crest will become larger, much more distinct, and much harder than it is now and not just that but I will also gain a bit more mass and increase in size some, though it is doubtful it will be that much more.'_ Shadow answered, reaching up and scratching off some of the flaking chitin.

For a while no one said anything or moved that much, everyone was still deep within a self-induced food and meat coma. It was only when another twenty to thirty minutes went by when Shawn asked if they were ready to see the surprise he had for them, Shadow was up before anyone could even answer, he still had no idea how someone that was as big as Shadow was could be so damn fast.

Slowly getting up from the table, Shawn led them out of the mess hall and to the very most upper level in the Saratoga. He could feel the anticipation coming from all of them, especially Shadow, who surprisingly hadn't said a whole lot on the way up. Coming to a door, Shawn tapped a button and the door opened up and he walked in.

Upon entering the three Xenos looked around as the lounge and observation room, Shawn could sense a confused mix of emotions from all three of them.

 _'What is this place?'_ Alese asked turning around she noticed the large square object just a few meters away from one of the walls.

"It's an observation and lounge room that I found around the same time I found the officer's mess hall, and I thought that it could become our new sleeping area, complete with a custom-made bed for all of us," Shawn said, waving his hand to the bed that Alese had spotted and was now checking out.

 _'You made this?'_ She asked, _'for all of us,'_ going around inspecting it, the frame was a massive fifteen feet across and almost twelve feet deep and was bigger than some bedrooms that Shawn had seen and even been in.

"Well I designed it, a couple of the androids did all the heavy work I just did the welding and corrections, but it should hold, there are a bunch of mattress double stacked with a tarp for the top, still need some pillows and blankets but there's more than enough room for all of us. I know this room is a bit bigger than you might be comfortable with, but trust me, when you see what it had to offer I think that you'll love it."

Ghost plopped down on the mattress and wiggled around a bit, the softness of the mattress while not unpleasant by any means, in fact, it was quite comfortable, was something he was not accustomed to. _'It is very comfortable, I am curious about something, what prompted this if you do not mind me asking.'_

"Well," Shawn started, sitting down next to Ghost, "here's the way I figure it, in two weeks we'll be at Eclipse station, and we will either do what we came to do and free your kin or we'll either be caught or killed. Either way, however, I would like us to be able to really enjoy our time, if we only have two weeks left, then I want those to be the best damn two weeks we have, if we succeed there's no telling how long we'll be on this ship, and I would like for us for however long or short we are on this tub for it to be a home. So I thought this might be a good place to start, a nice big comfortable bed for starters, plus this." Shawn said, walking over to a panel on the wall, pressing a few buttons the main lights dimmed and the alternating colored lights came on, and a second later the protective blast shielding parted revealing the starlit space.

All three Xeno were looking around, he could feel the wonderment and even a tranquil peace flowing through them now, something that he hadn't actually felt before, at least not from all of them at once.

 _'It's very beautiful, and peaceful.'_ Alese said, walking up to Shawn and pressing her forehead against his, her fingertips gently stroking his face. _'Thank you.'_

"I know this room is probably a bit larger than what you are all comfortable with," Shawn said with a smile," from what I recall most Xenos seem to like smaller tight spaces to sleep in, sense of security, but I bet we can work around that, besides the acoustic for this room is phenomenal, far better than CIC."

 _'Shawn, you may not think that it is really that much in what you have done, but for us, this gift, is greatly appreciated; this ship has never truly felt like a home for any of us, merely a means to both an end and an escape from our tormentors, I would like to think that this is the first step to making this ship a home for us and our kin when we rescue them. At least until we can find a place on a planet, I still want to walk on solid ground."_ Shadow said, walking up to both Alese and Shawn.

"I'm guessing you're going to coat the room in resin so when you do please make sure to avoid the color lights, speakers, and the windows. Sort of would like to keep this calm vibe that's going on right now." Shawn said, reaching up and peeling off a couple of pieces of the chitin that was flaking off. "I have to say I am liking this more pronounced look you're getting; I bet that you are going to be an absolute terror once we hit that station."

 _'_ _This bed will be very comfortable for all of us, I am already growing very fond of it and I do enjoy the view, the stars are very peaceful.'_ Ghost said, sprawling out over a good portion of the bed, even then there was still plenty of room for the other three.

"Well if you like that there you're going to love what's next."

 _'Next...there's more?'_ Shadow asked, their human had already done so much with just this gift, and he was telling them there was more.

Turning around; walking out of the room, "Follow me," He said, motioning them to come with him. "You know, I figured with all the shit that all of us have gone through, and I'm not just talking about the mercs or the other crap, I'm talking about everything even before we all met, we just needed a day to relax and have some actual fun, no dealing with disasters, or making plans or trying to coming to terms with any emotional stuff, just have some actual real fun."

 _'Let me guess, you found something in your wanderings of this ship?'_ Shadow asked, ruffling Shawn's hair playfully.

"Yep, you got it. And this you are going to dig, in fact, you're probably not going to be able to get enough of it."

Going down several levels and through a pair of heavy set double doors, the four found themselves inside a massive area, with what looked like several sub-rooms.

 _'And this place is...?'_ Ghost asked, looking around, the room seemed to take up so much space, so much in fact that none of them could see the other side of the room, and looked to be two to three levels tall at least. In fact, they were so enthralled with the wide open expanse that none of them noticed until they set off on it, they were standing on actual living grass and even several large trees and bushes were in the area.

 _'Shawn this is ground and grass… trees, this ship has this in it?'_ Shadow was becoming so excited he was practically about ready to vibrate through the bulkhead, and not just him all the Xeno were becoming more and more excited. It was the first time any of them had any sort of taste of living nature.

" I think that this is one of the ships training areas, there's a lot more I haven't checked out yet, but this is what I wanted to show you, what's in that large room over there." He said walking toward a room which was more akin to a building more than anything else that was the first in a set of larger sub-rooms.

Upon entering the dark room, all of the Xenos were hit with a wave of high humanity, and not just that the air itself smelled very wet as if a large body of water was nearby. Turning the lights on, they found themselves standing on a tile floor, a large metal tarp covered most of the center part of the room, gauging by the length it seemed to be at least a couple of hundred feet and maybe half as wide.

Heading over to a console, Shawn hit a button and the tarp retracted back into a wide crevasse at the opposite end, revealing a large body of water. "It's a swimming pool, probably part of the crew's fitness and combat training if I had to guess." Hitting a few more buttons lights on the bottom and sides lit up revealing the crystal clear water. The deep end looked to be close to around thirty feet in depth maybe more, either way for Shawn it was a way too deep as far as he was concerned.

"So why don't you go on…" before he could even finish what he was going to say, all three had dove head first into the pool and were swimming around. Heading over to the edge of the pool, Shawn saw the three serpentine black shapes quickly darting around at the bottom of the pool. As graceful and agile as the Xenos were on land they seemed even more so in the water.

Shawn spotted Shadow diving toward the deep end of the pool, one of the drones, he couldn't tell which one was darting over and under him. Coming to the wall of the pool, Shadow flipped over and torpedoed forward heading back toward the shallow end, Ghost or Alese right at his side, their long tails waving side to side quickly building up their momentum.

He was absolutely amazed by their grace and flexibility as they whipped past him then turned sharply and headed back into the deeper end of the pool. He was so focused in on Shadow and the other drone, he didn't even notice a black shape heading right toward where he was standing, until a plume of water exploded a few feet from him and the black form emerged from it and landed right next to him, crouched down, the domed head looked up at him.

 _'You should join us._ Ghost said, slowly standing up, _'the water is wonderful, we were born for this. Please come and swim with us, enjoy it with us.'_

"The last time I went swimming I think I was barely thirteen, and I more or less swam like a rock."

 _'Rocks do not swim.'_ Ghost replied in a somewhat amused tone.

"No, no they do not, and guess what, neither did I."

 _'Please, come and swim with us, you can hold onto me.'_ Ghost said, taking a single step; clearing what little distance there was between him and Shawn. The Xeno's hand glided down Shawn's arms. _'Your company would be very welcomed.'_

Looking back over to the pool, he saw that Shadow and Alese were weaving and jerking all over the place, each one darting around in an acrobatic show trying to outdo the other. "Oh, what the hell might as well do it while I still can," Shawn said removing his pants and shirt and tossing them up against the wall.

 _'I do agree with Shadow, you do look much better without clothing on.'_ Ghost mused, looking over Shawn's body, _'so much better.'_

"You know I think that you three are the first ones that have ever looked past the burns and scars, everyone else always slinked away," Shawn told him, reaching up and rubbing Ghost's dome.

 _'And we always will, now shall we go swimming?'_

Shawn was standing behind Ghost as the Drone dove into the water, the segmented tail was the last thing he saw as the Xenos plunged right under. Peeking over the edge of the pool, he saw Ghost's black form at the bottom of the pool, slowly circling waiting for him to jump in. Thankfully the depth was only about ten feet, if he went under, getting back up wouldn't be a problem...he hoped.

Backing up to the wall, Shawn took a running leap and cannonballed right into the water before he could talk himself out of it. The water was a little cooler than he would have first liked giving his body a slight shock at first but in a few seconds he found was comfortable with it. Sinking down through the water he found himself almost at the bottom, Ghost was right there next to him allowing him to grab onto one of the dorsal tubes, the drone pushed forward quickly rising up to the surface.

Leisurely Ghost skimmed the top of the water, his tail slowly swishing back and forth, Shawn held on tight to the dorsal tube as he was slowly pulled along. _'Do you feel like a little dive?'_ Ghost asked, gradually making a turn.

"Let's do it," Shawn said with a lot more enthusiasm than he had realized. Apparently, the Xeno's eagerness was rubbing off on him.

 _'Climb on my back and hold on,'_ Ghost replied, ready for a bit more speed, just being in the water seemed to have reinvigorated him, he was feeling refreshed, young and ready for anything that the universe could throw at him. It was such a stark contrast to the way he had been not too long ago, shy, withdrawn and tortured. Feeling Shawn climb on his back; grabbing onto two of his dorsal tubes, he gave Shawn a signal to take a deep breath and hold on.

And just like a bullet, Ghost was shooting through the water with Shawn holding on tightly, his body pressed flat against Ghost's back side. Skirting the bottom of the pool, Ghost zigged and zagged, then rolled several times; coming up for a minute before going back down.

Holding on tight to Ghost's dorsal tubes as the Xeno dove down deeper into the pool then moments later he would bank a hard right then left, roll over and over, then break the surface of the water, then go back down and do it all over again. It was a watery roller coaster ride; one that Shawn found himself loving, Coming up to the middle of the pool area Shawn let go and slid off of Ghost's back, he sunk down several feet but managed to keep himself from sinking down further, as he hung there about eight to nine feet below the surface.

Banking sharply back around Ghost slowly circled Shawn, brushing up against him every so often, Shadow and Alese quickly joined them, circling the two playfully going around, above and below. Grabbing onto one of the pipes on Ghost's back, the Xeno quickly rose up breaking through the water, letting Shawn get some more air.

Adjusting himself so he was floating on his back, Shawn continued to hold onto Ghost's dorsal tube to keep himself afloat, the water lapping over his body, Shadow and Alese's black bodies breaching the water next to them, the three Xenos and their human, enjoying the peaceful calm of the water, none of them could really remember the last time they were this relaxed, all the problems and pain, had for the time being, just vanished.

 _'This is something I could really get used to.'_ Shawn mentally told them, reaching out with his other hand he rubbed Shadow's crest.

 _'Actual food to eat, a large comfortable bed to sleep in and now a place to swim and rest, this has truly been a magnificent day.'_ Shadow replied the deep rumbling in his chest sending small ripples out from around his body.

 _'Hopefully with many more in the future,'_ Shawn said, rolling over and dipping below the water's surface, after about ten minutes of trial and error Shawn was starting to get used to swimming, he was by no means graceful, and not even close to being quick, he was, however, able to stay afloat and then go down a short ways before coming back up on his own, it was at least a start.

Hours went by as the four of them played, swam dove down, skirting the deep bottom of the pool, even racing each other, which was becoming popular for them it seemed. Shawn opting out and resting up when it came to the racing part, Shadow and Alese had been almost evenly matched for one another, each trying to outdo the other by zipping from one end to the other, performing rolls, turns and adding whatever fancy maneuvers they could think of.

Surprisingly, they had all found out, that Ghost was an absolute terror when it came to speed in the water, as fast as the Xenos were in the water, he was like a nitro fed torpedo. On one of the races, Ghost had decided to join them where they were around ten meters ahead of him. And in a matter of seconds, his black serpentine form had not only caught up to the two but shortly passed them. Doing a series of flips and turns and jetting just underneath them as he passed back.

Pulling himself out of the water and sitting on the ledge, Shawn looked at Shadow as he continued to play, race and even water wrestle with the others. He didn't know just how long they could stay underneath, hours, maybe days even. Ghost had been exposed to hard vacuum for a week if not more, so maybe the same applied here as well.

Today had been a good day, no disasters, traumatic events, or emotional B.S. that normally could bring him down and cause unwanted distress. Lying down on the cool, wet tile, his legs slowly churned in the water, he didn't know how long they had been in the pool, maybe most of the day, but long enough that he was starting to get hungry, and a steak or two, even if it was synthetic was sounding really good.

His train of thought was broken as something heavy; wet and large plopped down on his belly. Glancing up, he found that Shadow had come up and was resting his head right on his stomach. All he saw was a crested domed head with a steel-toothed grin looking right at him mischievously.

"Hi," Shawn said, sitting back up, Shadow slowly sank back into the water a bit giving Shawn some space to sit upright.

 _'Swim with me a little more.'_ Shadow requested, putting his hands on the ledge and pushing himself out of the water until he was only an inch from Shawn's face.

Leaning forward, their foreheads touched, Shawn raised his hand his fingers lightly gliding down the side and under Shadow's jaw. "Alright, a little more." He whispered, wrapping his arms around the Xeno's neck.

Pushing away from the edge of the pool with his legs; with a sharp whip of his tail, Shadow moved effortlessly through the calm water holding Shawn to his chest with his arms, who had his legs wrapped around the Xeno's waist. What was supposed to be a little while turned into a couple of more hours as the two would go around the large pool in circles, Shawn would hold Shadow's dorsal tubes as he dove into the deep part of the pool and then would slowly float back up to the surface, sometimes holding each other in a lover's embrace.

After a while longer, the four decided it was time to get something to eat, throwing his clothes back on, much to Shadow's protest, they made their way to the mess hall to have some more of the synthetic meat, Shawn cooked himself up a slab of the stuff with another helping of steamed vegetables, as the three Xenos hunkered down and started to devour a large platter of the raw meat.

No one said much as they enjoyed the food and basked in each other's company and the enjoyment they had for the day. Slowly Shawn ate his food taking the time to enjoying the flavor, even though synthetic meat paled in comparison to the real thing in taste, it did have the advantage of lasting much longer, many years in fact, especially when vacuumed packed and flash frozen like the cases he had found were.

 _'This is what we needed, all of us.'_ Ghost said, his tongue shooting out and taking a chunk out of the block of meat he was eating. _'I have not felt this good ever. I think that I will explore the area some more after we finish eating and see what else that place holds.'_

 _'I may join you later on,'_ Shadow said, _'after I rest for a bit, I am feeling refreshed but also a little tired, and I am looking forward to trying out that new bed that our human has made for us.'_

A sly smile crept up on Shawn's face, though neither Shadow nor Alese caught it, Ghost, however, did not miss it. And while he was feeling physically tired from being in the pool for so long and not use to that type of physical exertion, he was also feeling oddly refreshed as well. Glancing over to Shadow, who was ripping into a slab of meat as if his life depended on it, Shawn reached over placing his hand at the base of one of the lower dorsal tubes and gently started rubbing it. He was also feeling more than a bit frisky but did his best to conceal that, at least for now.

While Shadow didn't completely freeze up as Shawn started to massage the sensitive areas around his tubes, he did slow down eating the slab of raw synthetic meat he was holding, _'That feels very nice.'_ He mused, his massive tail slowly swishing back and forth on the floor.

As much as the four of them had slept together, Shawn had never really had a chance to physically explore any of the Xenos bodies, the odd biomechanical makeup was always a fascinating point for him, the external rib cage, the odd-looking tubes and pipes that were embedded in the slick black flesh that ran all over, patches of textured areas on the arms, legs, and the deadly segmented bladed tip tail. It was always surprising for a species that was so physically tough just how many sensitive spots there were.

Shawn continued to rub and massage the sensitive areas for about another fifteen maybe twenty more minutes, he was so caught up talking to Ghost and Alese that he didn't notice that Shadow had all but fallen asleep on the spot, it wasn't right until the big Xeno started to list sideways to the left almost falling right on top of him that they realized that Shadow was out like a light.

"Oh crap," Shawn blurted out, grabbing Shadow's shoulder and side, trying to hold him up before he fell on top of him or the floor. He never really knew just how heavy Shadow was, right until then, it felt he was trying to hold up a two-ton brick wall, one that was fully intent on falling over. "Goddamn you're heavy," Shawn muttered under his breath, as he found himself losing this fight.

Bolting around the table and grabbing Shadow by the other arm, Ghost pulled up Shadow to an upright position before he collapsed on Shawn. Shadow's head snapped right up and looked around, startled by the sudden movement.

 _'Wha...what happened?'_ Shadow asked slightly disoriented, looking at all of them, his mind in a bit of a fog from the small unexpected nap.

"You fell asleep while I was rubbing your back and almost fell over right on top of me," Shawn told him, playfully slapping the Xeno's shoulder. "Maybe you need to catch a nap for an hour or two."

Shadow looked over at Shawn and then at Ghost and Alese, he didn't think that he was all that tired, but between Shawn's massaging his lower dorsal tube, which had been very relaxing, and the hours spent in the pool, a lot of the pent-up tension that had finally started to drain out of them all. Perhaps a small nap would do him good, even better if some of his hive mates were to help him test out that new bed. _'Yes, a nap does sound good, would anyone care to join me?'_

 _'I will join you, I could use a little rest before going back and enjoying a few more hours in that pool again.'_ Alese said, standing up, _'Shawn, Ghost, would you care to join us?'_

 _'I am not that tired right now; I would like to go back and explore that area some more, maybe after that, I will join you if you are not back in the pool,'_ Ghost stated, getting up, itching to see what else the massive training area had to offer. None of them had been in such a large area and it was the closest to being planetside any of them had ever been. He had a feeling they were going to be spending a lot of time there.

Slowly getting up and for a couple of minutes Shawn stretched out the muscles that were starting to get stiff and sore from all the activity, it had been a while since he had been that physically active, and he knew that he was going to be very sore come morning or whatever time it would be. Picking up his tray he looked over at Shadow, then Alese, "I'll hook up with you two here shortly, I need to get some food for our guests and see how the reactors are doing in the shutdown process, figure I shouldn't be more than an hour at most. Besides getting a little nap in doesn't sound half bad right now," While not really all that tired, he did want to try out that massive bed and see how comfortable it was, and while he had grown accustomed to sleeping on the resin coved floor with his Xenos, he really did miss a nice comfortable bed, complete with pillows and blankets. Maybe this would be the best of both worlds combined into one.

Walking to the back to clean up his tray and get some food prepped for the two mercs in the holding cell, he watched as the three Xenos left the mess hall. Shadow was last out the door and turned to look at him.

 _'I'll keep a spot warm for you.'_ He playfully whispered, there was a tone of sly playfulness to it, as if he was planning something, and was just giving Shawn a tease.

 _'I do believe that you said something about keeping me warm this morning both inside as well as out, that is if I remember correctly.'_ Shawn mentally replied back with the same sly playfulness, oh yes, two could play this game and now Shawn was more than willing to. In fact he had kept much of his own intentions hidden from them for most of the day, something that hadn't been all that hard considering how involved they all were in the pool, though there were many times when they were swimming together chest to chest, the feeling of the slick, wet, chitin skin pressed and rubbing against his own skin, made him want to on more than one occasion lose control.

And while Shadow had always been very forward when it came to making his feelings known, this time Shawn had every intention of taking the lead, or at least that was the plan when he got up to their new sleeping area. What would happen after that he had no idea and that though both excited him and terrified him, it was time to stop holding back and start breaking some boundaries.

 _'You did hear correct, oh yes my lovely human, I do fully intend to keep you warm,'_ Shadow purred loudly in his mind, even from their distance, Shawn could feel the heated, sexual arousal radiating from the Praetorian, not only that it was getting stronger by the minute, it was almost like a furnace had been turned on and someone had cranked it all the way up. And Shawn himself was feeling more than a bit overwhelmed by it.

Shawn didn't even realize that he had been holding his breath as Shadow left the mess hall, his tail rising up and sweeping to the side giving the human a last-second visual tease, his heart now racing like a hummingbirds, was it just him or had a heater really been turned on and cranked up at the last minute. Nodding to himself several times, the realization hitting home on what was going to happen, "Okay...right...holy crap this is going to be intense." Shawn muttered absently to himself, maybe he had just bitten off a bit more than he could chew.

And how in god's name did Shadow always know which were the right buttons to push to get him ramped up like this, it never failed, what to say, how and where to touch him, and not just him but all of them, Ghost and Alese were no exceptions, though they were, at least for now, a bit more reserved in their application.

Shaking it off or at least trying to, he went to the task at hand of getting his tray cleaned and getting some food prepared for the mercs. Rushing the two trays down to the brig area and dropping them off, James was awake and gave his usual thanks, Amy thankfully was asleep, so no stress there, thank the universe for small favors on that one, Shawn did not want her bringing down his mood.

Heading up to CIC to check the readings at the Captain's station, he saw that the reactors had flatlined and were now completely cold, had it been eight hours, over that since he was last up to check, it didn't seem that long, he would need to start them up but that could wait until later as the startup process would require monitoring, not something that he wanted to do at this moment. Tomorrow morning or whatever it would be would suffice, an oddity was that time was now starting to have less and less of a meaning to him. He didn't even know what time or day it was, not that any of it seemed to matter, another human concept that he felt like sloughing off.

Sitting down at the Captain's station, Shawn briefly wondered just how much influence the Xenos had on him since their first meeting. Every day that went by he could feel some small part of his human culture that had been engrained in his Psyche being whittled and stripped away, the rules, laws, cultures; the ever-growing list of what was acceptable and what was not, the long list of forbidden taboos, so much of it was starting to matter less and less now. Just how many rules on those very long lists had he now broken and how many more would he continue to break, would it get to the point that he would see his own kind as more alien than the Xenos were.

There were so many things now that he was now considering that he would never have ever considered before or been too afraid of before coming on board, now he was feeling far freer and more liberated than he ever felt in his entire life, the constraints of his culture were slowly falling away and mental barriers were going as well, and as far as he was concerned, good riddance, they had caused him nothing but grief and hardship for the last few years, and realistically if he really wanted to think about and analyze it much longer than that.

Feeling a heated pulling in his chest and stomach, he got up and walked out of CIC, his own arousal was now starting to go into full swing thanks to Shadow's earlier display and now it seemed to be going into overdrive. It was almost as if some sort of primal instinct was starting to take seed in his mind and soul, or perhaps it had always been there and was only now waking up. Either way, it had needs that demanded to be sated.

As he headed up to the observation room or the now new sleeping room, Shawn's mind became more and more engulfed in a sexual haze of raw lust, need and desire, every step he took he felt the carnal wants growing stronger and stronger, his whole body felt abuzz with nervous heightened sexual tension and energy.

Walking into the sleeping room, he saw Shadow and Alese curled up on the bed; Shadow was at the edge with his back facing the wall. Reaching over, Shawn tapped a couple of button on the control panel, one for the shutters to open up and another to dim the lights down some more until only a faint glow illuminated from them, most of the light now came from the ever-present starlight that now gently lit up the room bathing it in a cool radiance.

Walking up to the bed, both were still unmoving, he could see their chests slowly expand and contract with each breath they took, he could in some odd way sense that they were in-between sleep and being awake. Removing his clothes and letting them fall to the floor he turned and sat down on the edge of the bed, his back only a few inches from Shadow's own. Reaching down he felt his own hardened erection, his breath slightly shaky from the nervous tension, it had been so long, so very long since he had been with anyone and now, now...well now he wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen, but it was sure it would be an experience he had never had before.

Turning around and leaning over, Shawn gently kissed Shadow's flank, his hand slowly exploring the Xeno's side and back area. At his touch Shadow stirred a little as his tail twitched slightly and uncurled on its own draping across and down the bed, a small hiss of pleasure came from his maw, with the all too familiar but welcoming rumbling deep from within his chest. Shawn could easily sense that not only Shadow but also Alese was coming out of the half-sleep they had been in.

 _'Mmmmm,'_ Shadow purred, lifting and turning his head to look over at Shawn who was planning small kisses right on his thigh, his hands were all but wondering and exploring the slick, ebony flesh on his sides and back area. Reaching over Shadow gently caressed Shawn's head, the long thin fingers carefully gliding through his hair, and down to his neck, shoulder and back, the affection would never be single sided.

Shawn cast a warm smile up at Shadow as the Xeno's fingers continued to play with his hair and lovingly rubbed his back and neck area. He could feel Shadow's sexual arousal growing, the heated need, but also a gentle calm in wanting to enjoy this moment, there was no need to rush and hurry things along, whether it was just for a few minutes or an hour, for the time being, they could simply enjoy exploring one another's bodies.

 _'Oh...OH!'_ Alese said surprised, as she turned to look at what was happening, while she hadn't heard or even felt Shawn enter the room as she had been partly out, she had most certainly felt what was going on between the two, looking around she noticed the lights were on low and the room was flooded with relaxing starlight, a perfect setting as far as she was concerned.

Lifting his head up, Shawn smiled at Alese now that she was awake and obviously enjoying the show, giving her a wink, he slipped his hand right underneath the base of Shadow's tail and began to stroke and rub the sensitive erogenous zones underneath sending him right into a tizzy, the long tail parted away giving Shawn easy access, oh he was so thankful for that, it would make teasing him so much easier now. The sound of painted hisses filled the room as Shawn continued to rub, stroke and massage the under area hitting every spot that could turn the large Xeno into a whimpering puddle of black chitin.

Shadow wiggled, painted, moaned and hissed at the onslaught from Shawn's fingers as he continued to hit every spot, oh he was so going to find a way to get Alese and Ghost back for telling Shawn about that spot...later, much, much later. He had never felt so much pleasure, it felt like his whole mind and body were about to erupt, as if that wasn't enough he felt something warm, firm and wet pressing against his vent right below the base of his tail, slowly twisting and turning and then pushing its way in about an inch or two and twisting back and forth again over and over, the wave of sensations ripping through his core, He never even thought that something like that could feel so wonderful and satisfying, and this was just the start.

"I fully intend to finish what I start," Shawn said, removing his hand from underneath the Xenos tail.

It took a few seconds for Shadow to regain his senses, and realize that Shawn had just pushed one of his fingers up inside him; by the queen mother, that was something he wanted more of. _'Shawn, are you sure, are you really sure you are ready for this.'_ Shadow said, wanting to make absolutely sure that he was ready, once it started there would be no stopping.

Not saying or even thinking a word, Shawn just leaned over and slipped his hand in between Shadow's legs, his fingers tracing over the protruding slit opening, giving the base a firm squeeze Shadow let out a screeching hiss of pleasure, another squeeze elated another screech from the Xeno. After another couple of squeeze, he was rewarded as the glistening black head started to peek through the slit opening revealing itself. Shawn's fingers slid around the swelling, black cockhead and gave it a gentle squeeze, Shadow let out a loud hiss as waves of pleasure wracked his body, giving several hard thrusts coating Shawn's hand in the slick natural lubricant that seemed to be permeating from his member coating everything it touched with thick, warm strands.

Overall Shawn found that the shape, at least for the cockhead of Shadow penis wasn't too dissimilar in shape from a human's, it was, however, several inches long with a slightly more tapered end at the tip, and a slight flare that puffed out at the base. The shaft was another matter altogether, thick corded muscles and veins bulged out and ran down the entire length and thickened out as it went back down into the slit. Thick warm lubricant seeped out of pours coating the whole organ as it was ready to enter its partner.

' _Oh my, I do think that our human is very much ready for this.'_ Alese commented, fixated on the show being performed by the two males, her own heated arousal was in full swing and she could not wait to mate with one or both, possibly at the same time. She had contacted Ghost to let him know what was going on, but he had declined and simply told her that he would wait until he felt he was ready. But he was glad to know that the three of them were finally able to take that final step to fully bond. Besides having to deal with two fully aroused males might be far more than what Shawn was able to deal with, at least for now.

Shadow could only mentally squeak in agreement as he continued to thrust repeatedly, spreading his legs apart giving Shawn full access as he vigorously stroked the Xenos emerging and engorged member. The feeling of smooth skin rubbing up and down the slick shaft, he didn't want his human to stop, not now and not ever.

Shawn could literally feel Shadow's heart pounding, even deep within his bony chest at the anticipation of what he now knew was going to come, and at the rate they were going, the poor guy was going to blow his load all over the walls and maybe even the ceiling and soon if he kept this up. Slowing down and then stopping, Shawn let go of Shadow's member and then climbed into the bed next to the Xenos.

Shadow was up on his knees facing toward Shawn, leaning down he nuzzled the side of his human's face. Warmth filled his mind, unconditional love, and need, Shawn's could feel something else as the mental warmth flowed in, the link between them was now stronger than ever, both were starting to feel what the other felt. Reaching up, Shawn cupped the side of Shadow's jaw, a moment later he too could feel something warm and soft touching his jaw, but nothing was there.

 _'We can feel what the other feel, the emotions, the physical sensations, all of it.'_ Shadow answered an unspoken question. _'It feeds back, heightens the sensation, the pleasure, everything.'_

Giving the Praetorian a mental affirmative, Shawn started to turn around ready to let Shadow mount him, only to be stopped.

 _'No, not like that, I want to see you, to look into your eyes as we do this for the first time.'_ Shadow told Shawn as he gently pushing him down onto his back and slowly leaned in above him. His hands carefully gripped Shawn's leg and placed them around his waist, the fully engorged member pressing right into the small of Shawn back leaving a trail of the thick, warm gunk. _'I will never harm you; if it starts to hurt I will stop.'_

Repositioning himself, Shawn tried to raise his hips making it's a bit easier for Shadow to enter. His heart pounded away in his chest so hard that it sounded like the thumping of drums in his head, his whole body tingled with raw anticipation and felt like it would light up at any minute. Reaching up he placed his hands on either side of Shadow's face, his fingers slowly gliding across the tendons and exposed muscles. The Xeno leaned into his touch, hissing in approval rubbing the side of his face into Shawn's hand, he could not get enough of his human's touch, the scent, everything was driving him wild with desire, want and need.

Leaning back and then slowly pushing forward several times, Shadow repeatedly missed his mark, his member sliding up between Shawn's legs and over his groin slickly coating the area.

"Easy there big guy... just relax," Shawn told the Xeno, trying to hold it together himself, there was a part of him that still couldn't believe that this was going to happen, he kept expecting to walk up from some wonderful, lucid dream, and if it was a dream, it was one he did not want to wake up from.

 _'This...is no dream,'_ Shadow reassured him, thrusting forward several more time, before hitting the spot he was aiming for. Slowly he began to push, and ever so slowly entered his human, his bond mate, his lover.

Pain, in the past there had always been pain when someone had entered him, it always hurt at first, thankfully the pain was short lived as his body grew accustomed, then the pain would give way to pleasure, and this was no different, except now his lover's equipment would have made most either gawk in horror or blush in jealousy. And while there was the pain of being penetrated, there was the pleasure that would soon follow. Shawn gasped as he could also feel what Shadow was feeling, the wet, tight, warmth of entering someone, the all-encompassing desire to push all the way in, the need to thrust over and over and deposit his seed in his mate. He also felt the iron mental will to hold back, not to hurt his smaller lover.

The flip side was that Shadow felt what Shawn did, the pain of being stretched out and entered, that small twinge of fear that something might rip inside, but also the heated anticipation as well as the joy of being able to become so close to some else.

Shawn bit down as Shadow's cock-head began to enter, pushing through, the slightly pointed tip and thick, warm lubrication helped as he slowly pushed his way inside, Shadow would slightly withdraw and then push back in again, repeating this action over and over. Shawn could see that Shadow's tail was partly flagged up, the blade tip twitching back and forth slightly every time he thrust in, going in a little deeper each time. Both of them were close to rapture, each feeling what the other was, the pain of being stretched out but that wonderful feeling of being filled, the pleasure of entering someone that was desired and loved.

The pain began to subside as the muscles grew accustomed to the girth, slowly a feeling of wet warmth filled him as Shadow began to speed up increasing his pace, his head pushing all the way in, the flare at the base of the head expanding some as soon as he was in. Shadow leaned in, pressing his forehead up against Shawn's own. Letting out a deep moan as Shadow started to push deeper into him, the corded muscles and thick veins rubbing up against his inner wall, sending waves of bliss throughout his whole body, he didn't want this to ever stop, never ever stop.

Slowly, almost pulling out all the way, Shadow would then slowly push back in, going a little further in every time sending waves of ecstasy ripping through his being as the fleshy wall would clamp down on his member. His gaze was locked on Shawn's face...his eyes the whole time, the human was in paradise; he knew that it had been a long time for Shawn since he had come close to feeling anything like this, and he wanted his human to keep feeling this, as they were one, now and forever.

Tilting back his head, Shawn could barely think, much less speak, when this had started he had half expected Shadow to lose control at least partly and to go at him full fury, wildly thrusting until he climaxed, not this slow meticulous lovemaking that was now happening. He didn't know how much of Shadow's member he had taken in, or how deep in it was, nor did he care, the warm, slick flesh rubbing up against his inner rectum walls, he was so close to climaxing, feeling Shadow push in again, he clenched down trying to hold the alien's massive cock in place, only to feel it being pulled back out and then to be pushed back in, the slick warmth filling and coating everything inside.

His whole body felt like it was on fire, all he wanted was release, and yet at the same time he never wanted it, he would have preferred for Shadow to make love to him like this forever. He leaned forward and kissed the Xeno on his lips, the kiss was returned as Shadow pressed his thin lips teasing and dancing over Shawn's own.

Shadow had tried to hold back as long as he could as he neared his climax, enjoying every second, every thrust, every squeeze, the wet warmth of being inside another, filling them up. Wrapping his arms around Shawn's head as he continued to kiss him, his thrusts speeding up, Shawn gasped and croaked at the rapid assault of feeling Shadow nearing his climax, his release.

There was no loud roaring or deafening hissing and screaming as one might imagine, only a series of low moans and tiny squeaks as Shadow continued to thrust quickly and deeply, his cock-head swelling up locking them in place as he reached his climax and ejaculated his seed inside Shawn over and over. His thrusts began to slow down as his seed still continued to squirt out and then finally stopping.

The two looked at each other, Shadow reached and gently stroked Shawn's face with the tips of his fingers, _'My beautiful human, my beloved bond-mate,'_ he mentally whispered into Shawn's mind. He lay there not pulling out just yet, giving them both some time to rest and bask in what had just happened. Shadow did notice that Shawn had not reached climax and was still aroused and had a full erection.

"Oh...damn...that..." Shawn could barely speak as he reveled in the mind-blowing sex that had just happened, at least for one of them, he felt everything Shadow had, the mental feedback, warmth, tightness, penetration, and just the sheer size of how big Shadow was. "...that was intense, indescribable, and my god you're fucking huge."

'I'm glad _you enjoyed it,'_ Shadow replied back, kissing Shawn across his neck, pushing himself in a bit deeper, eliciting another moan and gasp from their human. Shadow could tell that Shawn was more than just enjoying it, he was craving it, he would bet that after this opening night, there would not be a day or night; not that time mattered to any of them, that did not go by where they were busy breeding each other.

After a few more minutes, Shadow's head swelled down enough that he was able to slowly pull out, and while his own erection had not gone down that much, it was more than enough to free himself, at least for now, after all, there was still more to come. _'We will need to attend to your needs.'_ Shadow said slyly tracing a claw down Shawn's chest, stomach, groan and then wrapping his hand around the human's own member giving it a playful squeeze, causing his human to thrust up several times.

 _'Allow me,'_ Alese said and slid up next to Shawn, he could feel her lust, arousal, and full-blown need. _'You two put on a very desirable show,'_ her fingers tracing up and down Shawn's shaft and belly, sending him close to climaxing, he was so worked up that it now would not have taken much to push him over the edge.

"I'm not going to last that long, you realize that," Shawn said, grabbing her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Leaning over she nuzzled the side of his face, letting him know that it was all right. _'No expectations, let us enjoy each other, if you do not last long the first time, then there is the second and third time if not more.'_ She told him, the last thing she wanted for him was to feel that he needed to perform for her or any of them, this was about bonding with each other, becoming closer, building a deeper level of trust, sharing themselves to one another, not just simply getting each other off or trying to impress someone with physical prowess for mating. Swinging her leg over him, straddling his groan she started to grind into him, Alese's mind linking with his in much the same way that Shadow had when he had made love to Shawn.

Only able to moan at the hot, wetness that he felt coming from Alese's body as she rubbed herself back and forth on him. His own member felt like it was about to burst as there was no way he would last more than a few thrusts inside of her, that was if he even got that far. Gently Alese grabbed his hands, their fingers interlocking together as she kept their hands close to her chest. Her grinding slowed down, and she lowered herself onto him. Thrusting up he entered into her; the slick warm tunnel of flesh gripped and massaged his member right away as he started to rapidly thrust in and out.

Alese arched her back; her tail looped over her as a long hiss of pleasure escaped her. While Shawn was nowhere as big as Shadow was in length or girth, she did thoroughly enjoy the feeling of him slipping up inside of her. Her grip on his hands tightened up as she continued to ride him, her rhythm increasing as she felt that Shawn was very close to his release. He had so much pent up sexual energy and tension and for so long there had been no one to help him release it, it seemed to her that it was due to make up for lost time.

Pulling out of the hand grip with Alese, Shawn grabbed her thighs and spread his legs out for better support, then started to thrust up as hard and as fast as he could, lifting her off the ground slightly with each pump, his mind was in such a lust filled and sex-starved fog, that he needed release and now, his body begged for it, and after all these years, finally being inside someone, even if that someone was not human, was absolute heaven for him, the heat, the wetness, the slickness of the fleshy walls that contracted and gripped at his cock teasing and massaging it, all he wanted was to climax and unload inside of her and not stop.

Moments later as he thrust up into her over and over again, he came deep inside of her, his release finally happening, he could feel her coming to climax at the same time, the fleshy walls squeezing his member hard over and over milking him for everything he had. His movement slowed down and then stopped after several dozen more thrusts into her. While he was not fully spent by any means, he did start to relax as all the built up sexual energy and tension finally drained away.

 _'That was very nice, we both needed it.'_ Alese said, leaning down and kissing his lips and neck.

Rubbing her dome and returning her kisses, he smiled up at her, "Oh my dear, that was wonderful, thank you, you have no idea how much I needed that, thank you." His breathing was heavy and slightly labored coming off of the sexual high, sweat covered his body and was now giving off, at least to the Xenos, a heavy musky scent that they were finding all too arousing. "I hope that there is more to come tonight; I feel I can go a few more times now that all that tension is gone," Shawn told her feeling much better than he had in a long time.

 _'Mmmmm, good,'_ she replied, ' _Cause I do believe that someone has become very needy and is wanting some more attention._ ' Both turned their heads to look at Shadow who was lying on his side, his fully erect member was damn near slapping his belly in anticipation of another round or several.

"Well now, it would be rude of us to keep him waiting, would it not?" Shawn replied back, leaning up kissing the front of her dome.

 _'Very rude indeed, and we cannot have that now can we?'_ The female drone agreed, slowly sliding off of Shawn, she hissed in slight protest when his member slipped out of her body, she had so very much enjoyed having their human inside of her, even if it was for a short time, already she wanted him back inside of her. Thankfully that would come later and very soon with any luck, also with the tension finally released she figured they would be able to go for a longer time.

Sliding up to the large male Xeno, Shawn reached out, the tips of his fingers gliding over the base of Shadow's dome and around the edge where the crest started. Shadow purred at the affectionate touch, Shawn's touches always seemed to have an intoxicating effect on not only him but Alese and Ghost as well.

Pushing himself up onto his knees, reaching out to return the kind gesture, Shadow brushed the back of his fingers running across the side Shawn's face. Such small acts meant everything to them, the caring rubs, or soft touches, every time they would press their foreheads together, each act continued to reinforce and strengthen the ever-growing bond between them.

Getting up, Shawn turned around and leaned over planning his hands on the mattress, he could feel the heated desire and arousal coming from Shadow. Now that all that nervous sexual energy was gone they could all enjoy each other and take their time pleasuring one another. And right now he wanted the big guy to give him a proper like mounting, something he knew Shadow would be up for.

Coming up behind Shawn, Shadow bent over his human mate, pressing his chest and stomach against Shawn's back and wrapping his arms around his chest, feeling the warm soft skin. He leaned forward a little more until the side of his head brushed up against Shawn's face and began to affectionately rub the side of his human's cheek and neck. Starting with small thrusts, Shadow missed several times, either going too high and rubbing his member against the small of Shawn's lower back or going to low and between his legs. Not that either one of them minded their members rubbing against one another. It was something both of them would have to try some time later on.

' _Allow me my loves,'_ Alese said, coming up behind Shadow, reaching underneath, she gripped the base of his member giving it a playful squeeze and several strokes to fully prime him, then carefully helped guide him in. A low steady moan and hiss in unison filled the room as Shadow began to thrust back and forth. Alese ran her fingers over his backside, mostly concentrating on massaging the base of his dorsal tubes and the base of his tail, both on the top and the very sensitive underside. His tail almost with seemed to have a mind of its own as it lifted up and parted over to the side, allowing her access. Her fingers continued to tease and play with the underside of his tail adding to what was already a heightened sensation.

Shawn would have collapse forward losing himself in their lovemaking, if not for Shadow holding on to him and keeping him grounded, the first time, while not a wild frenzy, had been intense and a much need release for all of them. This, however, was for the pure enjoyment and pleasure of the act. At first, Shadow had started off slow, slowly pushing in and then ever so slowly pulling out, gradually he picked up his pace, gaining speed and finally finding a speed that both of them felt was good for the time being. Shawn's eyes almost rolled up in his head as the thick, warm and slick member kept working at his inside walls.

Even with the other men and women he had been with over the years, nothing would ever be able to compare to what he was experiencing right now with the Xenos. Repositioning his left hand to help stabilize himself, he reached under and around with his arm and cupped the front of Shadow's domed head and pulled him in as close as he could.

Picking up his pace and going faster and deeper, Shadow's grip tightened around Shawn's chest, his climax nearing, his cock-head swelled up locking them in place, Shawn could only manage small gasps and squeaks as Shadow unloaded with a series of harder thrusts, then slowing down as he finished climaxing. As Shadow's whole body relaxed as he let out a deep sigh, his member was still fully engorged and was not going to go down anytime soon. Reaching between Shawn's legs, he felt the human's own hard erection, he was a bit surprised Shawn was able to recoup so soon, though it had been a long time since their human had coupled with anyone.

Coming up with a creative idea, he sent Alese a private message, one that she instantly jumped on to try out. Not wanting to pull out anytime soon, Shadow coaxed Shawn to lay down with him, being careful as not to hurt their human, or pull out too soon and cause him undue pain and damage. Rolling on his back slightly while keeping Shawn close to him and in place, he hooked his right leg over Shawn's leg and spread them apart slightly.

Shawn didn't know what Alese and Shadow were up to, but he was going to go with it anyway, he had just experienced the best mind-blowing sex in his entire life and he figured that it was only going to get better. He didn't even mind that Shadow's member was still fully engorged and had locked the two in place, for him there was the warm satisfying feeling of having something so slick and warm fill him up inside.

Sliding up next to them, Alese lifter her leg and draped it over Shadow's hip and slowly slid herself over Shawn, _'Let us see how long we can go, I desire to feel you inside me again.´_ She cooed at him, pressing her body up against his she began to rub and grind her hips to his once more, finding the mark she let out a familiar low hiss as Shawn entered her, her muscles clamping down and rubbing his cock.

With Shawn fully inside Alese, Shadow rolled back onto his side, which in turn caused Shawn and Alese to reposition themselves on their sides, his tail coiled around Alese's as he began to give slow and small thrusts, adding to the pleasure that Shawn was already feeling.

All Shawn could do is start to thrust back and forth, feeling his member slide up her warm, wet, fleshy canal once more, instinctively he tried to push himself as deep into as he could. After a minute or so, the three of the hit a steady rhythmic pacing, a part of him still couldn't believe he was now sandwiched in between the two Xeno like this. The kicker was that now each one was feeling what the other was, and it was all feeding back in on itself, heightening the experience, he could only hold on to Alese as he wrapped his leg around her thigh and his arm around her torso with his head pressed into her chest. He wasn't even able to moan or gasp, as a tsunami of feelings were coming close to overloading his mind, thankfully Alese and Shadow were able to filter out just enough to keep him from going over the edge, the three sped up their thrusting as Shawn tightened up his grip, all of them wanting and needing to release, to hit that blissful climax, several minutes later all three simultaneously climaxed as one, the wave of sexual pleasure, release, and endorphins washing over all of them like a massive flood.

Neither of the three moved at all, each one holding the other, Shadow was still deep inside Shawn, who in turn was still inside Alese.

"I think," Shawn gasped weakly after a few minutes of trying to regain his senses, "that you two literally just blew my mind."

Reaching down she stroked his hair and the side of his face with the tips of her fingers, _'I love you, and I always will, our beloved bond mate.'_ She mentally whispered to him. Neither she nor any of them wanted this moment to end, to just lie there, as there were, as one.

Shawn was finding himself quickly losing focus, his mind and body were starting to drift off to sleep, as active as he had been, this had been the final topper for him. He felt Shadow gently rubbing the side of his torso and flank with his fingers, he tried to say something but even the words would not come out as the fog of sleep started to take him. The last thing he remembered thinking before closing his eyes and drifting off was just how much he loved them all and that he now was truly theirs and that was something he was truly happy with.


	21. Building Bridges

**Please feel free to review and or comment, and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story.**

 _xxxxx_

Chapter 20: Building Bridges

Soft starlight filled the newly minted sleeping room as the lights on the baseboards, walls and even parts of the ceiling slowly alternated in different colors giving the room a very relaxed feeling. Shawn had only been awake for a short time and if he had felt sore the morning before, it was nothing compared to how his whole body was screaming bloody murder at him now.

There was not a single muscle that was not sore, stiff and ached and was not protesting every time he moved, mostly due to the many hours swimming in the Olympic size pool, though having such an intense lovemaking session with Shadow and Alese had only added to that soreness. But in his mind, it had been so worth it, the sexual tension was gone and he felt emotionally relaxed.

Upon waking up he found he was still tightly sandwiched between Shadow and Alese, he had some time during the night slipped out of Alese, the same however could not be said for Shadow, who was still firmly lodged up inside of him. The fact that the Shadow had maintained an erection not only while he was asleep but that it had lasted so long, something to be said for some serious constitution.

He also vaguely remembered having the feeling of climaxing over and over again during the night, though he wasn't sure if that had been him or if it was Shadow projecting his feelings to him.

Something moved off to the side of his peripheral vision, turning his head he saw Ghost sitting cross-legged on the bed right at their feet, looking at the three of them. His head tilted side to side as if he was intently observing and studying them.

 _'That was quite a mating session the three of you had last night, I could feel everything even from where I was at.'_ He remarked with a smile plastered across his face.

Opening and closing his eyes several times, Shawn tried to say something but no words would come out, even trying to talk seemed to take far too much energy. _'You should have joined us last night, you were missed.'_ He managed to mentally reply back to Ghost after a minute or two, getting his focus back at least in part.

 _'I would have liked too, but I didn't want you to get overwhelmed, I imagine trying to satisfy both Shadow and Alese was a daunting task unto itself and to be honest I don't believe that you would have been able to handle and take two overly horny undersexed male Xenos at the same time without being hurt, not something any of us would want. And I for one would like our time to be a bit less frantic if or when we choose to mate._ Ghost told him, tilting his head again, ' _besides, you look and sound like hell.'_

Shawn could only nod slightly in agreement, ' _More to do with all the swimming yesterday then the sex, think that I may have overdone it just a tiny bit.'_ A gross understatement and they both knew it, he had pushed himself far too hard, but it had been more fun than he had experienced in years, and that right there made the price he was now paying in sore and achy muscles worth it.

 _'I have something you may be interested in seeing when you are able too, I was exploring more of that massive area and found what looks like a combat training area for human warriors, we may want to start using it ourselves to get ready for whatever we will face on Eclipse station.'_ The drone stated, his tail coiling around his lap.

Everything was literally registering at a snail's pace though Shawn's mind, after a few minutes he weakly raised his arm and extended his hand toward Ghost. _'Please, help me up, I can barely move.'_ He pleaded in a rather pathetic and weak mental voice.

 _'Are you sure you want to get up, you can rest if you want to, there is no need to rush.'_ Ghost side, not only feeling a bit guilty but also a little worried about the sad state that Shawn was in. It hadn't been their intention to put him into this condition, in fact, it hadn't even dawned on Ghost or the other's that Shawn was not in peak physical form. Ghost made a mental note that they would go slower and build up from now on.

 _'Stiff...sore...need to move, hot shower, lots of coffee, and then the room.'_ Their human mentally croaked.

Kneeling up and inching forward as not to disturbed the still sleeping Shadow and Alese, Ghost grabbed Shawn's hand and carefully pulled him up, Shadow's member effortlessly slipped out and plopped down on the bed with a heavy wet thud.

Tilting his head Ghost looked down and then back at Shawn, _'he was in you this whole time?'_ He asked rather astonished by the display of raw endurance Shadow seemed to have.

"Yeah," Shawn nodded, finally getting his voice back, "the whole night, don't know how many times he climaxed while I was sleeping, but I kept feeling it in my dreams." Shawn looked back over at Shadow and his still erect member, "geez with stamina like that he could be a king in the porn business."

 _'Porn?'_ Ghost inquired, this was a new term that he had never heard and was interested in its meaning since in some way it seemed to relate to mating. _'I am not familiar with this word, please explain.'_

"Aww shit," Shawn muttered more to himself, as he slowly crawled off the bed and hobbled over and grabbed his clothes, his joints snapped and popped with every movement, even the small act of bending over and getting his clothes seemed to take forever and was a painful endeavor as his muscles seemed to burn with each small step he took. "Let's go grab a hot shower and I'll try to explain the more colorful human concepts." He croaked, looking back at the bed, neither Xeno had even moved an inch even when he was helped up; maybe they too had overexerted themselves and were dead tired. "Does your race get sore muscles like humans do?" He asked painfully limping out of the room.

 _'No, at least to the extent that you are experiencing, it would take a great deal of stressful activity to make it happen, an example would be running hard for several days straight without rest.'_ Answered Ghost, he felt so sorry for Shawn, the human looked absolutely pitiful as he ever so slowly stumbled along, even though the mental link Ghost could feel the soreness radiate from their human's body. He wanted to help alleviate it, he just did not know how to.

"You can do that, run for days at a time?" asked Shawn as he took slow steps, balling his shirt and pants together; then tucking them under his arm.

 _'Oh yes, run, swim, climb, all manner of physical activity, one of the more positive traits that our creators endowed us with, though more to hunt down and kill our prey than anything else...but we are deviating from topic, I believe you were going to explain the concept of porn to me.'_ Ghost stated, becoming more intrigued by the subject.

"Well, how do I explain this to where it makes any kind of sense, the short of it is that porn, for the most part, is where two or more people, are either filmed or photographed having sex for others to view for their enjoyment and pleasures."

 _'That's it?'_ Ghost asked a bit perplexed and even disappointed by the odd concept of it, he was expecting something…more, 's _o you race enjoys watching each other mate, why record such acts, would it not be more enjoyable to watch the acts first hand, perhaps engage in it as well.'_

Shaking his head, and pinching the bridge of his nose, this was going to be an awkward conversation, to say the least. "Ummm, how can I explain it," Shawn started not at all sure how to go about explaining this one, " humans are, well, prudish when it comes to sex, especially open sex, we aren't quite that bad in private, but for us the subject is well, not really comfortable to discuss openly, same with the act itself. While there are some that like to watch others perform the act in person, most aren't comfortable with doing that, and with porn, they can watch without having another party directly there. Some like to watch to get them in the mood, others for the self-enjoyment, sort of helps with that whole sexual tension thing."

 _'Hmmm, yes, some of what you say does make sense, though it does seem a bit odd, it is a human concept, and many of your races ways are still strange to us.'_ Ghost said, watching Shawn as he continued to limp along in hallway.

"It's also a thriving business too, photographs, drawing, comics and movies around the subject are made and sold, though most are pretty bad as far as the acting and dialog, I mean with a title like Debbie does Uranus how good can it really be, but you don't watch a porn flick for the acting, you watch it for the sex, and while a lot of humans like the plain male and female action, there is a thriving market for the more taboo related material."

 _'Taboo related material?'_ Ghost asked, being more curious about the subject the more Shawn talked about it, such an odd and self-repressed race humans were it seemed. 'Does _this have any relevance with what you said that Shadow could be a king in the porn business?'_

"I'll get to that in a second, but as I was saying you have what you could call plan porn, a male, and female going at it, then you have what is called gay porn, whether it's guy on guy or women on women, then there's the threesomes, foursomes and so on, not really taboo but in some circles it's frowned on. Now when you get into the really exotic, darker and more hardcore stuff a lot of it is openly considered bad and unhealthy, but in private you have people who can't get enough of it, there are even those that will openly criticize and oppose it, but in secret get off on it. An example would be stuff like interspecies porn, humans with other alien races and so on, there's a high dollar market for it, and the weirder, twisted, nastier and more bizarre it is the better."

Ghost cocked his head in thought for a few moments before speaking again, _'So if what you, Shadow and Alese did last night have been recorded for the pleasure of others?'_

Shawn stopped abruptly, "Oh god, no, no, no, no...and Ummm NO!" Shawn just shook his head, even thinking about made him cringe more than just a little, for him last night had been a very private and healing act, not something that he wanted others to watch. "Alright, if you're using that as an example and that's all, then I would say that what we did last night would be a gold mine, there are people that would pay hundreds if not thousands of credits for something like that. The most popular interspecies porn is between humans and the Arraket. Course the other option would be all the custom made synthetic sex-bots that are being marketed, let your wildest fantasy come true in any form and just record that."

 _'I have no knowledge of the Arraket within our hive memories and the humans never mentioned their names.'_ Ghost replied, his head tilting slightly as he continued to search for any memory on the Arraket race.

"They are one of the first galactic space faring races that we officially met a few hundred years ago, they are a reptilian race that is largely clan based, about six to eight feet tall, scaly skin, broad to narrow snouts, lots of razor sharp teeth and claws, hardened head ridges and crests, some with horns some without, they kind of remind me of some of the extinct dinosaurs species from earth millions of years ago, though I seriously doubt there is any relation. But their warriors that are tough as all hell, they also have a massive jump in technology, something that pissed the earth government and mega corps off to no end, and on top of that they were also the ones that led the charge and surrounded earth in a display of force to put us in our place. But despite all that, they have no bones about well burying their bones in humans for the camera, regardless of whether that human is female or male and vice versa seems they are pretty free about sex and have no shame in displaying themselves for all to see. Now in theory, IF and I say IF the four of us were to say, film our own porn series and sell it, you can be damn sure that we would make a fortune off of it. Now as to that comment about Shadow, anyone that can maintain an erection like he did for as long as he did and go at it with as much vigor as he has would easily make a good living for themselves."

' _But you already have a large amount of wealth if I understand the human standards of monetary currency, would you truly need anymore. Plus our race had no need of currency; everything we have and need nature provides for us.'_

"Well no, it was an example more than anything else,' Shawn continued as he started walking again or more or less limping, his whole body ached right to the bone and every time he moved something felt like it was pulling or popping. "Explaining stuff like porn and the environment it goes with isn't always easy, especially to someone who has no concept of it, because then there isn't much of a context to compare it to. Besides all that money I got, it was compensation for something that should never have happened, and other than buying my ship I've never really spent much of it, I went and invested most of it instead so I could help my family out if they ever needed it. And the fact is we don't know what the future holds for us, when this is all over we may find ourselves in situations that might need a cash flow of some sort, and there's always the desperate, less than savory way of going into porn, I mean it beats selling ourselves as mercs or some crap like that, which I would never ever want to do."

 _'True, and given the choice, I would rather pleasure my bond-mates for hours or days at a time than engaging in combat and rip apart someone to death. And I know that Shadow and Alese would feel the same way.'_

"And I would too," Shawn assured him, hobbling along until they reached one of the shower areas. Tossing his clothes aside, he found the largest stall in the room, turning on the water to full blast and as hot as he could stand it, he instantly started to relax as all the dried up gunk from last night started to peel and wash away. The high-powered jets of water pelted his body and the heat soaked into his sore muscles, helping them relax.

"Care to join me?" Shawn asked glancing over at Ghost, "I bet you'll find it relaxing."

Without hesitation, Ghost came up behind Shawn and wrapped his arms around their human holding him tightly to his torso, right away he was pelted by the hot spray. Instantly he fell in love with the concept of hot running water and showers, especially if it was like this. _'I see the appeal in these showers now, this is very relaxing and the heat is nice.'_

"It does wonders for sore muscles."

 _'Perhaps this will help as well._ ' Ghost said, taking a step back, he placed his hands on Shawn's shoulders with his thumbs pressing into his shoulder blades and started to give their human a much needed back massage to help undo the soreness.

Right there Shawn almost collapsed, his hands holding onto the shower wall for support keeping himself propped up, at first the massage hurt like hell, but after a few moments, the pain started to ebb some as his muscles began to unwind while the tight knots were worked out. "Damn dude, you're so right."

For about an hour the two stood underneath the hot shower while Ghost ran his hands over Shawn's body, deeply rubbing with this fingers or thumbs over the sore spots or using his knuckles to help undo the deep knots. Going over the back area first, then his shoulder and arms and finishing up with his legs and thighs. Shawn was feeling so relaxed that it took everything not to just lay down and go back to sleep. He was sure that Ghost would have done the same and just curl up right up next to him.

Reluctantly Shawn turned the water off, while he was feeling far better, he still needed some food and coffee, lots and lots of coffee. Ghost had found the concept of a hot shower all too inviting, this was something that he had until now never tried, but was more than willing to make a routine out of it. Maybe nature didn't supply them with everything they needed, namely a nice, big soft bed and a hot shower. If they ever got planet side and were able to form a hive, he would somehow make sure that a bed and hot running water were a part of it.

Getting dressed and heading down to the mess hall the two got a quick bite to eat, which for Ghost consisted of a couple of large portions of synthetic meat and for Shawn a bowl of cereal, as well as a large carafe of coffee, and a mug. Finishing up, Shawn just grabbed the carafe along with the mug and stuffed some packages of creamer and sugar in his shirt pocket before heading to see what Ghost had found.

 _'You seem to drink a lot of that liquid and its smell while not unpleasant is rather odd, for you is it any good?'_ Inquired Ghost, his tongue slowly slipping out to scent taste the steam coming up from the coffee carafe to him there was a slightly bitter taste but also something that was sweet as well, odd very, very odd.

"What, coffee, yeah. Well, for some it's an acquired taste, some do drink it for the taste but most of us drink it for the caffeine which helps keep us awake or in my case as of right now, helps get us started for the day and half way function at least. The best friend of space faring jocks, and all night gamers, geeks, and nerds." Holding out the coffee carafe and jiggling it a bit, "And I can tell you right now, I'll be going through another one of these today the way I'm feeling."

As they left the mess hall Ghost gave another tilt of his head, something Shawn had come to recognize as what the Xeno's equivalent of a quizzical look, their races body language could speak volumes, a single gesture could mean many things, add to that a hiss with a patellar tone, pitch, length could change the meaning completely. _'While I know what games are, at least our races concept of them, and it may be similar to your races too, the term gamer is something I have not heard before, neither is the term geek or nerd.'_

Taking another swig of his coffee, Shawn had always gotten the impression that Ghost was a curious being, but now was starting to realize just how curious Ghost really was about everything, if there was a way for the Xenos to view computer monitors and see all the information available, Shawn was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ghost would have had his chitin covered ass firmly planted in front of a computer soaking in all the info that he could find, whether that would be for good or ill he wasn't sure, but he could see it leading to some rather awkward and maybe embarrassing explanations about human culture.

"Maybe after I'm better rested I can try to explain those terms to you or show you through the link, sometimes it's difficult to explain sub-cultures, even if you know how to, there are so many nuances that it's easy to misinform."

 _'Is this another lack of context that you mentioned while trying to describe the subject of porn earlier, which is still both odd and strangely fascinating.'_

"Something like that," Shawn said while nodding in agreement, "you'll find that humans do a lot of weird things that get integrated into our culture, sometimes without us realizing it until we look back on it years later."

 _'Interesting,'_ Ghost mused more to himself than to Shawn.

Arriving in front of the large twin double doors a short time later the two entered the massive area. Taking the lead Ghost trotted along with Shawn following close behind.

 _'This is what I wanted to show you, as well as Shadow and Alese when they wake up.'_ The Xeno said, walking up to another set of double doors that lead into what looked like another massive sub room of some sort. As soon as they both entered the two found themselves in a short hallway, three doors were the only thing present in the hallway, the first was just a few meters away on the right side, the second door was much further down on the right and just next to it looked to be a large elevator, perhaps for a large group or maybe even freight and equipment.

Heading to and stopping at the first door, a second later it slid open with a quiet hissing sound, _'I believe this is a command or an observation room of some sort, perhaps both.'_ Ghost said walking inside with Shawn following behind.

At the movement of the two, the lights in the room hummed to life, lighting the small room up. Over all the room was about thirty-five feet wide and about twelve feet deep, several large consoles were set on the forward facing wall as well as a large window that spanned the entire length of the room overlooking a second massive room that was still bathed in darkness. Dozens of seats with half as many small tables lined the back wall.

Setting his coffee mug and carafe down on one of the tables, Shawn started to look around the room, mostly what looked to be a control station. Going to the console, he found dozens of switches marked for lighting as well as dimmer knobs next to them. Flipping a couple of the switching a few lights in the large room lit up. "Guess we know what these are for now."

 _'I explored that room when I found it earlier, it was empty which I found very strange, but there were many other rooms attached to it, some of them had very unusual looking androids as well as some weapons and human armor, though it looked different from the weapons and armor that I have seen before.'_ Ghost informed Shawn as he too was now looking over the console more out of insatiable curiosity than anything else.

Flipping all the light switches on, the massive room lit up and revealed a large amount of empty nothingness. "Ok, umm, yeah, that is a lot of nothing in there," Shawn said looking out into the large area. Grabbing a chair he sat down at the console and started to look over it, hitting what looked like several power buttons, the computer stations lit up, coming to life as well as the entire large console.

" **PLEASE SELECT BATTLE SIMULATION LAYOUT."** The same monotone computer voice piped up.

Looking up at Ghost, Shawn just gave the Xeno a shrug, "Guess that answers that, looks like you were right about it being a training area." Looking at the computer screen he saw several lists of what looked like layouts that he could choose from. "Ok, let's go with option one." He said to himself, tapping the screen.

 **"CONFIRMED, BEGINNING SETUP OF COMBAT LAYOUT, PLEASE STAND BY."** The computer informed them.

Standing up, Shawn and Ghost looked out the window as what looked like various sizes of wall slabs that started to be lowered into place on the floor by mechanical arms and clamps. Glancing down at one of the monitors he saw an overlay of the area that was being created, within in several minutes the layout was finished.

 **"PLEASE SELECT NUMBER OF COMBAT DRONE OPPONENTS AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL."**

"How about we go with zero and zero on this one," Shawn said, looking to see if that was even an option or if there was a way to cancel the whole setup, the last thing he wanted to do was start up some kind of war game without knowing exactly what he was doing.

 **"CONFIRMED, CANCELLING COMBAT DRONE ENGAGEMENT."**

"Want to head down there and take a look around?"

' _Yes,'_ Ghost answered turning and heading for the door.

Topping off and doctoring his coffee mug Shawn headed out of the control room and followed Ghost through the second door and into the massive training area, a flight of stairs that was several stories tall pressed up against the wall took them to the bottom level.

Upon reaching the ground floor both human and Xeno looked at their surroundings, the massive gunmetal grey room looked to be several hundred feet wide and just as deep, while being three possibly four levels tall, even with the light blaring down Shawn could barely make out the ceiling much less see the other side of the wall very well. "Place is a lot bigger than I thought, I would bet that the Ember-Rose could almost fit in this room." The two walked over to the newly formed simulation layout, light gray walls close to twelve feet tall stood forming what looked to be a series of hallways and rooms, at least from what Shawn had seen on the computer monitor as it was being constructed.

Entering the area, the gray walls seemed to close in on them immediately; the width of the hallway was about eight maybe nine feet wide, more than enough for two to three people walking abreast, examining the base of the walls, they looked to be clamped down into the main floor. Pressing his hand against the wall it was cool to the touch, instantly the area of the wall around his hand and fingers began to slightly change colors, pressing a bit harder the coloring became more intense, removing his hand the color of the wall returned to the normal gray. It was definitely metal, he just wasn't sure of what kind, something lightweight, maybe the walls were hollow. Going down the hallway and making several turns they noticed a series of four mock rooms each staggered in position down the hallway, two on the left and two on the right.

 _'This system is very interesting; the ability to create different layouts to train in would serve us well, we need to utilize this area and start training for what is to come.'_ Ghost commented, tapping the side of the wall seeing how stable it was. ' _The material seems strong enough, I wonder if it would support our weight?'_

Looking at Ghost with a puzzled look, Shawn was wounding just what he had in mind, "Support your weight, what are you..." Before Shawn could even finish Ghost leapt up from nothing more than a prone standing position, jumping up several feet, for a second his body seemed to stick to the wall, and then a split second later he pushed off sailing up a several more feet to the opposite wall and then pushed off again, in just a matter of second he had gone from being on the floor to standing on top of the wall his tail coiling around his legs and feet and draping over the edge. The walls that he pushed off of never even moving a millimeter.

Shawn just stood there completely stunned and dumbfounded by the display of what seemed like gravity defying acrobatics, and the kicker was that Ghost had made it look so easy. "Ghost, how...what...what the fuck, how...how did you do that."

Turning around on his heels and taking a few steps, Ghost leaped off the wall and landed kneeling right in front of Shawn, looking up at the human he smiled and slowly stood up. _'Something our race has been able to do, while we can't stick to smooth and slick surfaces very well like these, we can stick just to them just long enough to push off and gain some height. If it were a rock wall or the surface of a hive, something with more of a rough and textured surface we could climb up very quickly and with little effort.'_

"Guess that's one reason why you guys are such bad-asses when it comes to ambush tactics." Stated Shawn, still more than a bit awestruck by just how agile Ghost was, he was wondering if Alese and Shadow were just as agile.

' _One reason, not the only one, but yes one of them, now shall we finish looking around this little maze and then go and look at those other rooms and figure out what their purposes are?'_ Ghost asked, placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder.

Reaching up Shawn placed his hand over Ghost's giving it a firm squeeze, "You lead I'll follow my dear."

The maze as Ghost had put it only consisted of about a total of ten room and the connecting hallways, it reminded Shawn of an office layout more than anything else with the biggest room being at the end of the hallway. To him it felt like it was a scenario where the defenders would reinforce the rooms, taking cover while the attacker's goal might be to clear out said rooms. Maybe a hostage scenario of some sort.

Making their way out of the maze area, Ghost and Shawn walked over to one of the rooms, entering it, untold dozens what looked more like basic robots than androids filled the room, there were four rows that spanned from one end of the room to the other, each one was housed in a small holding chamber, some double and even tripped stacked. Along the full length of one of the walls was a large assortment of weapons housed in holding racks.

Walking up to one of the mechanical automatons, carefully Shawn looked it over, it stood just at seven feet tall and was little more than a black basic metal frame with armored mechanical reinforced arms and legs, a thick chest plate and a rounded oval dome for the head with a single optical circle for its eye made up the construct, it was, in almost every sense of the word quite literally bare bones, not even wearing synthetic or rubber skin.

"Guess these are the combat training drones, honestly I was expecting something a bit more human looking and advanced, but if it's for training then I guess there's not much need in looks," Shawn said, flicking the think heavy chest plate with his finger, a low clank sound echoed throughout the room. Looking closer he saw what looked to be very faded multi-color smudges dotting not just the chest plate area but the whole unit.

Getting a closer look at the bot, Ghost leaned forward until he was just an inch or so from the head of the unit, ever so slowly his elongated domed head slowly leaned from one side to the other, carefully scrutinizing the mechanical thing. _'We can use these things to train with, is that not correct?'_

Backing away from the combat drone, Shawn walked over to the weapons area to inspect the array of guns, as Ghost continued to look over the unit. "I would think so, just have to figure out how to work the controls and get the training area set up." He replied picking up a rather unwieldy rifle, the grip was larger and longer with a trigger that was almost double in size, sitting it back down he figured it might be the training weapons that the bots used.

Kneeling down, Shawn grabbed a couple of boxed of ammunition and opened them up, removing a round from each of the boxes he turned the projectiles over in his hand examining them. One box had soft gelatinous red colored tip, _maybe paint rounds_ , he thought to himself, holding the massive round up by his thumb and index finger. These rounds were far bigger than anything he had ever seen for a rifle, even the rounds that the mercs had used while being a fairly large sized round, were almost dwarfed in comparison by the size of what he now had in his hand.

While Shawn hadn't made it to any of the armories yet, however, if any of the live ammo used by the actual weapons themselves were even close to this size, then there was a very good chance that the guards on Eclipse base and whatever else might be using the exact same ammo. Which would mean they would be facing off with human guards and combat androids that in all likelihood be using the exact same weapons.

Flipping the gelatinous round over, Shawn looked around the base where the primer was located, a tiny set of numbers with a pair of letters were stamped right into the metal, '13.5mm' it read. Examining the other round that he had taken out of the box, it was the same size, only the tip was a soft black colored rubber.

"You do realize that when we start training, we're going to get hit with some pretty big sized fucking rounds, and it's going to hurt a lot, even if they are soft rubber or what looks like some kind of paint round," Shawn told Ghost holding up the ammo for him to see.

Turning away from the combat drone, Ghost sauntered up to Shawn his black segmented tail lazily waving back and forth across the cold metal floor, looking at the dummy ammo his human was holding, _'Better to experience short term pain and stay alive than to be shot and die.'_ The Xenomorph told him outright, ' _the more we train the better prepared we will be when we board Eclipse station, and while I have no desire to see you hurt in training, it is something that will be unavoidable.'_

Putting the ammo back in the boxes and placing them back where he had gotten them, he looked up at Ghost, "You do realize that Shadow is not going to like it one damn bit, I can see him acting as a shield for me and taking everything these damn things throw just to protect me."

 _'And he would do it too, it's in his nature to do so, and while he will not like you getting hurt during training, he will understand that he needs to step aside and not protect you and let you carry yourself, even if it means earning a few bruises or cuts.'_

Reaching up and rubbing Ghost's dome, Shawn gave his Xeno bondmate a small smile, not one of happiness but of grim realization of what was to come. "So add to the list of things we have to do, one being first and foremost get the reactors and engines back on line, which is easy, then figure out a plan to get onboard this Eclipse station, see if this ship had any sort of blueprints or layout of Eclipse station that we can use, figure out how to get to the lab area undetected free your brothers and sisters, then get off of that station and back onto the Saratoga while avoiding a shit storm of enemy fire, and finally start prepping to train for said assault onto this secret station, oh and to top it off, I've never even fired an assault or a pulse rifle in my entire life, about the closest thing I've ever come to firing something like that was an old semi-automatic rifle at a training range, and that was when I was still living in Lunar city, oh and all of this within the course of what two weeks."

Leaning into the rubbing Ghost let out a pleased hiss, _'you have resources on board you can use, in fact, if I am not mistaken such a resource to help in your training of using weapons is sitting in the brig as we speak.'_

Shawn just stared as if Ghost had grown two heads, the idea was ludicrous, that guy would never agree to help them, as far as he was concerned Shawn and the Xenos were the enemy and that was that. "You are not fucking serious are you?" Shawn flat out said, "Why, why would he even think about helping us; like he said we are on opposite sides of the fence."

 _'Then remove the fence and the problem will solve itself,'_ Ghost stated in that matter of fact tone, _'he is looking... correction, searching for something to be a part of, something far bigger than himself, he is not so different than one of my kind who is lost looking for a hive to be a part of.'_

"And how am I supposed to ask him or what am I going to tell him, he'll want to know why and I would too if I was in his position. If I was in his shoes and someone asked me what you're proposing I'd want to know everything, otherwise, I might tell them to go fuck themselves."

 _'Then tell him the truth, tell him everything you feel is safe to tell him. Try to bring him into the fold as much as you can, at least enough to help you get familiar with some of the weapons that you will need to use,'_ Ghost answered, pushing his dome harder into Shawn's hand as he still continued to rub the Xenos carapace.

Standing there he brought up both hand and started to lovingly rub both sides of the drone's slick, black dome. "Guess it can't hurt to ask, it's either that or I try and figure out the weapons myself and will probably end up doing something stupid, like blowing off a finger or two."

 _'Yes, doing that would be unwise and would cause as all undue stress, please do not do something like that.'_ Replied Ghost, his chest deeply rumbling and the attention while his tail twitching back and forth wildly.

"Maybe we should finish up down here and then scope out one of the armories, just to see what they have," Shawn said seeing how much Ghost was getting into it, he could feel deep arousal starting to come from the drone, and if he was in any shape to do so, he would have let Ghost take him perhaps right there. Though he was still in rough shape from the day and night before and would need another day or two of rest.

' _Hmmm, yes of course, '_ Ghost agreed reluctantly, stepping away from Shawn's touch. Part of him agreed with Shawn they did need to finish looking around and see what else this training area had to offer as well as seeing what kind of actual weapons were on board, however, those wonderful soft, gentle rubs against his dome were more than enough to get him going. He loved the feeling of their human's warm and soft skin against his own chitin and carapace body.

Keeping it to himself, he did regret not joining in with the three of them last night, oh it would have been a wonderful and satisfying experience to be able to actually mate and climax and release this repressed sexual tension finally. And although Alese and Shadow had in the past offered themselves he was never ready but now he was and his first time he did want to share himself with their human, and even more so he wanted to offer himself to Shawn to submit himself completely and let himself be fully penetrated. Calming down and getting himself under control he made his way out of the room and back into the large open space.

Coming up behind Ghost, Shawn step in front and placed his hand on Ghost's chest, the Xeno stopped and looked right at the human. "Ghost, please wait for a second, look I get what you're feeling, I really do, I can feel it, and I want to, you know that, right, I really do, I just need a day or two to fully recoup, I know just how patient you have been, hell everyone had been and I can feel how much you're holding yourself back."

Tilting his head to the side slightly, Ghost drew Shawn into a soft embrace, his chin cupping down right on the back of Shawn's head. _'You have had more of an impact on all three of us than you will ever fully realize, you gave us hope, and made us see that your race are not the monsters we thought they were and that it is just those few that are misguided and corrupt, you also made a choice to stand with us even when you had no reason to and became a part of our hive. For you, I will hold back for as long as needed, know that I do desire you and will be looking forward to when we can share each other.'_

"Well, I can say the same for all three of you all, you've helped me heal; I know I still have a long way to go before the damage is repaired, but for the first time in a very long time I've started to feel happy and even seem to have a purpose and I have you, Alese and Shadow all who I want to protect. And the universe doesn't seem to be as cold and uncaring as it once seemed to be." Shawn replied, letting the emotional warmth from Ghost sink in, he had never really had much in the way of solo time with the drone and it was nice to be able to bond with him like this. "Still wish that you have been with us last night."

Lightly running his thumb down the side of Shawn's face, the claw tip ever so gently tracing along the edge of the human's ear sent shivers down Shawn's spine at the gentle touch. _'As you have implied, soon enough, now let us explore the rest of this area and see what it has to offer.'_

"Yeah, I guess we should," Shawn said, not wanting Ghost to let go, he had found that Xeno embraces were one of his top favorite things, right below making love to them, the emotional warmth that seemed to permeate from them almost always felt like a warm physical blanket that he could wrap around himself and be content forever.

The duo spent a couple of hours going through over a dozen more rooms that were connected with the main large training room, mostly it consisted of rooms with more of the training bots, a maintenance and repair bay for said bots and the training weapons. Several rooms with protective armor and training weapons for the crew to use, the mock up training weapons looked, as far as Shawn could tell, identical to the real thing, the only two things that seemed to separate them from actual battle weapons was that the barrel and housing for the barrel was painted bright neon orange, also the weapons seemed to be much lighter, as they seemed to be made mostly of hardened plastic and composite materials.

The selection was far more than he would have thought, pistols, shot guns, pulse rifles, smart guns, medium and heavy sniper rifle, compact machine-guns, stationarily mounted medium and heavy caliber machine guns, grenade launchers and even a training version of a flame thrower. Ammo was the same as it was with the bots, either the rubber caseless rounds or multi colored paint rounds.

There were even two large rooms that had a massive selection of light weight mock up furniture, computer stations, vehicles and even some all too real looking lifelike manikins to simulate bodies, something to give that authentic feel of being in an actual combat area rather than a sterile training room.

Pressing down on one of the mock foam couches, the hard but light weight material giving away very little, but moved as if it weighed almost nothing when Shawn nudged it with his leg, "Looks like they didn't spare any expense when it came to the training gear, you could deck out a small village with all this crap."

 _'Interesting, this may serve us well when we begin our training.'_ Ghost said, his claws lightly scraping across some of the mock furniture, leaving small gouges in the foam, as he walked around the room taking stock of everything that was in the store room. ' _I wonder if it would be possible to replicate the lab and the surrounding areas that we were held in.'_

Shawn sat and leaned on the back of the couch crossing his arms, "Not sure, maybe. Guess it would depend if the training setup for configuring the area would let us set up a custom design, the problem is other than what few glimpses I've had from your memories, I have no idea what the area looks like. If we could get something like that setup then it would help out a lot even if we only had a few trial runs on it."

 _'I agree, even if it is not an exact layout if we could get it close it would give us a better chance than simply going in and hoping for the best and seeing if our luck holds.'_

"And luck is about all we've had to get us out of tight situations and it won't last, we lucked out with the mercs when they boarded us in the simple fact they didn't fully know what they were dealing with, we lucked out down in the hangar bay when they had all three of you ready to load up, and also when we took down the homing beacon and got out of the asteroid field. We can't rely on blind luck because sooner or later it will run out. In fact, we've probably used our luck for the next couple of life times, we need to start planning, and I'm not talking about just getting on board and escaping Eclipse base, I'm talking about planning for anything in the future that we might come up against. If we pull this off, we are going to be hunted and quite frankly given the choice I would rather be able to fight on our terms, not someone else's."

Ghost sauntered up to Shawn and placed his hands on the back of the couch and leaned forward some. _'What do you suggest then?'_

"First off, learn ins and outs of this ship, all the nooks, and crannies, crawl spaces, every hallway, maintenance shaft, tube, everything. Second, maybe store caches of weapons is select spots along with supplies, also figure out how to isolate sections of the ship in case we get boarded again, if we do get your kin off that station then we need to start training on how to defend this ship. Also, I'll see about getting some weapons and supplies transfer onto the Ember-Rose just in case we need to abandon this ship."

Reaching over Ghost placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder and leaned in touching his forehead to the side of Shawn's head. _'It's a sound idea, however, we need to focus on one or two things at a time and not get completely distracted, with everything that you named off I'm afraid that you will push yourself too hard and make mistakes, something that none of us can afford.'_

"Then what would you suggest be the first couple of things off that list that we should work on?" asked Shawn, turning his head and pressing his forehead against Ghosts.

 _'First off, figure out what weapon's you think you will need, and start training with them, then work on the training itself, after that focus on a plan for getting on and off the station. Everything else beyond that is extra.'_

"There is one thing else we need to add to what might become our daily routine for the next couple of weeks, and this dear Ghost is non-negotiable."

 _'Which is?'_

Quickly lowering his head, Shawn kissed Ghost on his thin semi-transparent lips, something that caught Ghost completely by surprise. "That we make time every day to have some fun and relax, it's not going to do any of us any good if we are wound up so tight that we all snap from stress."

 _'Agreed,'_ Ghost purred, returning the kiss for a few seconds, it was an odd human way of showing affection, but one that not only he but also Shadow and Alese had come to like very much.

"So let's go visit one of the actual armories and see what they have to offer," Shawn suggested, wanting to see exactly what kind of military grade weapons were on board.

Leaving the training area, Shawn grabbed his carafe of coffee and refilled his cup with the warm liquid and made their way toward the nearest armory, which was several decks above them and located around the center area of the ship.

 _'I am curious about something, this Arraket race that you mentioned before, have you ever personally met one of them?_ Asked Ghost as they made their way to the armory, his curiously peeking up again as the conversation he and Shawn had earlier came back to mind.

Nodding that he had, Shawn looked over to Ghost as he took a drink from his cup, "There was a small group that was working on Darrius station when I was there. A few hundred of them, I had a chance to work side by side with some of them for a year before most of them got fed up with the conditions and outright left, they were the smart ones getting out before everything went to hell. Hard working, focused, not sure how they ended up on a human run station, but no one ever messed with them; guess having your ass handed to you by an eight plus foot tall bulked out lizard that could rip a bulkhead door off its hinges is one of the last things you want to mess with. But they were a fairly good lot to be around, sometimes a bit too focused and meticulous about small things but then again that's what made them good to work with, anything they did they did well and made sure it lasted."

 _'They sound like an interesting race.'_

"Yeah, they are. Like I was saying earlier they are primarily a clan based society, but have a central hierarchy where there are two representatives, one male, and one female from each clan that serves on a council that oversees and assists the empire as a whole, even though each clan attends to their own affairs within their boundaries and borders, they have to some extent their own additional rules and laws within each clan. In a way, it's not too different from the colonel and colony worlds in that respect seeing as how laws and rules vary from world to world. Also service in their military for them is not only considered a requirement, it's also a way of life and culture to many, after serving the minimum time required they can elect to stay in the military for however long they want to, or if they choose not to stay within military service, the clan elders and sub-elders assist in finding, what we would call a career for them to continue to serve in, though, in the end, it's individuals choice whether or not to pursue the advice of the elders or go and find his or her own way. Plus if they go to war and need to pull from the general population, everyone has military experience so you have in essence a massive reserve army just waiting to become active at a moment's notice. Kind of scary when you think about that."

 _'You seem to know quite a lot about them, it this because of your time working alongside some of them on that station?'_ Asked Ghost, impressed with the flurry of information that Shawn had just unloaded on him about the Arraket, part of him hoped that he might get a chance to interact with one of them in the future, though that was little more than wishful thinking at this point. Still, it would have been fascinating to communicate with another intelligent race, one that might not look at them like some horrid killing machine and monster.

"Well, once you got comfortable being around them, there were a few that you could not get to stop talking once you got them going, I learned more about their race in that year working with them than I did all my time in school, for instance, they live for many hundreds of years, also have some redundant organs and can even to some degree regenerate small parts of lost limbs, nothing like a whole arm, leg or tail, but say a hand or finger or even a section of their tail." Shawn stopped and nodded toward a heavy metal security door, a black plate with white lettering was posted above only one word was on the sign in large capital letters 'ARMORY'. "And this is it." He said, punching in the revamped master code, right away the door slid open.

Upon entry they found themselves stating in a small almost office like area, maybe for checking in and out the weapons, a couple of desks with computers and chairs were on the left and right wall, with several metal tables against the front and back wall, toward the back there was another door that was center with the wall. Going through that door, the two were met with a massive array of weapons stacked from the top of the ceiling to the bottom of the floor against the walls as well as several weapon lockers in the center of the room that ran almost the full length of the room.

Shawn noticed that there were two more rooms' one going off to the left and right, the one on his right read as the ammo and munitions room, the one of the left indicated it was a firing range. At least it there was someplace to practice.

Walking around, both he and ghost noted that the weapons were very much like the ones in the training area, except these were the real deal, shiny black metal, and very lethal looking. Pistols, pulse rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, sniper rifles, smart guns heavy and medium stationary machine guns, flame throwers, stun rifles, grenades, grenade and rocket launchers, mines, mortars, Thermite charge packs, and what looked to be several dozen lethal looking mini-guns. "Holly hell, they have more than enough firepower here to outfit a not so small army," Shawn said, looking at the ever increasing list of light and medium grade weapons in the room. "And this is just one armory, one, there are several more." He said, completely overwhelmed by a number of weapons that were in the room, if this ship had a full crew and was ever boarded; the borders would have gotten a very rude surprise.

Ghost stopped and turned to one of the racks of pulse rifles, reaching out he ran his claws down the smooth cool black metal surface of the weapon. _'Some of the guards were armed with this kind of weapon.'_

Coming up to Ghost, Shawn grabbed one of the rifles and pulled it from its rack, it was heavy and felt mean, a battle weapon that you knew would get you through almost anything. Bringing it up and pointing it away from Ghost and toward the opposite end of the room, Shawn closed his left eye, looking right down the iron sights. "Guess I know what I'll be going with." He said bringing it down and examined the housing, right between the ejector port and the digital ammo counter was stamped in light gray lettering, 'M-65-D'. "So I guess this is an M sixty-five D pulse rifle, good to know, now just need to figure out how to operate the damn thing." He said putting the rifle back into its rack.

' _As I said, you have someone that you may be able to help you, you just have to_ _convince_ _him.'_

"Yeah," Shawn was silent for a bit looking around, "Ghost, I'm not a marine, or a warrior by any stretch of the imagination and what we are going to do is, to put it bluntly…insane, do you really think that we have any chance of pulling this off at all. Once we are on board we are commented and there won't be any turning back, I've never killed anyone ever, which might wind up happening, the closest I was ever ready to take someone's life was those mercs and that was to protect you all, I was ready to space those guys which was a first for me. But this, this is us heading right into the belly of the beast and once we are in, that's it."

Ghost tilted his head off to the side slightly, every time one of them did that little head tilt, Shawn knew it was their way of completing something. _'Do you remember what we told you when we first asked you for help, when you agreed that you would help us, that we would only ask you to go as far as you wanted to, that we would never force you to go any further than that and that you could walk away at any time you wanted to and we would understand and that this ultimately was our fight, not yours, something that we needed to do.'_

"I do remember," Shawn stated, "and if you remember, I told you, Shadow and Alese that I would stand by you all and see this all the way through and help free your brothers and sisters and see that they all found a home. It's just that I think that the reality of it all is now starting to sink in, that initial shock about what we are really going to do and that it's going to happen, that it's not just talk anymore, and to be perfectly honest, I'm getting scared about it. Scared that I might have to kill, scared that we may all die or get captured, all the worst possibilities are beginning to run through my head now and none of the best outcomes."

 _'That is good, fear can keep you alive, it will also help us plan for the worst so that we may be able to avoid it.'_ Ghost told his human, placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder and giving it a gentle but firm squeeze. _'Remember this, we are all scared about what may happen, but we cannot let fear choose our course of actions, if we do, then we will not make it and the worst outcome will happen, now that that has been said let's go back and see if Alese and Shadow are awake yet and tell them what we have found and discussed.'_

Walking out of the armory, they quickly made their way back to the new sleeping area, upon entering they saw that Alese was sprawled out on the bed with Shadow straddling her lower area, his hand rubbing around her back side and slowly going up and down her dorsal pipes. A low but powerful rumbling sound emitted from her reverberating around the room. Shadow had no doubt found a sweet spot and got her motor purring.

 _'You're both back,'_ Alese side, looking right at the two as they entered and made their way toward the massive bed.

Reaching up and pressing down on her shoulders and the tubing around it, Alese let out a hiss of pleasure as her arched her back up some, leaning into Shadow's messaging. _'We thought that you two might have gone off to have some private time for yourselves.'_ Shadow said slyly looking at the two of them.

"Trust me, after yesterday and last night, I'm in no condition for anything like that for a couple of days, and as much as I might want to, unfortunately, I'm out of commission for a bit, mostly though from all that swimming, never been so damn sore in my entire life. I had to pretty much hobble my way down to the showers." Shawn said, lying down on his back next to Shadow and Alese. "Still feel like I could sleep for a week."

 _'Perhaps Shadow could help loosen you up with a back rub, I've just found out he has an amazing talent for it.'_ Alese purred, the two of them were still practically glowing from last night. The complete contentment and bliss were freely flowing through the mental link.

"Well, when he's done with you, he can do me." Realizing too late at how he had so wrongly phrased that statement, he could only wait until Shadow jumped on that one, which was not long; in fact, it was only a few seconds.

Lowering his head until he was just an inch from Shawn's face, a wicked smile plastered across his face, ' _And here I thought you said you were too sore for that or maybe I misheard you, yes that must be it. I will be more than happy to do you as soon as I finish up with Alese.'_

"Oh, you know exactly what I met you giant chitin covered goofball." Shawn playfully snapped at Shadow rubbing his hands over the front of the Xenos dome.

 _'So where did you two wonder off to if I may ask.'_ Alese inquired, looking over at Shawn and then Ghost who was lying down next to her.

Both Ghost and Shawn went into detail about the large training area that Ghost had found last night, what it held, the way it could be configured and perhaps how best to utilize it in their training and preparation for the battle within Eclipse base. Both Shadow and Alese was fascinated with the concept of the training area, it would offer an advantage when engaging the security forces, at least in theory. They also told or rather mentally showed them the armory they had visited and the obscene amount of weapons it held.

Shadow didn't like the idea of Shawn getting into combat at all, even the mock training, the gunshot wounds their human and received was a consent reminder of just how fragile the human's body was and knowing the security forces on that base they would be under fire as soon as they showed themselves and that a single shot could snuff out their human's life in an instant.

No, he would not allow it at all.

Not just Shawn but also Alese and Ghost felt the sudden resistance to the idea of Shawn getting into combat, and while none of them liked the idea at all, they all knew it was a necessary risk they were having to take, Alese and Ghost were about to say something but it was Shawn who spoke up first.

"I know you don't like the idea of me mixing it up in there," Shawn stated, sitting up, "but you need me in there with you, look at it this way, with me in there and being armed it will add to the element of surprise, it's not like they are going to expect a human to drop in with a group of Xenomorphs and fight alongside them, especially not while wielding a pulse rifle. I'll stay low and provide covering fire and maybe that'll be enough to keep them off balance, besides none of you can operate a computer system or even have a chance to rewire and hack any of the systems on that station, not that I have any great chance of that, but still."

Shadow looked at Shawn and then swung his head to look at Ghost, _'You two have been talking about this,'_ Shadow flat out stated.

Ghost looked right up at Shadow, _'Not the details, no, but he needs to be there and we both knew you would be resistant to the idea. Shadow we all know how much you love him, and how strong the bond is between the two of you, but here are the simple facts, you cannot protect him all the time, no matter how much how much you want to, you can't be his shield forever. He volunteered to help us, to walk with us through this storm no matter what, he knows what the dangers are, so he needs to train with us, let him fight with us, let him stand with us side by side and don't hold him back.'_

Shadow looked back over at Shawn, lowering his head and nuzzled the front of Shawn's face, _'I don't want you to get hurt again or die, you have already experienced so much pain I just want to spare you from anymore.'_ Shadow said his voice soft almost a whisper but heavy with concern and worry about what might happen. In his gut he knew that both of them were right, however it did not may his worry any less, he wanted to have a long life with his hive and bond mates, to make love to them every night, to wake next to them every morning to tell them how much he loved and cherished each and everyone for the rest of his life and have them all live to ripe old age and die from said old age, something that his race rarely ever achieved, at least as far as he knew.

Reaching up Shawn ran his fingers down the side of Shadow's jaw, "I have no desire to die or get hurt, but how could I ever live with myself if I stood idly by and watched and did nothing, how do you think I would feel if I saw you get captured or even die, or Alese or Ghost for that matter, knowing that maybe if I had been there I could have stopped that from happening. It's not something I could live with not after you three have worked your way into my heart and soul. As much as you might want to, you can't stop me from getting hurt, it'll happen, that's fucking life, sometimes it sucks and it hurts and there's nothing anyone can do but push through it and go on, but other times it's wonderful and beautiful and for a short time you can forget about the parts that hurt so damn much."

 _'Like last night.'_

"Especially like last night, something I hope to have many more nights of, for a very long time."

After a very long pause, Shadow reluctantly agreed, _'Very well, but do not take any foolish chances, just because you will have a weapon does not mean that you are invincible, too many of your kind on that station made that mistake and it cost them their lives, sometimes I think that your race's bravery is determined by just how big of a weapons is in their hands, it easy to act brave and all powerful when you are armed and standing behind a large gun but without those weapons to hide behind...'_

"...We're just a bunch of big, fleshy soft targets, I know. Trust me I'm not going to take any stupid chances, well, more so than I have to take. Besides, maybe some of those guys are compensating for something with their big guns."

Shadow only gave Shawn a questionable look, there were still human phrases he did not fully understand.

"You know, big guns make up for small junk or something like that."

 _'HA, I see now, yes.'_ Shadow blurted out finally getting it, letting out a half snort; half hiss at the same time, _'Then it is a good thing then that your junk is not so small, is it not.'_

"Well compared to yours it is but I guess that would be an unfair comparison now wouldn't it?"

 _'Indeed it would be, not that there is any reason to compare. But as you were saying before, no foolish chances,_ ' reiterated Shadow getting the conversation back on track as it seemed to be derailing quickly.

"Right, no foolish or stupid chances, which brings us up to something else which you two may not like all that much," Shawn stated, glancing over at Ghost who was looking right at him now.

 _'Which is?'_ Alese asked, the tip of her tail twitching ever so slightly now.

 _'We need help from one of the mercs.'_ Ghost flat out stated, knowing all too well just how well that idea was about to go over.

However, there was nothing more than dead silence throughout the room, at least for a bit as Ghost's statement sunk into their minds.

 _'What...?'_ Shadow sputtered out, not quite believing what he had just heard Ghost say.

 _'Not for the attack on the station, I would not trust him for that, but Shawn needs his help in figuring out how to operate the pulse weapon.'_ Ghost said, looking right up at Shadow.

"He's right, most of the weapons in the armory I would need training and help on, the shotguns and pistols I can use just fine, in fact I'm pretty comfortable with a pistol, used to have one on the Ember-Rose that I would take apart and clean even had a small firing range setup in the back that I would use rubber rounds on, that's until it got vented out into space when my ship got hit. But those assault and pulse rifles are a whole other beast entirely, now giving enough time I could figure it out, but with James help that would shave off a lot of time, time that we can use for training and planning. Also, he has both basic training and merc training; he may be willing to share a few pointers to help us out."

 _'And why should he help us, we killed many of his fellow mercs, he had no reason to help us at all, in fact, our failing would be more beneficial to him, would it not?'_ Alese pointed out.

Ghost shook his head in disagreement, _'No, I do not believe it would be, he is looking to be a part of something else, something far greater than himself, much like we are part of something larger than ourselves, he is looking for that as well, maybe not to be a part of a hive, but something to be a part of nonetheless. And he is from what Shadow and I can tell, an honorable human, I think that if we ask him and tell him as much as we can, he may agree to help us.'_

 _'Be that as it may, you are putting a lot of faith in a human that we barely know who was a short time ago part of a force that was bent on either our capture or deaths, while I do see both of your points, what makes you think we can trust him even a little bit?'_ Shadow said.

"We can't, at least not at first," Shawn said, "look, I know that when I came onboard, you didn't trust me at all, and I didn't know what any of you were going to do to me, but that trust was built up over time and in reality a fairly short period of time, which was kind of surprising."

 _'The difference with that is you were not hell bent on our deaths or capture, you were alone and afraid, plus we could sense you were in a great deal of pain and suffering, much as the same as us, so with that there was some common ground to work with, and we gave each other a chance to build up that foundation of trust and respect.'_ Alese pointed out.

"And look at where are we now, bond mates, hive mates, lovers, I would bet that if the scientists could see what had happened with all of us, they would be very surprised."

 _'And no doubt nauseated at the thought of a human and Xenos mating, in fact, they would try to dismiss it as some sort of trick._ ' Ghost said, his tail twitching at the disgust the scientists would experience if they could have seen what Shawn, Shadow, and Alese had done. Oh yes, they would most likely be vomiting at the mere thought of it.

"My point is this, you all came from a place where you thought humans were nothing more than cold and cruel monsters that took delight in causing you pain for their own twisted pleasure, and then you met me and discovered we are not all like that. Now I'm not saying to give this guy free run of the ship or anything like that, but maybe, just maybe we can convince him to help us out some, if he is an honorable person and wants to do the right thing then maybe if we do tell him everything or well most everything, he'll agree to help out, even if it is in some small way."

 _'While I do believe that he is an honorable human, he would have to prove his worth in order to earn our trust. However given that, by human standards, he is young, maybe he would be more open in seeing our side of this conflict,'_ Shadow said, _'knowing that all we want to do is live somewhere far away and in peace and not be bothered by humanity.'_

"Well, we won't know until we talk to him."

 _'What will you say to him, do you know?'_ Alese asked shifting her position under Shadow who started to go back to rubbing her back, shoulders and dorsal pipes again.

"I have no idea, guess I'll give it to him straight, no BS or spin on it, just the hard facts and let him know what he and his team really walked into and who the actual enemies are." Shawn reached out and caressed Alese's dome, "Sorry about being a downer on all this talk, should have waited for a bit, you two were practically glowing when we came in."

 _'Do not apologize, this is important and needed to be discussed,'_ Alese said, leaning into Shadow's deep rubs, _'when will you talk to him?'_

"After I collect my thoughts and get some rest." Answered Shawn, as he continued to stroke Alese's dome, he really had no idea on what he was going to tell or ask James, he wasn't going to force the merc into anything as that would only drive a wedge, if he refused and said no, then that would be it and he would ask no more. He would have to be convincing in his argument to win the merc over, it was as Ghost had told him, remove the fence and the problem is solved.

Easier said than done.

xxxxx

James sat there in complete stunned silence, he had been asked if he wouldn't mind coming up to the mess hall, he had figured another outing and some more of the half way decent food, and while there was that, it was what had come right after that left him completely speechless and even bit dumbfounded.

He looked over at Shawn and then his gaze went from Xeno to Xeno as all three were there in the mess hall and then right back to Shawn. "You want me to do what?"

Taking a drink out of the cup, Shawn sat his coffee down on the table; he was going to be slamming that stuff hard today. "I'm asking if you will help train me in using some of the military rifles that are on this ship, while I could figure it out for myself through trial and error and eat up a bunch of time we don't have, I figured that you, since you have training in those kind of weapons you might be willing to help."

Cocking his head as if he hadn't heard what had just been asked, he let it sink in. "You are asking me to help train you in using military grade weapons. Why, and I mean why should I help you?"

Shawn sat there, biting his lower lip a bit, glancing over to each of his hive mates, if there was any time to lay it out on the table, this was it. "Alright, look man, I'm not going to bullshit you on this or try to spin it in any way, the simple fact is this, we're on our way back to Eclipse base, and no that's not a joke either, the four of us are going to try to board that station and free the Xenos that are locked up and get them someplace safe, preferably far away where they won't be found."

James just leaned back as if he had been hit right in the face with a hundred and fifty-pound bag of bricks, while he had been expecting something, this was not it. He wasn't even sure if what he had heard Shawn say was correct. "You...are going to Eclipse base, the same base that these three escaped from, to go back there and free the rest like them?"

"Correct," Shawn said.

"And you want me to help you?"

Shawn's answer was nothing more than a slight nod.

"You're the enemy, no offense or anything, but why the fuck should I help you, any of you, after what happened, give me one goddamn good fucking reason I should help any of you at all in any way. You want to free the rest of them, for what, why would you want to?"

Shawn was about to give some speech that he had in his mind about doing the right thing and that the ones on Eclipse station were the real enemy, but something else came to mind. "I'm a courier pilot, use to be a mining technician years ago, my ship was hit by a small meteorite on my way back from a contract run, took my FTL, primary sunlight drive and most of the secondary engines, about the only thing I had working, was the maneuvering and docking thrusters. Spent the next couple of months floating around in the secondary shipping lanes, so I'm sure you can guess how fucked I was at that point. I kept waiting for a pirate, raider or slaver's ship to show up but thankfully one of those never did. What did show up, however, was this big ass mofo of a ship, along with three aliens I had never even seen or heard of."

Reaching over Shawn gripped Shadow's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "They brought me on board, asked me for help, wanted to know if I could help them figure out how to operate the ship, so after a while, I gave them my answer, which was yes. You see, one of the ways they can communicate is through a mental link, as of right now I can talk to them through that link, couldn't back then, but now I can, I talk to them, can feel what they are feeling, even see their memories, they're not monsters by any means, yes they do look very different from us and I'll admit, when I first saw Shadow here, and yes that is his name, I thought I was going to die, and I damn near shit myself too. It's something I, well, we can laugh about now, but at the time, not really."

James shook his head, this was getting to be a bit too weird, even though the few interactions he had had with the Xenos after he was locked up, were passive and they even seemed to display some level of intelligence, this was all way over his head. What he was being told, in fact, he was having a hard time believing it, the reports from Mason had them as being nothing more than hyper aggressive killing machines and that was it, nothing about being able to communicate or share feeling and memories with others.

"It kind of blew my mind to, takes a bit of getting used to, but you know what was my big eye opener, the one that put me on my path is when I got a glimpse into the world that they were birthed into," Shawn said, his look becoming hard, and his voice cold and stern. "I got to see a world without compassion, without mercy, with no love or even the slightest bit of empathy or warmth in it. I want you to imagine being born into a world that as soon as you come into it, you're ripped away from your mother or in this case their host mothers as they call them, every instinct is telling you to be there with her, to protect her, but you can't because the second you're born, you're stuck inside a glass prison, and from there every day, every moment you are either being tortured or experimented on, or seeing one of your brothers or sisters being tortured or experimented on. No one trying to make contact, no one trying to explain why you and your kin are being put in so much pain, no one saying I'm sorry. No, all there is, day in and day out is being worked over, again and again, and again. No remorse or mercy from the white lab coats that continue to do so, all they see when they look at you is an animal, a monster, something to be used as a weapon to kill or harm others; nothing more than that."

Shawn's fist balled up tight as his knuckles started to turn while at the memoirs of what had happened to Ghost, that whole line of disjointed memories was still fresh in his mind even over a month later. "Try and imagine what it's like to be burned, or frozen, electrocuted, poked prodded, spaced, even being sexually raped over and over again, and having the whole time almost everyone laughing as it's some joke to them and you're the punch line. Not being able to understand why, not being able to understand what you did that was so horrible that you and those like you have to be punished every day. And that the only comfort that you can take, or even give, is with those of your own kind that are all locked away in glass prisons too, nothing ever physical though, only the mental link that is natural and is able to maintain your sanity to keep you from going over that edge and falling into the abyss of madness, and even then it's all slowly being eroded away, and you know that one day there will be nothing, not even the safety of that link."

Shadow reached over and placed his hand on Shawn's back and slowly rubbed up and down, trying to calm his human down some so he could focus on what needed to be done. It was hard for Shadow to sit there listen, even if it was nothing more than words, the memories, his, Ghost's, Alese's, everything that happened on that base was still raw, and not something they could ever forget, no matter how much they might want to or try.

"Please understand this, I've seen what happened to them in the labs, the way they were treated, I felt what he felt, saw through his eyes," Shawn said, nodding over to Ghost, who was looking down at the floor, the conversation for the drone was uncomfortable but it was necessary. "Mason, for his all genius, for all his intelligence, has no soul, no conscience, or remorse, he doesn't care who or what he hurts, nor does it matter what race they are, do you think he gives a damn about your squad mates that died or the ones that were wounded. Let's say just for a moment that he is able to bring the Xenos under control and gets them to do what he wants or those that hired him get control over them. Now you and the other mercs were on the receiving end of three of them, just THREE, can you even for a second imagine what would happen if this organization were able to somehow breed hundreds or even thousands of them and release them as weapons on say one of the other races or even on one of our own colony's. Would you want a colony to be wiped out or attacked by the Xenos that were under someone else's control, to have an intelligent and sentient species be enslaved and used as a weapon of mass murder and destruction, because that's what may very well happen. Now as scared as I am, and I am not ashamed to say that, I will do whatever is in my power to help them and if that means walking onto that station and going head to head to rescue their brothers and sisters than that's what I will do."

Taking a deep breath, Shawn tried to calm down some, he hadn't met for it to be this intense, but it just all came out at once. "Now I'm not asking you to go on board with me, the only thing I'm asking for, is help in using a few weapons properly and maybe some tips on basic maneuvers. If you say no, then that'll be that, I won't ask again, we'll figure it out on our own and see how that pans out. But I would ask you to consider this, if we fail and are either captured or killed, the Saratoga will be found and the personal from Eclipse base will come on board and will find you and Amy in the cells. Do you think that they will let you go free, do you think that they will contact your captain or commander and let them know where you two are at. Maybe they will or maybe they will keep you there and interrogate the two of you or maybe something even worse, I'm not saying this to try and scare or intimidate you, I'm just pointing out very real possibilities that you and she may face."

"Now when it comes down to it, all the Xenos want to do is find some far off place, away from all this and live a quiet and peaceful life, they don't want to have anything to do with humanity or it's bullshit and none of them want to be used as weapons for someone else's agenda. Ghost and Shadow seem to have the impression that you are an honorable person and are still looking to be a part of something larger and better, and that you want to right by others. And I get that I have no physical proof to change your mind, all you have is my word on the matter and that's it. I'm not going to try and force, trick or threaten you; if you don't want to help, like I said that'll be it, I won't ask beyond this one time. And if you believe that we're the enemy so be it, after what you went through, if I was in the same position I would probably feel the same way. If we pull through this, you and Amy will be free to go and well never see each other ever again, we'll drop you two off at a Freeport station along the way and that will be the last of it, you and she can go from there." Shawn went silent after that, he had nothing else to say if James helped them so be it, if not, well he would try and figure how to operate the weapons himself.

James didn't say anything for a while, just thinking about everything that Shawn had said, he kept looking over at the Xenos, who were just hunkered down their tails coiled around their feet and legs. The large one that Shawn had called Shadow was still rubbing his hand up and down Shawn's back, the fact that Shawn had not even flinched when the big thing touched him told James just how much Shawn completely trusted them and was absolutely comfortable around the Xenos.

Things were just too damn weird, and all of this was way outside his comfort zone.

He recalled that Commander Ortiz had some serious reservations about the mission to retake the Saratoga, that something about it felt off and wrong. And not just him but also the Captain of the Vesuvius seemed to have the same concerns from what little he had picked up.

At this point, James didn't know what to believe, he couldn't deny the fact that the Xenomorphs were far more than what was in Mason's report, a report that had been severely lacking, and while they did seem to be intelligent, they were certainly not hostile, at least not right now, and they had done nothing to him while he had been locked up. While he was fairly good at detecting BS from other people; surprisingly Shawn's story didn't have any of it, if the guy had been lying, then it was the best job he had ever seen and heard.

But if he wasn't then there was some severely scary shit happening, stuff that could have repercussion for the human race for a long time to come and not in a good way either. And if what he was saying was true that the Xenos were being bred for use as weapon against other races or even their own race, say if a colony got out of line, rebelled or declared independence, then a few hundred of the back skeletal acid bleeding creatures could be dropped in and that would be it, no more colony.

In fact, the military, the government, and even the mega corps could deny any involvement whatsoever, what the public didn't know, often and officially did not exist, even if it did. A colony would rebel, started to mine for its own resources, and just like that, in some freak accident opened a chasm and let loose an unknown biological organism that just happened to kill off the colony before help arrived.

Unfortunate but also convenient, and all the time they could repopulate and start over again with a population that was more aligned to Earth's own agendas, once of course the alien threat was dealt with.

The sad fact was also there were far too many anti-alien factions, extremist in some cases, cropping up and some gaining a foot hold in the government and even in high profile companies that were helping to form policy and many of them would be more than willing to unleash a creature like that on any of the other races, even on the pro-alien humans that wanted to try and live side by side with the other races peacefully.

James placed his hands together his fingers intertwining together as he rested his chin on top of his fingers, "You love them don't you." James said, it was not a questing but a statement, and a fact from what he could tell, no one ever spoke like that unless they had real passion.

Shawn looked at the young merc for a few moments before answering, "Guess it's pretty obvious isn't it?"

"Somewhat," James said, glancing over at Ghost who was crotched to his left just a few feet away, the Xeno was still looking down at the floor, James had seen the scarring on the dome, most of it was faded and healed over but still visible. "They do that to him, the scars?"

"Yes, that was some of Mason's handiwork, he was Mason's favorite to work over, there were others that added to all those scars, but mostly it was Mason," Shawn said answering the question.

Going on pure impulse and not really thinking it though, James tentatively reached out and touched Ghost's dome, laying his hand flat against the Xeno's head, Ghost did flinch a bit, but did nothing else, trying to stay perfectly still, for him it felt weird to have another human touch him, not bad, just weird.

 _'You alright with this Ghost?'_ Shawn asked through the mental link, all of them could feel that Ghost was slightly uncomfortable with being touched by another person that he did not know.

 _'I am fine, just did not expect him to touch me, it feels weird that it is not you Shawn, I prefer your touches far more,'_ Ghost answered, staying completely still, not wanting to spook the young merc with any sudden movements.

For James, the domed head felt slightly slick, wet and warm, almost like an odd feeling smooth rubber. He had half expected the Xeno to lift it...his head and look him straight in the eyes with peeled back lips in a threatening manner, something that never happened.

Removing his hand and looking at the wetness that was on his skin now, James curled his fingers a bit then relaxed them. He saw Ghost lifted his head up, while the lips did not peel back in an aggressive attack posture as he might have thought, he could easily make out the steel colored teeth through the semi-transparent thin lips. A mix of thin strands and thick globs of drool dripped from his lips and chin onto the cold, metal floor.

Overall it was turning out to be a very surreal experience, not something he would have ever expected to have happened in his life and one he would never forget.

"Let's say for argument sake I decide to help you out," James said, looking back over at Shawn, "what exactly would you be asking of me?"

"Just some training in how to properly use a couple of the rifles, how to fire them, reloading, handle the weapons the correct way, and some basic combat maneuvers, that's all I'm asking."

"And that's it, nothing other than that?" James was surprised by the simple request, he had been expecting a lot more, not just some tips of how to use a weapon and basic combat maneuvers. "And what weapons are we talking about?"

Leaning over; reaching down toward the floor, Shawn grabbed and pulled away a small blanket and placed it on the table, reaching back down he brought up one of the pulse rifles and put in on the table in front of James with a loud metallic thud. "This, and one of the stun rifles that are on board, they seem to be a bit more advanced than the ones that you and the others brought with you but I'm guessing the principle is the same." He said sliding the heavy rifle toward James, "it's not loaded so feel free to look it over."

Carefully picking up the weapon, James looked it over, checking to see if indeed the weapon was unloaded and safetyed. Seeing that there was not a magazine or any rounds chambered he looked it over."This is an M Sixty-Five pulse rifle, but it looks like it's been heavily modified, the barrel is about six inches longer and looks like it fires a much larger round."

"These," Shawn said rolling over a single caseless round with a black tipped head toward him.

Picking it up and looking over, it was either a practice round or a stun round, while non-lethal, it would hurt like a sonofabitch for anyone without protection on. James was also shocked by the sheer size of the round, neither the weapon nor the round itself was standard issue by any means. "This is a thirteen point five millimeter round, this will go through armor plating of most light vehicles and even a few mid size ones, it's an intermediate sized round. They're using this grade of weapons on this ship and that station? Even the USCMC doesn't have standard weapons that use this heavy of a round, the standard M sixty and M sixty-five pulse rifles fire an eleven millimeter sized round not a thirteen point five."

"Now you see why I'm asking for your help, I don't know anything about military grade hardware and I don't want to injure or kill myself trying to figure it out," Shawn said, laying his arms on the table as James continued to look over the weapon.

"Iron sights," his hand moved to the center part of the rifle and flipped up a green square piece of plastic just about six inches from the back of the first sight, "built in optical sighting, even mounts for a scope it looks like, side mounts for laser sights, looks like a standard thirty millimeter grenade launcher underneath, maybe four round capacity. Single shot, three round burst, or full auto, not too bad on the weight for its size, still a bit heavy, adjustable shoulder stock, and the standard digital ammo read out underneath the ejector port."

Placing the pulse rifle back on the table along with the practice round and slid them back to Shawn, James looked over the rifle once more, "That is a serious piece of firepower you have there, so I have to ask you this, do you have a plan to get onboard this station, free the Xenos and get back on this ship or are you just going to wing it and hope for the best?"

"Well I sure as shit am not going to be walking up to the front door, knocking and ask if I can come on in if that's what you're getting at, but no we haven't come up with a plan just yet, something we need to start working on."

Shaking his head, James not so quietly muttered to himself, "Jesses I cannot believe I am even thinking about this, this is batshit insane." He said, still not believing he was even considering this course of action, they were the enemy, all four of them, so why did it feel so wrong to even think about not helping them out.

Maybe the problem was that when it came down to it, they weren't the real enemy, if what Shawn had told him was true, even partly, then the real enemy were the ones that had hired them and ultimately sent them to be slaughtered. If all Shawn wanted to do was rescue the other Xenos from the station, leave, find some place and hide and have a quiet life, he really couldn't blame them for that, if in fact, everything that he had been told was true.

Also, the thought of enslaving another race and using that race as a living weapon to kill others no matter what race they were, was something that in James's mind was truly appalling and downright malevolent. Maybe in some weird, far messed up way, fate had, in fact, giving him a chance to serve and help others just like he always had dreamed of; it was just in a way that he didn't expect or foresee.

"It's called life dude, and yeah, sometimes it gets a bit whacked out, or just blindsides the crap out of us," Shawn said, picking up his cup and drinking out of it again. "I honestly didn't think that I would ever be doing something like this in my life that's for sure."

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this shit, fine, I'll help you...however I have a request to make in exchange for my help," James said, rubbing his hands down his face and that was that, for better or worse he was now in.

Shawn tilted his head, in a very Xeno like fashion, looking at James, "Ok, what is your request."

"I want to know what is going on in that station, if there is any way to find out what they are doing in there, I mean really doing, I'm talking about the long term goals their mission objectives, not just the short term testing and R&D stuff, but what exactly it is for." James said, looking Shawn right in the eye, "now from what I can tell you've been on the up and up with me the whole time, and I'm hoping that's the case and that you're not just some fantastic bull-shitter that managed to con me into helping you."

"I'm guessing your trust your gut more than anything else, so what do you think?"

James just looked at Shawn for a bit, his vision glancing over to the Xenos as they all seemed to be waiting for his answer. "I get the feeling you're on the up and up, I just hope I'm not placing my trust in the wrong hands."

Nodding, Shawn smiled a bit, "well I could say the same for you, it wasn't easy to ask this of you, and trust is built slowly over time." Shawn said, extending his hand out to James, the first act of building that bridge of trust.

Agreeing, James slowly reached out and gripped Shawn's hand and gave it a firm shake, the final seal of their deal. "So when do you want to start?"

"How about now," Shawn said, "after all the sooner the better."


	22. Planning & Training

**Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story.**

xxxxx

Chapter 21: Planning &Training

Closing his left eye; looking down the iron sights getting lined with the center target and slowly squeezing the trigger as James had instructed him to, a single loud burst roared from the pulse rifle with a bright muzzle flash that lit up the shooting range. The hard rubber dummy round hit the metal target with a loud thud that was mixed with a slight metallic clank sound. James was looking over at a monitor that had the target on the screen, several cameras were focused in on the target that showed the impact area and trajectory a red circle blinked several times indicating where the round had hit.

"You went wide, about a foot off of the target to the right and two inches up. Focus on the target first then align up your sights, you'll need to focus on the front sight when you're ready to fire." James told Shawn, looking back over at him. "Also don't lean in forward so much, adjust your weight slightly, and widen your stance some to balance your self out better, the rifle kicks so you'll need to compensate for that but don't overdo it."

Complying with James advice, Shawn focused in on the target first, then aligned up the sights and finally focused in on the forward sight, then slowly pulled the trigger, as before a single loud burst, and bright muzzle flash filled up the shooting range, followed by the same loud thud with a mixed in metallic clank sound.

"Better, still shooting wide, but not as much as before, you're about eight inches off the target." The merc told him looking back up at the monitor, a single red highlight pinpointed where the dummy round had hit.

Repeating the routine over again and again, slowly, shot by shot, Shawn burned through a full magazine, focus, alight, squeeze, and fire. Over all he had done barely marginally well, of the standard sixty-five round clip, he had placed only a dozen rounds on the target areas and none of them were a bullseye, a couple were a few inches away which were his best shots.

"Alright, press the ejector lever, pull out the spent magazine, and pop a new one in," James ordered, watching Shawn bring up the pulse rifle, push the level that was just to the front of the magazine housing, pulling out the spent clip, and placing it on the table, and then grabbed a fresh magazine from a row of over twenty magazines that were sitting on the table, and slapped the fresh clip in. The counter instantly went from a double zero count right up to a full sixty-five.

"Do it again." James said, looking back at the monitor, "also control your breathing, squeeze the trigger to fire when you exhale so don't hold your breath. You'll also need to try and keep your heart rate down, that will help keep you focused but also will help against getting tunnel vision. When you're in combat the stress will cause your heart rate to ramp up, adrenaline rush can and will kick in, your fight or flight responses will be in full swing, panic sets in, sometimes you'll only see what's directly in front of you, it's sort of like zoning out but in the worse way possible. With all that's going on you can freeze up completely and not even realize it, doesn't mean that you're a coward or anything like that, it's just the body's way of processing all that stimuli you're getting assaulted with at once, some can handle it better than others."

"That's just great," Shawn muttered sarcastically to himself, "any advice on how not to freeze up while I'm being shot at."

"Other than not go on this insane mission, which I know you're going to do regardless, I would suggest coming up with some sort of training regimen where you're under fire, non-lethal of course, but something to help you become desensitized slightly, you'll need to get used to the noise and danger of getting shot at. When I was training we would undergo live fire exercises, nothing makes you feel more vulnerable than having live tracer rounds zipping right over your head by a few inches." James answered, looking back at the monitor, "now continue firing."

Repeating the process for the next few hours, Shawn found that he had gone through every magazine that was on the table, by the time it was over, his shoulder felt like jelly, the pulse rifle did have a kick and while not too bad for shooting one round at a time, over thirteen hundred dummy rounds and several hours later, it was having its toll on him.

The whole time Shadow, Alese, and Ghost had been present, hanging back, they didn't want to do anything to distract with the beginning of what would become a very intensive training regiment, not just for Shawn but for all of them. Shadow and Ghost had been keeping a vigilant eye on James, just to make sure that he didn't do anything foolish, even at the distance they were at, either one of them could make it to his position in just a second and take care of him and any trouble he might start. So far the merc did not seem to be inclined to do anything of the sort. Alese was taking in what was going on, her gaze going from Shawn to James, and then to the target, he was shooting at, or trying to, the weapon in his hands seemed unwieldy and unnatural for him.

"I think that's enough for today," James said, "your arm is going to be worth shit for a day or two, I suggest icing it down and get some rest, also do some stretching exercises to reduce the stiffness." Looking back at the monitor he brought up the tally, "well for a beginner you didn't do too horrible, some half decent clusters, and single hits, at ten meters out you got the bull's-eye over four dozen times. Course this about getting used to the weapons first; next, we'll work on your aiming. Gradually increase the range, most of the fighting you'll be engaged in is going to be close quarters hallways and rooms, try not to get caught in a hanger or a large area if you can help it, large areas with lots to hide behind works both ways as far as cover and ambushes, I don't know what kind of training the security forces have had but remember this, they are far better trained than you are going to be."

James reached up and pressed several buttons right above the monitor, small cleaner robots rolled out of some crevasse in the walls and started to clean up the spent rubber rounds and ejected cases that would go back and be recycled back into ammo. "The Vesuvius had a setup like this, most military ships do, if there is something that can be recycled, reused and repurposed they will do it, even practice ammo, not like they can get stocked back up whenever they feel like it," James told Shawn, as the two looked down at the small disk shaped robots that were plowing up the metal and rubber and dumping it down floor shoots that would lead into the recyclers.

Placing the weapon down onto the table, Shawn rolled his shoulder, causing it to pop several times, "Any idea what I should do for training, at least to get going?"

"My advice, figure out what your taking on board, weapons, ammo, equipment, everything, weight, and bulk will be a huge factor, what you're doing is a rescue, not a siege, so you'll want to be able to travel light and quick, get in and out of there as fast as you can. And remember, more than likely you will be able to salvage weapons, ammo, and equipment from casualties. Once you figure out what it is you're taking on board, look it over and figure out if there is anything you don't need and chuck it, after that, get geared up and get use to the weight, start training with what you're taking, now the advantage is that your friends don't use weapons, or I'm assuming they don't so they can hump some of the gear you're taking, divide up the weight evenly and you can move faster and easier, you'll even be able to carry more overall without getting bogged down. You'll need to get your stamina up too; you don't want to start doubling over from cramps trying to get away from enemy forces. And if there is any kind of training or workout room, you should start utilizing it right away."

Shawn nodded over to Ghost, the three Xenos were walking up to the pair of humans as they were speaking, "Ghost found a training area last night, large area with modular walls of some kind that can be laid out in different configuration, comes stocked with practice weapons that fire either paint rounds or soft rubber rounds, also has a lot of what look like some very basic training robot, figured we would start using that in the next day or two."

"That's good, you can get a feel for combat, it won't be the same as having another human firing and trying to kill you but it will give you a small taste of what combat is like. Remember this it's nothing like the movies, shows or vids that you might have seen, when it happens it'll happen quickly and it's chaotic." James told him, looking up at the Xenos.

"Didn't think that you have ever been in combat before and that your first mission was to this ship," Shawn inquired.

"Did enough mock combat training with the other mercs to get a feel for it, no matter how many times we would run through the training sims, you never got used to it. Once second it's calm and you're in formation with your squad, next second you hear weapons fire, stun grenades going off all around you and next thing you know you're getting hit all over. Even if it's a practice run, getting hit by dummy rounds hurts like hell." Answered James, "Oh and one other thing," James reached over to the pulse rifle, pulled back the bolt, an unspent round popped into the air which he caught and handed to Shawn, who took it and looked it over. "Always, always, even if you remove the magazine, check to see if you have a round chambered in the breach, then double and triple check again, I doubt that you want to blow your dick clean off or worse blow someone else's dick off."

 _'Yes, something we would want you to avoid at all costs. So please do not do that...ever.'_ Shadow said, voicing his concern to Shawn.

Shawn looked up at Shadow, ' _yes dear,'_ he mentally replied back, and then looked over at James, popping his neck and rolling his shoulder again, hearing a series of pops and cracks. "Yeah, that would be very unfortunate, something I don't want to ever do. Gods that rifle gave my shoulder a workout, as if I wasn't sore enough already."

"Call it a night, get some rest and ice that area, it'll be bruised in the morning, oh and if you thought the training rounds were bad, just wait until you try the live ammo," James said with something of a smile.

"Worse?" Shawn asked.

"Much worse," was the mercs answer to that question, "I'll also show you how to strip and clean your weapon next time, the standard M-sixties and sixty-fives were pretty easy to field strip and clean, not sure if these modified ones are or not, but we'll see. Either way, you can't go into a combat situation without knowing how to strip, clean and fix your weapon, the last thing you want to for your weapon to jam up and find yourself not knowing what to do."

The five of them walked out of the shooting range and armory area. "I'll grab some food for Amy and we can head back down with you to the cell," Shawn said, trying to stifle a yawn. "I imagine you probably want to grab something for yourself as well."

"I'll get a few things to eat. You know she's been crying when she thinks I'm asleep," James said, "think that the reality of what's going on is finally starting to sink into her head. At least she's not having those messed up tantrums anymore, just kind of stays quiet now."

"I'm not exactly sure what to think of that," Shawn replied back to James, he still did not know what to do with Amy other than keeping her locked up, she was unlike anyone he had ever met, and not in the best way either, "the last time she spoke to me or rather scream orders to me, Shadow and Alese got right in her face, which shut her up pretty damn quick."

"Remember I was there in the next cell, I thought that they had killed her or worse, right until she started to scream and then cry, after that it was her going on about how much she hates this place and that all of you will pay, I'm pretty sure it's all angry bluster coming from a spoiled, rich kid that's finally getting a cold and hard dose of reality." Looking over his shoulder, James glanced at all three Xenos who were following right behind, it was something he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the concept of the Xenomorphs and what they were now. "I don't know, maybe this is good for her and it'll help her grow up some, help her realize that the universe isn't hers to just do with as she sees fit and that we aren't a bunch of insignificant minions to be at her beck and call whenever she feels the need."

"Maybe, I'm just not sure how to handle her when it comes right down to it," Shawn said.

 _'Give me less than a minute with her and I'll show you how to handle her."_ Alese flatly stated with a slightly bitter tone in her voice, every time Amy came up in any form, Alese was always the first to show any aggression; Shawn didn't even what to know what Alese would do to the female merc if she was ever with in claw or biting range, and truth be told, he didn't want to know.

Looking right over at the female Xeno, Shawn just shook his head slightly at her statement, ' _If at all possible I would really rather not have the walls coated with her blood. Besides if she pisses you off that much, maybe you ought to keep a few decks between yourself and her.'_

' _Fine...I know I should not let it get to me, but her attitude angers me so much, I just want to rip her tongue out of her mouth and wave it in front of her face and then make her swallow it.'_ Alese didn't even realize that her lips were peeled back in aggression, and that James was backing up wounding just what the hell was going on and that maybe the Xeno was about to attack.

It wasn't until Shawn stepped in front of her and started to calm her down that he started to feel somewhat relieved. "Sorry, it's not you, it's just that every time Amy gets mentioned Alese gets a bit riled up and well as you can see, really pissed off," Shawn said, slowly running his hands down her jaws, trying to get her calmed down some and in a better mode.

"Good to know," James said, his back pressed up against the bulkhead wall, "I don't see how you can be so calm and relaxed around them like that."

Shawn chuckled a bit as he continued to gently stroke Alese's jaw line calming her down, "Didn't happen all at once you know, took time and to be honest with you even with them looking as different as they are, I never felt that I was really in any danger with them, figured that if they weren't going to do anything in the first day or two then I probably didn't have anything to worry about, might have be a naive way to look at it, but at the time other than my life what the hell did I have to lose."

"Man, I don't know if I could have done what you did, I really don't know," James said, feeling a bit safer now that the female Xeno was looking and acting a bit more placid, took a couple of toward the Xenos and Shawn.

Looking over at James, Shawn just shrugged some, "That's the thing, you don't know until you're looking at your own mortality and seeing what choices you're limited to, that's when the real you comes out."

"So if your ship had been undamaged when you came on board the Saratoga and you were faced with the same choice, you would have stayed regardless?" James asked.

"I wonder about that from time to time, the way I fled CIC when they let me go, the way I ran back to my ship, I was looking right at the controllers ready to disengage knowing what my choices were at the time, I was scared, terrified, if my ship had been undamaged, I honestly don't know what I would have done, I really don't, I would like to say I would have stayed, but in hindsight I really do not know and that's the truth."

 _'Regardless we are glad that you did stay and are here, we are all of us, you included, better for it.'_ Alese cooed, leaning forward into Shawn's rubbing.

"That's more honest than what most people I know would have said," James replied, looking at the odd scene with Shawn and the Xeno, not only could he hear a deep rumbling coming from the creature he could also feel the low vibrations going through him, to him it almost sounded like purring. "Is that one purring?" He asked in sounding more surprised than he had meant to.

"Yep, I was more than a little shocked when I first hear and felt it, it's very relaxing, there have been many nights that I've gone to sleep with them surrounding me, Shadow normally will spoon right up behind me and purr until I fall asleep, feeling those vibrations go right through your core and being is maybe one of the most relaxed and pleasant things I've ever felt. I've learned that physical contact is very important to them, it's a way of not only communicating but also bonding, healing, a way to enjoy another's company, or in this case, help remove stress and anger."

"Well that's good to know," James said, still unsure about the unusual scene that was before him, as well as the info that Shawn had just unloaded on him. He actually slept with them, for a second he wondered if it went further than that, if perhaps more was involved, then just as quickly he dismissed it, he really did not want to know what went on between the four of them.

Alese leaned in, nuzzling Shawn's face in thanks; turning toward James she took a few steps forward until she was a few feet from him, reaching out her hand, she offered it to him.

"She wants you to know she is sorry for scaring you like she did and is offering you her hand in an apology, it was something that was not intended," Shawn told James.

Nodding, James really wasn't sure about what to do; the eight plus foot tall black skeletal form was standing in front of him, her hand out stretched waiting for his response. "Don't worry about it," he told her, slowly reaching out and cautiously placing his hand over hers deciding it would be best not to offend the alien in any way. Carefully she brought her other hand and sandwiched it over his, gripping it slightly, and then bowed her head.

"Not quite what I was expecting to tell you the truth," James said, looking over the Xeno as she released his hand and back up.

"It's their way," Shawn replied, "you get used to it after a while, the nice thing is, is that there's no deception with them, if they like you they let you know, if not, well they let you know. But you'll always know where you stand with them regardless." With that, they made their way up to the mess hall loaded up on food and then escorted James back to his cell with some food for Amy.

As James walked into his cell, Shawn closed and locked it up, he was having a hard time looking at the merc in the eyes now. James wasn't a bad person by any means, he seemed to have a strong set of morals and integrity and wanted to do right by others. It seemed inherently wrong to keep him locked up like this though if there had been some way to confine him to someone's quarters he would have rather done that instead. The problem was that there were only the four of them and if James was confined to quarters one of them would have to have been acting as a guard all the times, not something that was feasible for any of them.

"So tomorrow then I guess, if you're up for it," Shawn said, holding the tray of food for Amy.

Walking over to his bunk the merc sat down and looked over at Shawn, "Sure, got nothing but time right now, besides it's better than being stuck down here with nothing else to do besides reading and looking at vids."

Nodding in agreement, Shawn turned to walk over to the other cell to give Amy her food, "Alright, we'll try and get some sort of regular schedule going," he said putting the tray of food on the cell door platform for Amy who was curled up and looked to be asleep on her bunk. He couldn't tell whether or not she was really sleeping or just lying there listing, if she was awake she made no indication of it.

"Tomorrow may or may not work, have a couple of things I need to take care of, my shoulder being one of them," Shawn said, getting rid to head out of the brig area.

"Just remember this, your time is limited so use it wisely, try to do some kind of training or planning if nothing else. Also when it comes to that pulse rifle, practice your timing when ejecting the spent magazine out and putting a new one in, seconds can make all the difference." James told him, "even if it is just a couple of seconds those seconds may very well be the difference between life and death, whether it's yours or someone else's.

"I understand," Shawn replied, nodding as he and his entourage of Xenomorph companions left the brig area leaving James alone in his cell; the only company was either the tablet that Shawn had given him for entertainment or Amy. At this point, he would have easily chosen the tablet over his merc companion.

Making a quick stop by the medical bay to look around and see if there were any ice or cold packs that he could use, upon finding a couple of instant-cold packs he activated them and with Shadow's help placed them on the front and back of his shoulder and wrapped them up. It would keep the bruising and possible swelling down.

It wasn't until getting back to their sleeping room, removing his clothes and collapsing on the bed that Shawn remembered that the reactors and engines were still cold and needed to be primed and restarted, something he would have to keep an eye on manually for the duration. Cursing to himself several times incoherently under his breath he made a mental note that that would be the first thing he would work on when he woke back up.

Shadow and Alese, while not being all that tired and feeling a bit restless from the inactivity, decided to check out the training room that Ghost had discovered and maybe go for another wonderful swim to help burn off their excess energy. Ghost, on the other hand, decided to stay with Shawn, even if he didn't sleep, he did want to spend some more quality time with their human.

Shawn was already out, as Ghost lay down behind him and spooned up against his back, wrapping his arm around the human's chest and pulling him in, the black, segmented tail coiled up around the two of them, the bladed tip resting just over the top of the Xeno's domed head. The feel of Shawn's warm, soft naked skin pressing against his own slick, black chitin and bony body fed his arousal more than he had expected, while it was not enough to drive him into a frenzy, he did now wish that Shawn was awake so they might be able to mate, but for now sleeping with him like this would be more than enough, content as much as he had ever been, Ghost slowly slipped off into a what would be a restful sleep as well, his mind naturally linking with Shawn's, they would sleep quietly and peacefully, no nightmares or terrors would interrupt them, only warm and pleasant dreams.

xxxxx

The deadly black ship drifted forward every slowly on the inertia from the final firing of the engines before they were taken off line days ago. Now slowly those engines came back to life, with the reactors being brought back on line and fully operational. At first, it had only been a slight bluish glow, a small ember that had every so carefully started to be fed, slowly that glow increased as more power was directed to the main drive, at first to properly warm them up.

That small spark soon ignited to a full blue burn as the engines came to life, the ship pushed forward, reorienting and aligning itself to the proper coordinates and then speeding up. With a massive burst of energy, the FTL engaged and with a bright white streak the Saratoga was gone.

The last twenty-four hours had been uneventful, in that time Shawn had woken up still being held by Ghost, Shadow and Alese at some point had come back and were sleeping next to the two. He still felt sore but not anywhere as bad as he had been the day before and while his shoulder was sore from the rifle practice the cold packs he had taped to his shoulder had helped keep the soreness and bruising down to a minimum.

Getting up and leaving the sleeping room he first headed up to the mess hall, grabbed some food, coffee and then made a detour to get his pulse rifle with a few of the empty magazines from the shooting range he then headed up to CIC and started up what would be both the reactor and main engine startup procedures, something that would take a full twenty-four hours give or take. It was going to be a very long and boring process but one that he needed to keep an eye on just in case something happened. Having a reactor overload and explode or melt down was the last thing any of them needed, especially since it would render the ship useless if not outright destroy it.

Shawn had spent most of his time during that twenty-four stent either going over the layout for Eclipse station that he had found when poking around the Saratoga's database earlier and while the station layout he had found in the database was fairly basic, it did have all the pertinent information on hand. Deck by deck layout, hallways, rooms, crawl ways, maintenance shafts, elevators, access hatches, air vents, power conduit, fiber optic lines and nodes, also what doors were normal and what ones were the heavy reinforced pressure doors.

While he was looking at the station layout figuring out a plan, he sat the pulse rifle in his lap, he would press the release button, pull out the clip and act as if he was going for a new one and slap in it, an exercise he was doing over and over to get used to the act, muscle memory as he remembered it being called.

Get on board, make it to the lab area, free the other Xenos and then make a quick escape, get on, free them and get off. As James had said it was a rescue, not a siege, two things would be key, the first one being stealth, staying out of sight and making sure their presence went undetected until they got to the labs, the second would be when the attack on the labs began and the Xenomorphs were freed, speed would be essential, escaping the labs and getting back to the Saratoga as fast as they could.

One thing that would help improve their chances would be a distraction of some sort, something else they would have to figure and come up with.

Shadow, Alese, and Ghost came up to CIC a few hours after Shawn had started the restart sequence to keep him company and alleviate the boredom that would eventually set in, it was also a good time to start going over the station's layout that he had found and try to come up with a plan. Getting on board undetected would be the tricky part if they wanted to succeed, most of the time was spent mulling over different ideas, looking over the station layout and viewing memories from the three Xenos on what the labs looked like, the number of guards, be it human or synthetic, and the hallways that any of them would be taken though when being transported to other parts of the station.

One thing that both Shawn and Ghost though that might be to their advantage as Shawn had discovered when he was looking over the layout, was that the station was essentially in five separate components, the main column hub, which housed the primary reactors, central operations, primary life support, the main hub for the security forces, and the primary, and secondary docks as well as several massive docking arms for the larger ships that would be birthed for extended periods of time. The other four sections were in essences massive modular pods that housed the different areas of research, which could be detached from the main hub in case of an emergency such as a catastrophic failure or a large scale biological outbreak that could not be contained by conventional means.

By the same means the pods could also serve as massive life boats since each pod did have the capability to run on its own life-support system in case of said outbreak or biological contamination as well as smaller reactors for power and emergency food and water rations that could last from six months to several years, depending on the number of personnel on board at the time.

And thanks to both the station layout in the database and the memories from the Xenos it was a solid confirmation that the Xeno labs were stationed in what was pod three. At least with that knowledge, they would know where to start.

With the beginnings of a plan and the reactors and engines finally back on line it was time to resume their journey, enough delays had already happened, all four of them not only hoped but also prayed to whoever might be listening that nothing else would go wrong, and if there was a queen mother that was watching over them, they all hoped and prayed that she would guide their way and prevent any further delays, interruptions or disasters. And that the rescue of their brothers and sisters would be successful.

Adjusting the coordinates and realigning the ships trajectory, Shawn lifted the plastic safety shielding over the FTL button, with a firm press of the button, a loud hum reverberated throughout the ship and that familiar push that they all felt throughout their whole bodies happened to indicate the Saratoga had entered the FTL transit tunnel and was back on course.

xxxxx

Shawn had been busy most of the next morning transferring over supplies, food, equipment, weapons, ammo as well as marking several of the maintenance androids to be transferred over to the Ember-Rose just in case everything went south quickly and they needed to make a hasty getaway, at least as hasty as they could given that the primary engines and FTL were still out on the small courier ship. While he was busy with that and would be getting together with James for another training session soon, something all of them were going to be there for, Ghost was discussing something with Shadow and Alese that he wanted to keep private from Shawn at least for a while until he had spoken with his brother and sister about it.

 _'You wish to do what?'_ Shadow asked in a rather questionable and confused voice, not sure if he had heard Ghost clearly or not.

Raising his head up to look right at Shadow, Ghost crossed his arms, his tail sweeping back and forth in a rather nervous manner. _'I said we need to consider teaching and training Shawn to defend himself against our kind, you know as well as I that this is both a prudent and necessary course of action for both us and for him.'_

Shadow shook his head still unsure as to why Ghost would even consider this, Shawn was hive, he was family, hive did not fight hive, brother and sister did not fight brother and sister that was the law that was the way it had always been. Only in extreme and unusual circumstances did that ever happen, and those were few and far between.

So why now?

 _'Why,'_ Shadow asked, still unsure what it was brought up, _'Shawn is hive, he is family, he is one of us, we have accepted him as such; why should he need to defend against those that are not and will never be a threat to him.'_

 _'Because,'_ Ghost started, knowing that he was going to have to very carefully word his response, _'despite that, to US, yes, Shawn is in fact hive and family and that we have accepted him as such, the others may not. They may seem him as a threat from the very start and wish him harm, no human in our memory as ever become a member of a hive, for us, he is the first one, and even if there have been others in the past to other hives that is irreverent at this time. You know as well as I there are some of our brothers and sisters that have been so brutalized that they may always see humans as a threat to be destroyed and despite how we do see Shawn, the fact of the matter is this, he is human and no matter how much we mentally link with him or mate with him he will always be human. And we cannot always be around to guard and protect him.'_

 _'Hive does not fight hive, that is the law, that has always been the way since the beginning, and he is hive, they would not attack him.'_ Shadow stated vehemently.

 _'And suppose they refuse to see him as a hive member, but simply as another human threat to be dealt with and destroyed and nothing more than that. I want to believe that they would all come to accept him as a fellow hive member, but you know as well as I that Mason has fucked us all over, some to the point of madness, myself included, if one of our brothers or sisters or even several of them decided to kill Shawn, and the only way to save him was to take the lives of those fellow hive mates, what would you or any of us do. I do wish for the best outcome I truly do, but we need to prepare not only him but ourselves for the worse.'_ Ghost said, hoping that Shadow would see his view on this, none of them wanted to have to make a hard decision like that, but if it ever did come down to it, he would choose Shawn and that was final.

Shadow did not want to think about this, there was so much on their plate that one more thing seemed to compound it, _'They would not harm him, they have to accept him, we have, why not them, why would they not accept him."_ Shadow cried out almost pleading.

 _'Brother...'_ Alese said, coming up to Shadow's side, placing her hand on his backside and gently rubbing him trying to calm him down, _'I too want to think that our fellow brothers and sisters would accept Shawn as a hive member without question, but we should consider the fact that not all of them may welcome him as we have. While I don't believe that physical violence would happen there are those that may shun him simply for being what he is, and that is human. We see him as a fellow Xeno as one of us, but the others may not be so open in doing so.'_

Looking over at his sister, they both were right in that respect, the thought of anything happening to his human, to their human, sent both panic and pain right through his heart and soul, he would have rather had his crest ripped off than lose his Shawn _. 'I just do not want to think about losing someone that I have come to love so much, even the thought of him coming to harm or dying fills me with a mixture of sorrow and rage, and the thought that one of our own could even think of hurting him...'_

 _'Which has not happened, and it may never happen,'_ Alese said trying to reassure the large Praetorian, _'however, Ghost is correct, would it not be better to be prepared for a disaster and avoided it with proper knowledge and training than to be once again take by surprise and suffer the consequences, something I'm sure all of us never want to have happen again. Though if such disasters never happen then that would be even more welcome.'_

Taking time to fully think things through, Shadow slowly nodded his head in agreement, _'Very well, I hope that it never comes to it, but if something should, then yes, better for him to be prepared than not at all. If one of our kin ever did harm to him...'_ Shadow looked over to Alese and then to Ghost, _'I honestly do not know what I would do.'_

 _'How exactly should we start training him to defend himself against our kind?'_ Alese asked, a bit perplexed by how exactly to start this, sure there were weapons, but all of them knew that Shawn would not want to carry a weapon around every minute of every day while he was around them, plus that would not help to earn the trust of the other Xenos once they got them on board and away from Eclipse station.

 _'He can't combat us directly,'_ Shadow said, _so perhaps speed and evasion would be his best defense, that and knowing a few weak points in our anatomy, something that he could hit that would stun us for a couple of seconds while he gets away.'_

 _'Agreed,_ ' Ghost said, _'speed and evasion would work best, and I believe that we have pressure points that are not too dissimilar to the pressure areas that most humans have, tougher and more resilient but they are there, striking one may buy him enough time to escape to safety.'_

Looking over at Ghost, Shadow nodded again in agreement, _'to ride on your practicality we could incorporate it into the training for going up against Eclipse station, it might very well give all of us an edge. Despite that we have the hive memories of battles with our creators; the fact is that none of us has ever actually trained for anything, instinct and memory are one thing but actual experience is another.'_

Ghost looked over at Alese and then back up at Shadow, _'Yes, both a practical and wise decision, I think that would work best for all of us, it will also help get his endurance up.'_

It was right then that the door to the sleeping room opened up and Shawn walked in, looking slightly fatigued but none the worse for wear. "Ok, the Ember-Rose is good to go as far as making a slow retreat, I've got extra food, medical supplies, full set of repair tools, parts, equipment and some weapons and ammo to boot, even have about six of the maintenance androids setup to haul ass to the Ember-Rose in case we need to leave," Shawn told the three Xenos, who were looking at him, ever since fully bonding with them he could pick up even the tiniest of facial details, something that anyone who was either not a Xeno or not bonded would miss, and the way they were looking right at him, he knew that something was going on. "So what's up, you three look like you were in a pretty serious discussion."

Not saying a word, Shadow walked up to Shawn, knelt down and wrapped his arms around his human and brought him into a full embrace his chin cupping over Shawn's shoulder and onto his back.

There was something off and serious too, Shawn could pick it up not only from Shadow but from both Alese and Ghost, he had only been gone a few hours at most, nothing that serious could have happened...could it? "Not that I don't enjoy big Xeno hugs or anything," Shawn said reaching up to return the hug, after all, it was rude not to, "but what just happened, I was only out for a couple of hours?"

Ghost stepped up and looked at Shawn, it had been his idea, it was only right he should tell him. _'We need to start training you in how to defend yourself against our kind, just in case something should happen after we rescue our brothers and sisters.'_

Shawn almost did a double take at Ghost and then looked over at Shadow, "You want to train me to defend myself against your kind?" He asked not entirely sure if he had heard Ghost correctly, almost exactly mirroring Shadow reaction when the drone had brought up this topic of conservation. "Why, I'm not a threat, I don't even think I could bring myself to point a weapon at one of your kind. Besides I thought I was part of your hive now or did I miss something."

 _'You are part of our hive now and always and that will never change; it's not that any of us see you as a threat, however, the others onboard that station that we are going to rescue may not see you in the way we do. Some of them may see you as a threat simply because you are human, and in fact, there is the reality that they themselves may not accept you as a hive member.'_ Ghost told him, _'my concern, in fact, all our concerns are this, if one of our hive mates decides to harm you we may not be around to protect you, you need to be able to fend for yourself and get to safety in case something like that happens. And while it is highly unlikely, I am afraid that it could happen, none of us could handle losing you, it would break us.'_

"Christ, I go away for a few hours and you all think of something else to be worried about on top of everything else that's going on, not that your concerns aren't valid or anything, but how the hell do I defend myself against one of your people, I mean without weapons, it's not like humans have the natural physical defenses like Xenos do."

 _'We believe working on speed, evasion, possibly stealth to avoid detection and should physical combat come we think that there are pressure areas that may be a viable spot to hit, it might give you a few seconds to get away.'_ Shadow said.

"Great, and no doubt piss the Xeno off even more which will what enrage him or her to no end, just what I need while trying to get away."

 _'Shawn listen to me, the fact is this, we do not know how our kin are going to react to you being bonded with us, they may very well welcome you with open arms and embrace you as a brother, but on the off chance that even one wants to harm you simply because you are human, that is a chance we need to be prepared for.'_ Ghost said, kneeling in front of Shawn, placing his hand on the humans shoulder.

"You said we, are you all going to be training for this as well?"

' _It has always been our law, our rule since we were created and given form, that hive does not fight hive, and that brother and sister do not fight brother and sister. However it if ever came down to defending and fighting to protect you from another one of my kind, even one from my own hive, I would do it without hesitation or question, in the end, I would choose you, just as I did before.'_ Shadow told Shawn, his voice serious and somber with the reality of what might happen, even if it was an infinitesimal chance, the possibility of it was still there, ' _we doubt that it would happen but just in case it does, we all need to be prepared.'_

"You would really do that for me, you would go that far to protect me, even from your own kind?"

 _'We all would.'_ Alese said, walking up to them, _'without question, without hesitation.'_

"Well, let's hope that it doesn't come to that, ever." Shawn said, trying to hold back from choking up, "and you," he said, playfully slapping the side of Shadow's crest, "you're just trying to get me to cry aren't you."

 _'Were my intentions so obvious?'_ Shadow said with a mental laugh, drawing back he looked right at Shawn and then leaned in forward pressing his forehead to Shawn's, the Xeno's hands reached back and gently gripped the back of the human's head. _'We cannot lose you, and I could not bear to see you hurt, especially not by one of our own, you have become a part of our world and if any of that world were to be lost...'_ Shadow didn't even finish up what he was going to say, the words were there in his mind, they simply would not come out.

"So just what kind of training are we talking about? You said speed, stealth, and evasion; do you already have something in mind?"

 _'I was thinking about running your ass down for starters see how that goes.'_ Ghost commented, though Shawn could tell it was half playful banter and half serious. ' _We were thinking about how to incorporate the training for the attack on Eclipse station and mix it in with the defense training for our kind.''_

Shawn gave Ghost a thoughtful look for a moment, his eyes looking away for a second then back to the drone, "Maybe alternate for starters...oh wait I know, remember how James mentioned that I would need to get my stamina up, maybe use the defensive training for that?"

 _'That was one of the options we were discussing.'_ Alese said, _'it would be beneficial to you for both reasons, however out running one of us, will take a lot of training and practice, and to be perfectly honest, I doubt any human no matter how physically fit would be able to our run one of our kind, at least not for very long.'_

"Right, but we're not talking about a marathon run or anything like that, just long enough to get to someplace safe, quick burst of speed, get through a door, lock it and then get to someplace else, right?"

 _'Yes, correct,'_ Ghost said answering Shawn's question, _'there is also seeing if any of our pressure areas will work with your given strength.'_

"Okay then, we'll just combine everything and figure it out as we go, about the only thing we really can do at this point. So I'm going to go and get James for some more rifle practice, figured you would want to come along just to keep an eye on things. Besides now that we're back in FTL the clock really is counting down and every second matters now, literally."

Letting go of Shawn, Shadow stood up; nodding his head toward the door his signal to leave the four of them left the area, it was time to get serious.

xxxxx

For the next day or two, the training was less than ideal as far as the physical aspect of it, rifle practice with James was about the only thing that was going well, Shawn was getting used to the recoil on the pulse rifle as well as getting more comfortable with it , he had also opted to train on one of the Glock pistols, something he was far better at than the pulse rifle, with that he could squeeze a clip off and have a fairly good number of clusters around the center of the target, not that he would win any shooting matches but it was enough to put someone down if it came to it. James was relieved that he at least knew how to use a pistol fairly well, that was something at least. Shawn had also decided to bring along one of the Saratoga's stun rifles, a much more beefed up version of the stun rifle that the mercs had, harder hitting, slightly longer range and a larger power pack to compensate. James had noted to himself that if they had been issue those rifles when they first landed on the Saratoga, the battle would have been much different.

Unloading another clip, Shawn popped the spent magazine out; quickly grabbed another one, loaded it, armed the weapon and pulled the trigger sending several shots down range at the ten-meter distance target, while far from a center hit, they rounds were at least getting closer.

"You're reloading speed is getting better, and your aim is improving some too, just remember this, a fast reload doesn't mean shit if you miss your target," James said, looking back up at the monitor. "Remember focus on the target, then the sights, exhale, then fire."

The training continued, round after round, clip after clip, ten meters increased to fifteen on the last few clips just to make it a bit more interesting, which would eventually go to twenty when he was ready. After rifle practice was done, came the act of cleaning the weapons, field stripping the rifle and pistol, clearing the parts and putting it back together. While Shawn could easily clean and reassemble the Glock, it was very similar to the one he had kept on the Ember-Rose the pulse rifle was another beast altogether, one that he had to really pay attention to and ask for help several times, eventually getting it.

The physical aspect of their training was something none of them could really pin down on what to actually do, Shawn needed to get his stamina built up, he also needed to figure out what he was taking, which was something that eluded him to no end, weapons...sure, ammo...sure, beyond that he had no idea. Finally, just out of complete desperation, he decided to get some training weights and wear them, adding about a hundred pound all over his body, some for the legs, arms and the rest on his torso. He felt ridiculous but it was working, and just for the extra abuse he found a knap sack and loaded it up with about another fifty pounds of stuff that he could find, odds and ends, nothing breakable but it would help simulate the weight and bulk he might have to carry. Between the weights, knap sack and the pulse rifle, he felt like he was about to keel over from the extra weight alone.

It was right then that the real training started and he had Ghost to thank for that, cheeky little Xeno.

xxxxx

Dim lights flickered off and on in the long gunmetal grey hallway, small high powered red emergency lights kick on saturating the area with an almost unearthly like glow, ghostly shadows jumped in and out of the hallway as the lights flickered off and on, leaving little more than what looked like a blood red haze hanging in the air. No alarms blared only an eerie, dead silence fell over making the ghostly red area seem all that more haunting.

Rapid foot falls echoed throughout the hallway, the pacing increasing, getting quicker and quicker with each step. A lone figure ran along the empty hallways his breathing heavy and rasped, daring for just a second to check back behind to see if his pressures were still with him, he saw nothing, his heart dropped, not seeing anything as far as he was concerned was far worse, not knowing where they were or how far or even worse how close they might be.

Gripping his weapon even tighter his finger on the trigger, he looked down at the counter, only thirteen rounds left, no extra magazine, no grenades, not even a backup side arm…nothing. Ducking around a corner he scanned the hallway in front of him, shadows jumped back and forth along the wall and ceiling but nothing other than that, at least he hoped, looking back behind him, he saw nothing, maybe, just maybe he had lost them; maybe just maybe he could make it someplace safe.

It was then that the shadows started to move again, only this time it was one, not along the wall or ceiling, but within the hallway itself, the red emergency lights giving it a blood red sheen, it walked toward him, slowly, purposefully, a true alpha predator in every sense of the word, it was playing with him, taking its time, letting him wear himself out before going in for the final blow, savoring the moment of what was to come.

The black shadow moved closer to him, a low menacing hiss echoed throughout the hallway, and then it stopped, drawing its head back it let out a deafening scream, one filled with untold anger, rage, and hate for all. Dropping down to all fours it charged with blinding speed coming for him, it had finally become tired of this trifle game it wanted its prey and it wanted it now, and it would not be denied, the longer this chase went on, the longer its prey resisted, the more its prey would suffer.

He ran faster and harder than he had ever thought possible, there was no safe place that they could not get to him, no place to hide and rest, no place he could call a sanctuary, as he ran he could hear it, the heavy paced foot falls on the hard cold metal floor that got closer and closer, another unearthly shriek ripped from its lungs reverberating down the hall, he could feel it pass through his body and right into his soul, it was an unearthly sound, one that made him want to curl up into a tiny ball and pull the earth over his head and hide in the deepest hole he could find, pain ripped into his side, muscles cramping up he gasped for air, he force himself to push harder and harder despite the pain.

He swore he could feel the creatures hot breath on the back of his neck, he didn't dare look back, he didn't want to know how close it was or how much time he had left. Seeing an opening to the side, he banked hard to the right throwing himself through the doorway, turning around he slammed his fist into the control panel, the door slid shut but not before he saw for a scant second the hulking form collide with the door, a massive thud as it impacted with the metal, followed by another shriek of rage.

Gasping for air and clutching his side, he limped on, the hallway was almost pitch black save for a few yellow hazard lights that slowly strobed, going on he could hear heavy footsteps from the hallway he had just escaped from, he didn't know just how many, was it one or was there more, every small space, duct, shadow that moved, was, to him, something that was going to jump out and end him.

Semi-blind he slowly navigated the dark hallway, turn after turn, he saw nothing and heard nothing, the darkness finally gave way to the same ill red colored hallway, looking around he saw nothing, but he could feel it, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, shadows jumped and played all around him in the hallway reaching out one brushed the back of his head, a low menacing hiss blew in his ear, whirling around he saw it, red and black in color, a skeletal frame that glistened with an elongated head, bared slick teeth, thick saliva dripped out coating it's black chin then falling to the floor, out of the shadows the nightmarish horror seemed to separate from the wall itself, it took a step forward toward him it's long arms reaching out.

Turning back around he ran, the slime covered finger tips brushing his hair as they barely missed its intended target. He ran harder and harder, faster and faster, loud foot fall close behind and getting closer, seeing another corner once again he turned sharply passing the corner wall and cutting into it too close, his foot caught on the wall corner sending him flying to the floor, the heavy weapon falling out of his hands, sliding across the floor mere meters from him.

He wanted it to all go away, to crawl away someplace to wake up, not to be here, only a few meters away, possibly his salvation his only hope, the weapon lay there, almost mocking him to get up and grab it up off the floor and face his opponent. Turning over he placed one arm in front of the other and started to crawl toward the weapon. Just a few feet away now, he could almost reach out and grab it.

Too little too late, heavy foot falls one on each side of him, daring to glancing up, one last time, he saw the black wet outline of the creature that had been in pursuit for so long, he could almost swear it was smiling down at him, steel colored teeth cut through the red lighting, it let out a guttural hiss right at him, letting him know that it was over, and he had lost.

All he could do now is wait for it the final blow to end it all.

He felt several light taps on his left shoulder, letting him know that the final blows had been delivered and that it was over and he was finished.

' _Dead'_

 _'Dead...'_

 _'...and dead.'_

Shadow's mental voice rung into Shawn's mind as he looked over only to see the Xeno's deadly tale blade resting on his left shoulder, it went up once more and came back down one last time giving a final light tap.

Rolling over, Shawn gasped for breath, his chest heaved up and down as he tried to suck up as much air as he could, his muscles ached and burned all over and his whole body was covered with sweat. This little exercise had been nothing but pure torture for him, being chased down by Shadow, all while wearing those damn weight sets, thankfully he had ditched the knap sack for this, but he knew at some point he would have to wear it.

Damn it all.

Shadow stood directly above Shawn and just looked right down at his prone and helpless human, and just to be a merciless tease he had made it a deliberate point to give said, human, a complete eyeful. _'By my count, if I am measuring time by your standards correctly, you lasted about twenty minutes, not bad for your first run, though not good enough to escape.'_

"Eighteen," Shawn gasped, raising his arm to look at the small computer that was strapped to his forearm, the counter readout measured how long he had been in this exercise had stopped just a few seconds past the eighteen-minute mark. "Oh crap, I am so out of shape for this shit, it's not even funny, I seriously think I am going to throw up."

Rolling over on his side, Shawn tried to push himself up, sweat dripping off his face and arms, "No, I'm definitely going to throw up." He muttered as Shadow reached down and helped him to his feet. Bending over all he could do was slowly walk around in circles try to catch his breath, "Holly shit," he muttered leaning up against a wall, "and this is going to be part of our training, this sucks, this really, really sucks."

 _'It is unfortunate, but it is necessary, as much as I may want to argue with Ghost and Alese about it, they are correct, if there is even a small chance that one of my kin may want to cause you harm, you need to be prepared for it.'_ Shadow told him, running his claws through Shawn's sweat soaked hair.

Shawn just nodded, raising his head to look at Shadow, his breathing was slowing as he was finally catching his breath finally, "I know, and for what it's worth I happen to agree with them, I just hope that it doesn't happen. I'm wounding if two weeks is going to even be enough, I know you don't want to leave your brothers and sisters on board any longer than you have to, but at the same time we need to be ready for this."

Shadow kneeled down until he was just eye level with Shawn, leaning in, he touch his forehead up against Shawn's, _'I feel the same way, I have no wish to leave them to suffer any longer than it is necessary, but as you have stated we need to be ready. I think of us four on this ship, what we have gained and become, the fact that we have found some happiness and enjoyment, that we sleep and eat when we want to, that we no longer have to suffer, and then I think of my brothers and sister who are still there, I wonder if they are even alive; then I feel guilty because they are not here to enjoy what we have, that we are free to do as we please and that they have no alternative but to languish and suffer in a hell that was never of their own choosing.'_

Reaching up, Shawn placed his hands under the Praetorian's chin, "We'll do what is necessary to make sure they are freed, we just have to make sure we are fully prepared and ready to go." He said, patting Shadow's neck, "Come on let's go find Ghost and Alese and let them know how the first run went." Fumbling with the small computer strapped to his arm he brought it up and tapped a few buttons, "computer end the simulation and return lights to normal," Shawn panted.

 **"CONFIRMED, SIMULATION ENDED, RETURNING LIGHTS TO NORMAL MODE."**

The red and yellow lights dimmed out then off as the normal lights returned to their normal lighting mode.

Staggering forward and picking up his pulse rifle the two headed down the long hallway, step by step with Shadow next to him, Shawn rubbed his side where the cramp had happened, his side was still sore and he knew it would be for a while. "Bloody hell, I really am out of shape. Guess that's what I get for becoming a courier pilot and sitting on my ass all the time"

 _'You'll be in shape in no time, your endurance will be up, which will mean you'll also be able to last longer the next time we mate, an extra benefit there, yes.'_ Shadow purred out loudly, the drool almost cascading at the mere thought of that.

"You're incorrigible, you know that," Shawn commented, playfully nudged Shadow in the ribs with his elbow.

A loud series of rapid sounding hisses erupted from the large Xeno, something that Shawn all too well knew by now was their version of a roaring belly laugh. _'And you would not have it any other way.'_

"No, probably not," He replied back, "so just out of curiously those blood chilling screams, screeches and hisses that you were using, is that something that's normal when you're running down someone or was that just for show?"

 _'Mostly just for show to give you an idea of what we can be like at our worse, most times when we hunt our prey we do it silently and strike from behind, however, there are times that rage can take over and we are blinded into a frenzy. Other times it can be used to strike fear into those that we want to hunt to let them know what is coming. Like all weapons it has its uses, it is just a matter of knowing when, how and where to use it.'_ Shadow answered back, while he had never had a chance to chase down any prey and frighten it, he had unleashed those screams and screeches at the scientist many times, even with him being behind the clear plexi-steel glass pod, he had still managed to terrify some of them lab personal, some even refusing to even get near him, a small victory that he was proud of.

"Yeah, well, even though I knew it was you and this was just a training exercise and I was never in any danger, I have to say, those screams scared the crap out of me; I mean seriously I felt like I was really being hunted down, and the way you just seemed to come right out of the wall, that was freaky, cool and all, but freaky."

 _'Then you have an idea of what to expect, it was the first time you have heard our battle and hunting screams but it will not be the last, I would suggest that you reflect on what happened in this training exercise and learn from it.'_

"Sound advice," Shawn replied back, "when we find Alese and Ghost let's get something to eat, don't know about you, but all that running from you gave me an appetite, I'm starved."

 _'Yes, food sounds good,'_ agreed Shadow, placing his hand on Shawn's shoulder and drawing him in close as they walked down the hallway to find their hive mates to discuss how their first run went.


	23. Bonding

**Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story.**

xxxxx

CHAPTER 22: Bonding

The sleeping room swirled with an array of multi-colored lights that kaleidoscope in through the clear observation window from the FTL transit tunnel. In some ways, it reminded Shawn of the vids and pictures he had seen of earth structures that were underwater but close to the surface, the way the light would distort and refract creating a relaxed atmosphere. Only instead of hues of white and blue, the colors were all across the spectrum.

While he had experienced the spatial distortion when he was sleeping in the cockpit of the Ember-Rose, he had never really been in the mind frame to enjoy the beauty of it, then again it never lit up his little ship like it did this room.

Music set to a low volume as not to disturb his sleeping hive mates, played throughout the room, Shawn while tired from his first training run with Shadow, was leaning up against said Xenos flank with a pillow propped up against his back for support and comfort. Looking over a tablet that had Eclipse station's layout, he was trying to find what would be a good entry point, some area that was isolated either with no or as little personal as possible around.

Going from the Xeno labs of pod three, he started to work his way back toward the main hub pillar, there were large air shafts and vents along with maintenance and access tunnels that they could use to get around, maybe even undetected, that is if there were no sensors or movement detectors inside the vents and tunnels.

Something in the plans caught his attention; there were large air regulation vents from the life support systems that ran vertically throughout the entire length of the main hub, and those vents connected right into the main air shafts for the pods. It was a possible way to get into pod three, it would also depend on if there was any way to scale up the shaft itself, if not then an alternate way would be needed.

There were a slew of maintenance tubes and sub-rooms that ran up the main hub, close to the primary air shafts, it was another way but no doubt that there would be personal manning the rooms performing the day to day tasks to keep the station running, and running into any of the personal would cause a lot of unwanted attention, attention that would have to be dealt with.

Not something he wanted to have happened.

Running further down, he saw it, something that was isolated, connected to the main air shafts after a series of twists and turns, but it was there, what he was looking for, a way in. It was small and at the bottom of the hub, an outer hatch maintenance door for spacewalks. If they could get in that way, get into the primary ventral air shafts, then into the pods, they could make their way into the labs.

They needed to be able to get to the outer hatch door first, however due to not only its size but also the proximity there was no way that the Saratoga or any other ship for that matter could directly dock with the hatch door, which would require a spacewalk in order to access the hatch and get inside.

Just great another damn spacewalk in one of those cloth coffins.

Setting the tablet down in his lap he rubbed his eyes, looking up at the observation window, his mind started to wander back to a few hours ago; it had been Ghost that had suggested doing the defensive training in the hallways themselves, reprogramming the lights to simulate a primary power outage to make things more interesting and realistic. Shawn had been given a two-minute head start before Shadow started to hunt him down.

At first it seemed like a fun little game of hide and seek, cat and mouse, and while he knew he needed to take the training seriously, at first it was hard to do, he knew that he was in no danger from Shadow or any of them, sure the simulated power outage make the area a bit spooky but once again, he had complete control over that.

It wasn't until Shadow got close and saw him and decided to make it serious by letting loose a series of unearthly screams, screeches, and hisses that tore right into his soul and made him feel like a small child. In fact, the last time and only time he had heard that sound was when he was trapped in CIC by the mercs and Shadow had come to rescue him, he had used that same exact scream and even then it ripped right into him.

Despite knowing Shadow's playful nature and knowing that the Praetorian would never harm him and would always be there to protect him no matter what, there was something about that primal scream of his that made the small child in him cringe and want to crawl into a deep hole and hide.

And when he had heard that scream, he knew that it was now getting serious and that this was no longer playtime anymore. So he played the part and for those few minutes he was not a member of a hive, he was a lone survivor on a damaged ship trying to stay alive, and Shadow was no longer his hive mate and lover, but was an enraged Xenomorph hell-bent on killing him, or worse, cocoon him as a host for one of their young.

And while it had been nothing more than mock training run, a part of his mind, for those few minutes, halfway convinced him it was not, just to add some realism to the mix.

He had managed to run, duck, dodge, and stay alive for eighteen minutes, using the corridors, room and whatever else he could to stay hidden, there was no real objective the first time as it was just to see how long he could go before being caught. It showed him just how out of shape he was and that if it had been a real attack he would be dead, and just how stealthy and deadly the Xenos were, he had passed right by Shadow in that final minute and had never seen him pressed up against the wall, using the lighting or lack of to fully blend into the surrounds, then letting him know just how badly he had messed up.

Shawn had no real way to see them in those kind of conditions, no human really did, sure maybe he could get lucky and see the curled up outline if he knew what to look for or just caught a glimpse and knew what it was, listening was a better option, if they were walking that is, once they stopped and went silent that was it.

Maybe use smaller areas, more cover and distractions to draw them out and go in the opposite direction. Shadow, Alese, and Ghost would never fall for such obvious tricks; he doubted any of the other Xenos would either. It would just take practice, trial, and error and learn from many mistakes, better to make that kind of mistakes in a training exercise and learn from them than experience the real thing and die.

Looking down at his pad, he went back to looking over the station layout, get to the outer maintenance door, get inside; go through one of the large air ducts, crawl through the twists and turns, he didn't know how many meters that would be, then get to one of the vertical air shafts, if possible scale up until reaching one of the large air vents for pod three, climb inside and go from there.

It, however, didn't seem that it was a straight shot to the labs, the main vents ended and then separated off into small vents, some far too small for any of them to use, there were still the maintenance tunnels that they might be able to use, the whole thing was starting to give him a headache.

 _'What are you doing my love'?_ Alese asked, her long fingers gripping the tablet and taking it out of his hands, he had been so wrapped up that he didn't even notice that she had woken up and slid over to him.

 _'Work...working on trying to figure a way to get onto the station and into the labs that you were held in, I think I might have figured out a way into the station and maybe even into pod three, but from there...'_ Shawn mentally replied back to Alese on a private channel as not to wake up Ghost or Shadow, or at least tried to until she cut him off.

 _'Stop Shawn, just stop doing what you're doing,'_ Alese said, looking right at him, putting the pad off to the side of the bed out of his reach. _'You have been training most of the day, and when you are not training you look over those station plans. Do you remember what you told not only me but also Shadow and Ghost when we started this training.'_

Shawn was silent, backtracking on his train of thought, a lot had happened and so much of it was bleeding it was getting harder and harder to keep track of everything, especially the small things.

Alese took his silence and slightly confused look as a 'no' that he did not remember. _'You told us that every night that we all needed to spare some time to rest and have a little fun so we would not stress out and snap, and you my dear human, have NOT adhered to what you told us.'_ Alese stated, leaning in until she was just a few inched from Shawn's face. _'In fact, I do believe that you owe us some fun time, and I want to collect.'_

Shawn wasn't even about to protest to that, and the fact was she was right, he had told them that they did need to unwind and have some fun every day or night, so that the stress of training and what was coming wouldn't get to them, and here he was not taking his own advice. Shifting his position he laid down a few feet away from Shadow, knowing exactly what Alese wanted, he could feel it from her, her arousal was nowhere near a powerful as that first night but it was still potent, more than enough to affect and get him excited.

Her silky, black, serpentine form slid over his prone body; slowly as she straddled him, her hips starting to grind and pump into his. Leaning down her slick, thin lips gently caressed over his neck and the side of his face. _'You smell wonderful, your scent is strong, you should never shower if you smell like this after training,'_ she mentally whispered to him, thoroughly enjoying his strong smell, her inner tongue coming out scent tasting him.

Shawn just chuckled at that statement, ' _Shadow has the same idea, if it were up to him, he wouldn't let me anywhere near the shower room to clean up,'_ he told her, reaching around; rubbing and stroking the side of her thighs, his hands slipping underneath the base of her tail, ever so slowly working the sensitive and erogenous zones that would drive any of her kind onto a heightened sexual frenzy, her tail lifted up and over letting him have full access to all that was underneath.

 _'He's right...ohhhhh...,_ ' she stammered at the wave of intense pleasure that was shooting right through her body at his light touches. Unleashing a long hiss of pleasure, Alese pushed her hips back some as she felt his fingers playing and pushing into the entrance of her vent, just as Shadow had found out it was an undiscovered pleasure zone that she wanted more of and to have it explored. Her lips peeled back as thin strands of warm drool fell onto his shoulder and the bed.

"Looks like I've hit a sensitive spot," he whispered to her, kissing the side of her head, pushing his hips up and poking around a few times, he found her opening and slid himself inside. Shawn gasped as the warm and wet muscles gripped and squeezed his member, wrapping his arms around Alese he drew her into a warm embrace, one that she returned as she slowly rocked back and forth thoroughly enjoying the feeling of him being inside of her now.

The tension of the last couple of days quickly drained away as the two made love for several hours, it was not the frenzied need for release like the first time had been, but slow and methodical, now being able to take their time and explore each other's bodies, finding all the right spots to touch and caress fining the areas that turned them on and heightened the experience.

Curling up and holding each other afterward, they both fell into a blissful and sound sleep, knowing that tomorrow would be another day of training, and each day that went by would be one day less that they would have with each other.

xxxxx

Waking up, Shawn felt refreshed, aside from being a bit sore from the days previous training, his legs ached some but nothing that stretching out and walking around for a bit wouldn't cure. Right away he noticed that Alese wasn't curled up with him like she had been when they went to sleep after making love. In fact he noticed that none of the Xenos were asleep on the bed, usually he was the first to wake up and even if one of them was already awake they usually preferred to stay curled up until all of them woke up.

In fact, Shawn was the only one that seemed to have a habit of getting up and around when the others were still asleep. It was right then that he heard something that sounded like someone was vomiting only the sound was slightly quieter and longer which was followed by odd squishing sounds.

Sitting up and looking around, he saw what was going on, Shadow, Ghost, and Alese were up and about, the floor around the bed, walls closest to them and part of the heavy frame of the ceiling was being coated in the same kind of resin that the storage room had been encased in. Alese was up on the ceiling frame, her hands gliding through the resin molding and shaping it.

Black, glossy and already taking on an organic bony look like it had been in the old sleeping room, Shawn could feel the humidity rise some, it would no doubt get warmer as they continued. He wasn't sure if they planned to do the whole room or just around the bed.

"You all are busy I see," he said getting up and walking over to where Ghost and Shadow were at. Alese dropped down from the ceiling landing in front of him in a crouched position, slowly rising up; wrapping her arms around him, she affectingly nuzzled the side of his face and neck.

 _'Thank you for last night, it was wonderful, we both needed it.'_ Alese both mentally and physically purred to him.

Reaching up Shawn rubbed the side of her head, "you're welcome, you were right we both did need it, it was nice being able to take our time and enjoy ourselves." He responded, enjoying the after morning glow if fact she was practically radiating.

 _'You two put on a very intimate show last night,'_ Shadow said walking up and ruffling up Shawn's already messed up hair even more.

"Guessing you two watched then?" Shawn asked, before all this, he might have felt a bit embarrassed, but now it didn't seem to really matter if Shadow or Ghost watched, in fact oddly enough it seemed normal.

Ghost cocked his head to the side, _'Well, you were mating right in front of us, it was only proper we observe and learn what erogenous zones the two of you found on each other for future sessions.'_ The drone playfully teased.

Looking up at the wall and part of the ceiling, Shawn nodded to the newly coated areas, "sooo, doing a bit of remolding I take it?"

 _'In part, not the whole room as it is too big and would take too long even with the three of us, but this little corner we felt needed to feel more like a hive, cold metal walls have no warmth to them at all,'_ Shadow answered back.

 _'Would you care to help, as you are a part of our hive it would only seem right that you leave your mark as well,'_ asked Ghost.

Shawn didn't even know what to say to that, help create the physical part of a hive, even if it was little more than a few areas, he didn't even know the first thing about constructing a Xenomorph hive structure. "How? I've never even seen it done, I wouldn't even know where to start."

 _'I can guide your hands and show you how to do it,'_ Ghost told him.

"Sure why the hell not," Shawn answered, "What do you need me to do?"

Letting go of Shawn, Alese took a step back and began to observe the two of them as Ghost motioned Shawn over to a spot on the wall that had been started. She was worried about Ghost, even with the calm demeanor that he always seemed to carry, she could tell that there was a lot of built up repressed tension and feelings that he was holding back and to phrase a human term, bottling up, a part of her was afraid that something might happen and that he might erupt in a fit of depression or worse uncontrolled rage and mindlessly lash out.

Ever since their human had come along and found their way into their hearts they had all been able to heal, even Ghost, who had at that time been so withdrawn he barely spoke, even to Alese and Shadow, but yet somehow Shawn had managed, either deliberately or by accident, to help Ghost come out of his shell and start to heal, and while he was miles better there were still deep issues that she and Shadow could feel, deep repressed emotional barriers that were still lurking below the surface that had not been dealt with, most still to do with the torment and abuse that Mason and his crew had inflicted on him.

She hoped that Ghost would be able to finally make it over those final few hurdles and fully heal, the last that any of them wanted to see was their eldest brother lose all that he had gained and revert back to his former state. She would keep an eye on him as both she and Shadow had always done and help when they could. As far as they had all come, there was still a long and uncertain road ahead of them.

Ghost stood off to Shawn's side, leaning forward; he opened his mouth and his inner tongue came out a few inches and opened up, a thick stream of clear thick liquid jetted out coating part of the untouched wall. Shawn stared at what Ghost was doing with an odd mixture of fascination and mild nausea at the thick liquid that was spraying out from his mouth, the closest thing it reminded him of was a bottle of clear spray string that had just been fully unloaded. It was another aspect of the Xenos that he had never seen, he never inquired about how the hive structure were ever made it was something that just never came to mind.

And now here he was, experiencing firsthand how a hive was formed. With a thick coating on the wall, Ghost reached out and started to knead the resin, _'like this, it will expand out, and then turn color as it hardens after we give it shape.'_ A few minutes into the kneading process the resin seemed to expand out, already it had gone from being clear to light gray in color. After a few more minutes, Ghost motioned for Shawn to join him, standing back behind Shawn, Ghost pressing himself in close, his chest and stomach rubbing up against Shawn's back, reaching out he took Shawn's hands and started to carefully guide them across the warm and sticky resin. Already the resin was taking on a bony and biomechanical form, the light gray turning slightly darker, and firming up a little more.

Shawn was finding the whole process relaxing and even in some weird way therapeutic, it was hard to believe that the stuff Ghost was helping him shape and mold came from the Xenos themselves. It was another remarkable way they seemed to be able to adapt so readily to almost any place it seemed. It was still warm and even slightly sticky; it reminded him of wet, freshly made play dough only with a slick and silky smooth texture instead. He noticed that Alese was no longer on the ceiling and was around the bed coating the metal frame with the resin until it looked like it flowed up from the floor seamlessly.

Several hours went by, as the process would be repeated, the Xenos would spray the resin, knead it, then shape and form until it was to their liking, then let it harden. During that time, Ghost assisted Shawn, helping him shape and mold the resin on the walls and floor. When it was time to take a break and rest some, Shawn looked at the progress that had been made; personally, he found it was a whacked out mixture of biomechanical sexual gothic all rolled into one. The walls, ceiling, and floor had various shapes of bone, as well as a few all too looking phallic shapes along the wall and floor with what looked like vertical slit openings.

He didn't remember seeing anything like this in the small sleeping room, but then again, it had always been dark in there and he never really took a close look beyond the first time Ghost led him into that room. This, however, had very heavy sexual overtones when it came to the design, he did wonder if it was done deliberately or maybe it was just by instinctual design.

 _'A vast improvement if I do say so, yes, much better, it is starting to resemble the inner part of a real hive.'_ Shadow said, looking around at the still wet and slightly dripping black and gray resin structures that now adorned part of the wall, ceiling, and floor around the bed.

Ghost came up behind Shawn and wrapped his arms around him and drew him in close, ' _you did well, a part of you is now molded into what is now starting to feel like a real home, I am glad you choose this room as our new sleep area, it was both a brilliant idea and a nice surprise._

Reaching up and around, Shawn rubbed the side of Ghost's jam line, "It is starting to feel like a real home isn't it. You know one thing I am curious about, some of the structuring it seemed to be rather, how do I put this...ummmm."

 _'Sexual, phallic...carnal,'_ Shadow hanging on that last word as he seemed to almost draw it out.

Nodding in agreement, Shadow had hit the nail on the head, "Yeah, I mean I've seen the inner part of a hive structure through your memories and while it always looked organic and mechanical it never quite looked this provocative, besides it's going to interesting trying to sleep in a room that has a bunch of phallic images molded into the wall...and the floor and the ceiling."

 _'You do not like it then I take it,'_ Alese asked cocking her head to the side in confusion.

"It's not that at all, it's just not quite I'm used to, I just don't remember seeing this in the old sleeping room, and am wounding why the change.

 _'A merger of human and Xeno unity, a way to express our physical union and copulation both blended together as one.'_ Shadow said, _'besides you have to admit, that it is rather sensual and arousing and something that we should express openly and not hide, and as you have said, we have less than a couple of weeks, beyond that we have no idea what will happen so I wish for us to leave our mark in case we do not make it, something we will be remembered by.'_

"Well when you put it like that it's hard to argue your point, lord knows that if anyone else sees this is going to remember it. I use to know a couple of guys that were heavy into Gothic stuff, especially design work, they would have given both of their arms for a room like this." Shawn said, looking around at the work that he and the Xenos had done. The resin was a black to a dark gray color, still wet and slick, thin strands of clear resin were in some spots dipping and falling in long thin stands.

"You know after seeing just how prolific you all are in creating this, I would love to see what you could do in making statues, I bet that if anything it would be some serious head turners."

 _'Statues?'_ Ghost asked, _'we are not familiar with that term and head turners, please explain.'_

And there it was that damn language barrier, some stuff was easily explained, other stuff not so much, Shawn was hoping that this was not going to be another explanation like he had about porn, but given how the room was looking now he wouldn't be too surprised if it derailed and headed for that subject. "Well, a statue is basically a carving made out of some sort of material, stone, metal, glass and the like, though anything that can be molded, carved and shaped can be made to be a statue, and the term, head turner, means that it gets someone's attention."

 _'Interesting, yes I see.'_ Ghost replied, mentally imagining what sort of statues he and the others could make from their resin, it was something that none of them had ever thought of, Ghost had to admit to himself at least, despite all their faults, humans were nothing if not creative, something that seemed to be both a blessing and a curse.

All of them, Shawn included, saw a slew of ideas form and flurry by in Ghost's mind on different ideas, forms and shapes, some were completely alien to Shawn's mind, he didn't even know what to make of them, others were provocative and even arousing, and a few were just downright disturbing and creepy. Anyone could tell from seeing the mental images that the drone still had a lot of demons within and needed some way to work them out.

"So I was thinking that after rifle training with James that we might want to try out the combat training area that Ghost found, that first layout is still up, might make for a good test try, that is if you are all up for it?"

 _'I am,'_ Shadow replied back immediately, Ghost and Alese both gave an affirmative to the idea and couldn't wait, it would be interesting to see just how they would do.

 _'There is something that we should try with Shawn first as far as our continued training,'_ Ghost said running his hands up and down Shawn's chest and stomach, _'I would like to test our idea of seeing if he can hit our pressure points and free himself, or if it is an idea that would do no good.'_

"You honestly think that it'll work at all?" Shawn said, looking up at Ghost.

Ghost gave a slight shrug, for all of them it was an unknown factor, something that they had never tried or even remember being tired in the hive memory. _'We do not know, while normally we do take on the traits of our hosts, and while our hosts were human, the way we developed and were birthed were not within the normal standards of our race.'_

"Do you think that what Mason did to you and the others affected you physically in any way that would differ from one of your kind that was born normally?"

Cocking his head to the side, Ghost was lost in thought for a few moments; his mind racing throughout the hive memories to see if there were any answers he could glean. _'While it is unknown, it is highly unlikely that the physical aspects would change that much if any from the way we were born. Our hosts were human and we inherited those traits if we do have pressure points that you can exploit and use than it would not be too dissimilar from the points on your body.'_

"Ok, look no offense to this idea but I'm not sure this is going to work, considering what your biological makeup is like, it'll probably take more strength than what I have to hurt any of you, even if I knew where to hit and how."

Shadow placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze, _'It can't hurt to at least try, if it does not work than we know and can try and come up with something else._

Ghost carefully went over Shawn's body to locate the pressure points that might mirror the ones on a Xenomorph and be used to be able to break away from a grapple that an alien would use on its prey before killing it. Finding and marking those points wasn't a problem; the problem was that so much force was needed before it even affected the Xeno that Shawn or any human would have broken their fingers or the bones in their hands before making the Xeno let go.

While it had been an interesting idea and seemed like one that had merit, the fact was that it seemed like only another Xeno might have any chance of pulling it off. Rubbing his hand, Shawn tried a couple of more strike against Ghost as he held Shawn's head in a mock grip, hit after solid hit and nothing, While Ghost did feel the impact, it simply did not hurt.

"Nothing I take it?" Shawn asked, shaking his hand.

Letting go, Ghost just shook his head, disappointed that the idea had not had the desired effect that he had hoped for, if a hostile Xenomorph got a hold of Shawn in one of their vice-like grips and none of them were around to intervene, the fact was that their human would die and that was unacceptable. _'I am afraid not,'_ he said, disappointment heavy in his voice.

Alese walked up to Ghost and placed his hand on his back, _'It was a good idea, maybe with time it will work.'_

 _'Time that we simply do not have,'_ Ghost said, _'perhaps we will need to stay with the evasion exercises for now, we cannot afford to become distracted and spread ourselves too thin.'_

Reaching up, Shawn rubbed the front of Ghost's dome, "I know it didn't work out the way you were hoping it would, but it's still a good idea, maybe we can try it out some more, just because it didn't work the first time doesn't mean that it won't work the second or tenth time, the points that you are looking for might be in different areas."

Ghost just nodded slightly in response to what his hive mates were telling him, _'Yes, of course,'_ he said, not really convinced that it would work at all now. Even with Shawn slamming his fist or bringing his fingers down on the exact spot, he even tried to use his thumb to press down as hard as he could, the results were always the same, nothing that he did hurt, he felt the hits and impacts, even the pressure, but the simple fact was that nothing he did hurt at all. _'We should go and attend your rifle training, and see what James will be showing you today.'_

xxxxx

The next few hours had for the most part been more of the same, James had gone from having Shawn firing a single shot to going to the three round burst mode, and from a single target to multiple timed targets that were stationary and a few yards further away.

However as critical as it was his mind was not on the training at hand, every time he squeezed the trigger and sent a three burst volley down range he kept thinking of how depressed Ghost sounded, he could feel it too, depression that had started to take grip, Ghost had hoped that his idea would have worked, however it didn't, at least not the first time.

And while it had been an idea that they all knew might not work, it still hurt Shawn to feel how completely disappointed Ghost was knowing his idea had not worked. He hoped that maybe they could try it again, maybe go from some different areas that might not be so apparent.

He did admit to himself, that the thought of being on the receiving end of an enraged Xeno did frighten him to no end and although death would be quick, what worried him most of all was what would happen to his Xenos, what would happen to Shadow, Ghost and Alese if he was gone, how well would they be able to go on without him. They had been through hell with Mason and all he had done to them, and have finally found a sense of peace, a place to call their own, and family unit, and as odd as that family unit might appear to others, it was their own.

And there was also the matter of the ship, they couldn't see what was on the screens, so even if they knew how to work the controls, they had no way of viewing the information and piloting the ship much less landing it. Without a human there to pilot, navigate and help operate the systems that ship could very well become their tomb.

Placing another burst down range missing a target that popped up Shawn grew more and more frustrated, maybe they were just over thinking things, there was no way to know either way what would happen, and while they needed to prepare for the worse, they also needed to hope for the best outcome. And Shawn had no illusions that everything was not going to work out for the best, he could see a lot going wrong, grievous injuries, deaths, leaving a few behind, nothing ever went according to plan for anyone, not exactly anyway. Maybe the best they could hope for was to get onboard, free the others and then try and get away, maybe half might make it at most, that's if the odds were in their favor.

Maybe after that, they could deal with any angry Xenos that might hold a grudge against the human race as a whole. Maybe after that, his hiding and evasion skills would be put to the test.

"You're not into it today," James noted, watching Shawn miss the targets, the merc could tell when something was bothering someone, his posture was off, he couldn't focus and his shooting was just sloppy.

Shawn just shook his head slightly, "No, not really, just have something else on my mind right now."

"Then let me give you some advice that I got from my D.I. when I was in boot camp," James told him flat out crossing his arms and leaning up against the wall, "get the fuck over it, whatever it is put it to the back of your mind and deal with it later on. If you were in combat and this was your mindset, you would be a corpse right now and maybe your friends as well." James nodded to the three Xenos who were hanging back a few meters away watching intently at what was going on and what James was now telling Shawn.

Shawn looked over at James, the rifle still pointed down range, "Easier said than done," he said, looking back down the barrel and popping off another burst missing the target.

"Alright then, what is it? Something's got your mind elsewhere, so what's up?"

Shawn didn't fire, he just stood there looking down the sight trying to line up the target, "Let's say that this insane mission as you put it pans out, we make it on board, and rescue some of the Xenos, not all, but let's say half to three-quarters of them and we get the hell away. There are concerns among the four of us that there might be tension between myself and some of the other Xenos afterward, maybe one, maybe a few, or even all."

"Are we talking about the kind of tension that can be worked out over coffee and conversation or are we talking about the kind of tension that means you better find a new ship to be on and quick?"

Pulling the trigger, the rifle flared up, the target flew back as the three rubber rounds hit, "The later, not sure how they are going to react to a human being a part of their hive, might welcome me, might want to kill me, thinking more toward the middle however."

"You want my advice, don't worry about it. The fact of the matter is this, either way, it's not going to do you any good to worry about what might or might not happen, focus on what's in front of you, worry about the other problems after, if there is an after."

Three targets popped up, quickly lining them up he pulled the trigger on each target, two went down one did not.

"Better, and that's it for today, do yourself a favor, don't worry about what might happen or the what ifs, if you get on board, and make it back with a bunch of them in tow, I don't think that they are going to be pissed off at you. They may hate the rest of humanity but I doubt you'll have a lot to worry about. Besides, if you are that worried about it let me tell you this, you have two things going for you, one, having access to military grade weapons and second, you have those three Xenos over there that will back you up and protect you, I'm pretty sure you don't have that much to worry about." James said, pushing the cleaning kit toward Shawn, "now why don't show me how well you can dismantle and clean that weapon, oh and I'm timing you on this one."

xxxxx

Amy had lost track of how long she had been locked up in the brig, to her it didn't matter anymore, whatever rage, hate, and bitterness she had harbored had all but faded away, and now she was left with an empty hollow feeling in the pit of her soul. More than anything she wished now that she could go home, though she wasn't sure if home was a place that even existed for anymore.

After her last tirade, she had two of the three aliens hissing and growling right at her, and she was pretty sure that if they wanted into her cell that the bars on the door weren't going to keep them out. Thankfully they had just left, leaving her alone with her own thoughts, the guy, whose name she did not know, had come once to twice a day and left food for her and her merc companion in the next cell and if not him than one of the basic androids performed that task.

A part of her was now starting to regret treating James so poorly at the beginning of this ordeal. Though for the last several days, James had been taken out of his cell almost daily for several hours at a time, what was going on she didn't know, at first she thought they might be torturing him for info, but every time he was brought back to his cell he was fine, although not cheerful, he always seemed to be in a better mood.

A couple of hours ago, they had come talked to him and he had been taken away, she was sure he would be brought back soon.

Her dreams, or rather most recent dream as she had gone through a great many of them in her life, was in ruins, she didn't really remember when or what the motivation was to become a fleet admiral and command a vast armada, maybe it was inspiration from one of the many shows that she watched, or something she read on the net-web, or just a random thought that jumped into her head and didn't leave, whatever it had been she could not remember it at all, and now because of it, she was here on this ship, in a cell, with three killer aliens on board that would not and did not take any kind of shit from her what so ever.

Something that for her had been fairly new, even the mercs had given her a bit of leeway, though not much, but those black, shiny, slimy horrors, with them there was none at all. No one had ever said no to her, told her that she could not have that, or that she needed to behave and be courteous of others, for as long as she could remember she had been on top, been the queen bee, the important one, the one that always got her way no matter what and no one would dare so no to her, and now she was sitting at rock bottom, she had been told no, told that she was not the important one and that she was not at the top.

She had ranted and raved, cursed, threatened, threw tantrums all of which to no avail, the end result had always been the same, either James had ignored her altogether, or the aliens had peeled their lips back, hissed at her, screamed, and even had got so as far as bend a few of the bars just to show her how strong they were and that they could come in whenever they wanted to.

It was a new experience and one that she didn't care for, though as she was finding out, it wasn't the end of the world as she had first thought, at least there was that, and at least she was still alive. Something that James had told her over and over, which was more than a lot of the squad was that had come on board.

The telltale sound of the outer door sliding open, and a multitude of footfalls echoed throughout the bring area, she heard James and the other person talking, she had only picked up on bits and pieces of the conversation every time he came back but it always sounded serious.

After a few minutes of talking, the other person brought a tray of food over and left it on the cell door ledge then left with the aliens, and once again it was just her and James. She hadn't talked to him and in truth, she didn't know what to say or even how to start, all she had done is lay there and either sleep or cry in frustration over the last couple of days. Perhaps it was just the loneliness that was starting to get to her or the raw and festering boredom that she was dealing with all the time now.

Sitting up, she looked out at the hallway, her heart sped up, she didn't know why she should be so nervous, she was just going to talk, right, that was it, see what was up, maybe try and find out what they wanted with James, more out of curiosity than anything else, just a way to kill some time and elevate some of the mind-numbing boredom.

"Hey," she managed to finally eke out after a few minutes of silence.

For a bit James didn't say anything, maybe he hadn't heard her at first or maybe he was just ignoring her altogether, but he did answer her back after a minute or so. "Hey," was his only reply back to her.

"Making some new friends?" She asked, her voice a bit more harsh than perhaps what she had meant it to be.

"And what if I am, what's it to you?" He snapped back, "It's not like you've given a damn or cared about anyone or what happens to them."

For a second she was about to go into one of her verbal tirades, no one spoke to her like that, no one, right then it came back to her about where she was and nothing that she said would make a difference, and that it would not do a bit of good even if she went off on James. "I was wondering what is going on, what they are wanting you for every day." She asked trying to keep a level head and not blow up, though she was still miffed that he had snapped back at her like that.

James was more than a bit surprised, even shocked, this was the first time that he could recall that she had ever acted even the least bit civilized and not just outright demanding or screaming at anyone around her. Maybe she was starting to grow up a bit, even if it was just a little. "He wanted to talk to me about weapons training, how to use the pulse rifle and a couple of other weapons, and that's pretty much it, so I've been helping him out."

"They're the enemy, him and those things, and you're helping them!?" She blurted out, not quite sure that she had heard him right.

"As I said, why do you care? They aren't asking you, it's not your problem, besides it's not as black and white as we were led to believe, none of it is." James answered back, grabbing his cup; filling it with water and chugging it down.

"But they're the enemy, all of them!" She cried out, "You can't help them, you're not supposed to, it's against the rules."

James was just glad that he had finished his water before she opened her mouth to speak as he had no doubt he would be choking on it now as to what she had just said. "What rules, what the hell are you talking about? You know I hate to break it to you but in this case, there are no actual rules to this kind of situation. The closest thing there are to rules for this is to follow your gut feeling, appraise the situation and do what you feel is necessary and right"

"But...but," she began to protest frustrated that James didn't seem to be following the rules, or rather her rules as it were, the aliens and their turncoat human were the enemy, and that was it, nothing more nothing less. How could James just up and abandon everything like it didn't matter. And why did it matter to her all of a sudden that James was on this path, that he was helping the enemy out.

Waking up to the door, James slipped his arms through the space between the bars and leaned forward as much as he could so she could fully hear and understand every word he was about to say to her. "Amy, just out of morbid curiosity, why in the everlasting fuck did you ever want to join a merc group or even the navy, you never gave two shits about anyone but yourself, you always acted like you knew everything and that everyone else was stupid beyond reproach and didn't know what that they were doing and were put here to serve you. You can't fight, hell you can barely hit a target, and from what I understand, you fled leaving your squad behind to die. Yet you act like you're going to be this grand admiral commanding some vast armada that doesn't even fucking exist, and that everyone is just going to look up to you with admiration and awe. Are you so delusional that you just think that it's all going to fall in place for you at a snap of your fingers and that the universe is going to simply lay down at your beck and call because you wish it so."

Amy couldn't believe what James had just said to her, she couldn't even speak, rage started to swell up, oh she was going to let this unimportant little peon have it, something else also came up, she started to feel queasy in the pit of her stomach, a memory briefly flashed in her mind and then was going, but for a second it felt like she was going to be sick because of it.

"You know, the universe isn't straight up black and white, good or evil, today's enemies can and are sometimes tomorrow's allies and friends but the reverse also applies to that. There's also a lot of gray areas in-between, this isn't some fantasy indulgence or V.R. simulation or even a weekend away at a training camp for shits and giggles, this is real, bad shit is out there and we both got a full-blown plate full of it rammed right down our throats. Yet ever since you got thrown in here you've been acting like you should be waited on hand and foot, like somehow the rules don't apply to you. I honestly have to wonder just what the fuck your home life was like, did you ever take on any responsibilities for yourself, or did mommy and daddy just freely give you everything on a gold and gem-encrusted platter. I keep wondering how the hell did you even get into a merc outfit like this without someone paying your way in, cause it sure as hell wasn't on skill or merit and why out of everything that you could have done, why did it have to be this?" And with that that was it, James had said his piece, said everything he needed to say to Amy, maybe she heard some of it and perhaps it would sink in, but he honestly doubted it, she didn't seem like the kind of person to heed advice from anyone but herself.

Nothing came out of her mouth, no retorts, no snips, no comebacks, nothing, she was trying to recall that memory, something had happened, something that she had forgotten about something that had helped her become the way she was. She felt like she was going to throw up, _stupid brainless bitch, should have sold her and been done with it, gotten rid of her when you had the chance, now she'll be a burden on us._ There was a voice with that fleeting memory, someone that she had for a second thought she knew, someone that she thought cared about her. _Make it to where she'll get herself killed and no one will care, can't let anyone know._

She tried to take a breath and for a second it felt like cold water was filling up her lungs, something was gripping around her throat, pushing her down further and further. _Worthless fucking bitch, not even worth the cost of bringing you into this world._ There it was that voice again, an echo of a memory, but something that terrified her to the core now, _why...why_ her own question, _stop...please...what did I do?_ She vaguely remembered asking those questions, screaming them out to whoever it was.

But she couldn't remember.

"I don't know, I don't know," Any said, her voice getting high pitched and desperate, "I don't know, I don't fucking know!" She could still feel something around her neck, slowly squeezing, pushing her further down. "Just stop, just stop, stop...STOP!" She screamed out, and like that it was gone, nothing was wrapped around her throat, no longer did she feel like she was being pushed down further and further, and that her lungs were filling up with cold water.

"Shit alright, Jesses, I won't say anything else, fuck," James said, walking back over to his bunk and sitting back down, if she was going to freak out this badly he would keep to himself. Though there was something way off about what she had just said, it didn't actually feel like it was being directed at him, but something else. Whatever it was he seriously doubted he would find out anytime soon, if ever.

Bolting over to the toilet Amy wrenched and heaved up whatever was in her stomach, as if it wasn't enough that she was throwing up, now her head was pounding. Throwing up until she was little more than dry heaving, she staggered over to the sink; cupping her hands together she managed to drink some water to soothe her stomach down.

Glancing up in a small mirror, she saw a dirty, bruised, blood and dirt smudged covered girl, hair wet and stringy, wearing a light blue, tee-shirt many time larger that coved the thin and fragile frame, dark sunken eyes that had both seen and been through too much for one her age, stared right back at her. " _Stupid worthless bitch, should have had the good sense to die like you were supposed to, just another disappointment."_ The child said, the tiny voice distant and hollow, more as if it were an echo over a vast distance from a long time ago.

Amy backed up, almost reeling from what she had just seen, looking back up in the mirror, she only saw her own reflection and nothing else. She stood there shaking, trembling, her breath rapid, she didn't know what she had just seen, but it felt familiar, there was something there something that she felt that she should know, but didn't.

Slowly walking back over to the bunk she sat down, she didn't feel like going to sleep, and she was afraid to now, she didn't know what to do, as far back as she could remember mommy and daddy had taken care of her, given her the world, treated her like a princess, told her that she could be anything that she wanted, so then why did everything feel so off all of a sudden.

She looked over toward James cell, something that he had said had sparked a memory somehow, she wasn't sure but it was there, a small crack that had let something for just a split second bleed out. Whatever it was, she was afraid now, truly afraid, afraid of remembering something, that somehow it would destroy her and end everything that she had known.

Laying down, pulling the blanket over her she curled up into a small ball, she wanted it to go away, for all of it to go away, being in this cell didn't bother her, the Xenos didn't bother her, what did bother her was what seemed to be inside, this newly discovered...thing, and whatever it was she wanted it gone.

xxxxx

Carefully step by step Shawn and Ghost crept along the dimly lit hallway, his finger on the trigger Shawn had the pulse rifle tucked into his shoulder; looking right down the sites, looking to get a bead on anything that might move.

So far nothing.

Ghost's head kept swiveling back and forth, scanning the area, every few seconds he would turn around in a graceful circle, checking behind to make sure nothing had snuck up behind them, still nothing, one corner would come up and nothing and then another corner and still nothing.

Going down another long hallway, both of them saw something, a vague shape, at first there was one then two then it was four.

 _'DOWN!'_ Ghost shouted, bouncing up onto the wall, Shawn fell right to the floor just as he saw muzzle flashes and heard the roar of pulse gunfire, from his prone position Shawn brought his own weapon up, alighted the sights as best as he could and squeezed the trigger, an exchange of fire lit up the hallway as rounds sped up and down the corridor. He could barely make out the enemy, little more than dark shapes that blended into the dimly lit area. The only thing he could make out clearly was the muzzle flashes, though it was the same for him as rounds hit around him, some within inches.

Squeezing the trigger over and over, burst after bust he thought that he heard contact and saw one of them fall forward and not get up, then a few seconds later a second one. He barely noticed that Ghost was bouncing from wall to wall, quickly closing the distance.

 _'You have two kills, I got the other two.'_ Ghost said, as he launched himself off the wall and plowed into the two remaining enemies, a loud screech echoed throughout the hallways.

Shawn could barely make out the chaos that was going on, it was little more than a flail of shapes mixed together moving around. After a few seconds, one of the shapes rose up and then lowered itself down to the ground and started to quickly move toward him.

Knowing full well who it was, Shawn picked himself up, it was right there that the sound of pulse fire echoed throughout the hallway, something, several something's zipped right past his head, only a fraction of an inch. Turning around and falling right down on the floor, Shawn saw two more shapes advanced on him, muzzle flashes lighting up the area, yanking down on the trigger he returned fire, the rifle rode up and to the right missing both targets completely.

' _LEFT, LEFT, LEFT!'_ Ghost yelled in Shawn's mind, panic filled his mental voice as he was still quite away but closing the gap quickly charging as fast as he could while he was barreling toward the two enemies on all fours.

Quickly adjusting to the left, he squeezed the trigger several times loud bursts with bright flashes erupted, one of the approaching shaped fell back, it was right then a black shape flew over Shawn and collided seconds later with the other enemy sending it down where it no longer moved.

 _'Are you injured?'_ Ghost asked, walking over to Shawn and helping him up on his feet.

Checking himself, he found that he had by some miracle had not been hit, "No, I'm good, how about you?"

 _'I have not been hit, so that's three for each of us.'_

Looking down at the counter he saw that it was only a couple of rounds were left, quickly ejecting the clip he slapped a new one in. Looking at the small portable computer that was strapped to his forearm, it displayed a layout of the area they were at and their objective, "Looks like the room that has Alese and Shadow are in is just up ahead about seventy maybe seventy-five meters away, two right turns a left and then another right, then the room is just on the right ten meters after the last turn, "We free them and then get out."

 _'Then let us free them and leave this place.'_ Ghost said, _'I have no desire to be shot at any more than I have to be.'_

Continuing to slowly make their way down the darkened corridor, Ghost's senses were on heightened alert, every turn and room that they came to had a positional enemy ready to jump out at them and snuff out there life. Coming to one of the corners Shawn peaked around seeing a couple of sentries standing in the hallway, guarding a door from what he could tell, Shadow and Alese was still further up ahead. _'Two sentries, up ahead, maybe thirty feet away, it looks like they are guarding something, a door from the way it looks.'_

 _'Can you engage them from here?'_ Ghost asked, looking down the condor that they had come from just in case any more nasty surprises tried to sneak up on them.

Getting down on his knee, Shawn popped up the optical site, it was little more than a green square piece of plastic with a small centered red dot and while he had never used it, it was perhaps better than the iron sites for this, _'I think so, just need to line up my shot and hope that they don't see me.'_

Ghost placed a hand on Shawn's shoulder and gave his human a reassuring squeeze, _'We are clear from what I can see.'_

Nodding, Shawn brought up the heavy rifle and as quietly as he could carefully took aim, the optical site outlined the two sentries, making targeting them much easier than the iron site, using the dot to take aim, Shawn slowly squeezed the trigger, a burst roared and flashed the area, the sentry nearest to him dropped, the second sentry taken completely by surprise, turned around, the weapon coming up began to take aim was met with a couple of bursts, staggering back and falling down unmoving the two guards were dispatched.

"Both are down, let's check out that room and see what they were guarding," Shawn whispered to Ghost as he stood up and slowly started to creep toward the door. Reaching up he listened but didn't hear anything coming from within, _'I'm opening it, be ready.'_ Shawn informed Ghost, his hand gripping the handle and slowly turned it.

With a click the door opened up, peaking in, Shawn didn't see anyone inside, a few chairs and tables were scattered about, however, there were some pulse rifles and extra magazines and boxes of ammo mounted on a rack on the far wall. _'Armory it looks like, going to grab some extra clips and switch out the empty one.'_

 _'Please be quick, this doesn't feel right,'_ Ghost said, looking around, he didn't see any movement, but something was off, everything about this was screaming trap, so far it had been way too easy, a few guards, a sporadic firefight and that was it. His tail blade twitched in nervousness as Shawn grabbed some more ammo.

Coming out of the small armory, Shawn nodded toward the upcoming corner, _'Done and done, let's go and get them and get the hell out of here.'_

There was no one around the next corner, a few doors but no guards, carefully checking each door and room they found each one empty, only furniture but nothing more than that, the two were about halfway down the hall when several guards came around the corner, their weapons coming down to bear on both of them.

Dropping to the floor right away, Ghost was already in the air bouncing off the walls, gaining height and speed. Squeezing the trigger Shawn started to unload the magazine, the ammo counter quickly counting down, one of the guards fell as several busts hit directly in the chest area, swinging the weapon to the left, he continued to fire until he heard a 'click, click, click', coming from the pulse rifle, his hands shaking, he swapped out magazines as quickly as he could, rounds zipping all around him, hitting the floor and walls.

Ghost plowed right into the mass and as before it was a free for all, one that only lasted a few seconds as the Xeno quickly came out on top. Walking toward Shawn, he stopped, looked straight ahead and gave out a loud screech, _'RUN!'_

Looking behind him, dozens of guards were erupting from around the corner the pair had just come from and were heading right for them, weapons were drawn and ready to fire. "Oh shit," Shawn muttered, picking himself up he bolted quickly catching up to Ghost, "where the fuck did they come from, that whole back area was clear,." the two ran past the downed guards and turned the corner, and abruptly skidded right to a halt, half a dozen guards were waiting for them just meters away, the two lead guards had cylinder containers strapped to their backs with hoses coming out and connected to a long rod with a handle and trigger, both at the same time pressed the triggers opening up on the Xeno and his human companion.

Both Shawn and Ghost were hosed with a red liquid, coating the two generously, it was right then that the hallways lit up and the computer voice piped up over the intercom.

 **"BATTLE SIMULATION ENDED, OBJECTIVE NOT ACHIEVED, RESCUE PARTY TERMINATED, HAVE A NICE DAY."**

' _WHAT!?_ Shadow's voice boomed in surprise in both of their heads at hearing the news, _'You two died already?'_

 _'Simulated flamethrower, two of them in fact, fuckers herded us right into a trap, and this is the easy level too,'_ Shawn said, his eyes closed, the paint that he and Ghost had been sprayed down with had gotten into his eyes and was stinging now.

 _'Ouch,'_ Alese replied at hearing the news, _'were on our way out to you now.'_

"I can't see a thing Ghost, that crap got into my eyes and is starting to sting." Shawn was trying to wipe as much of the red paint that he could from his face, a futile act as he was finding out.

 _'Oh my,'_ Alese spoke up, both her and Shadow were surprised by the hosing that the two of them had gotten, the red paint was still dripping off both of them in a thin stream, Ghost looked completely red from the front which starkly shifted to black on his sides and his back area. Shawn was just drenched with the stuff, his clothes, arms, head everything was just covered with the red liquid.

Shaking his head, Ghost growled in displeasure at the sticky stuff, _'I believe that we do need to go and clean ourselves up, this stuff reeks.'_

 _'You two look like you were just in a massacre,'_ Shadow walked past the now dormant practice bots and up to Shawn and Ghost. _'well interesting first test run, next time you two can play hostage and Alese and I will be the rescue party.'_

"Oh hell, good luck getting past the flamethrowers, this was the easiest level for the bots and they still kicked our ass, didn't even think that a couple of dozen of them would come up from behind and herd us like that, still better to get the mistakes out now and not get slaughtered later on." Shawn still was wiping his face and trying to get the red gunk out of his eyes, "computer began clean up and repair procedure and reset afterward,"

 **"CONFIRMED."**

"Come on Ghost, I want to head back to the Ember-Rose so I can get some new clothing, we can get cleaned up there if that's alright with you."

 _'I told you, my love, you do not need to wear clothing; you are fine without it, in fact, you look much better without them on.'_ Shadow teased him, leaning in closer, the Praetorian's inner tongue came out to scent taste the air around both Shawn and Ghost, _'you are right my brother that stuff reeks.'_

Ghost let out a half hiss chuckle of amusement, _'You should try being coved in it, it even tastes worse than it smells, I managed to get some in my mouth.'_

"Yuck," Shawn commented, hearing the metal footfalls from the mass of bots returning to their designated service areas until the next simulation, some would need repair and maintenance thanks to Ghost's physical attacks, while Shawn hadn't seen it happen he had noticed a few of the bots' domed heads were missing from the main body and lying and several meters away. As well as a few well-placed center hits with his deadly tail blade that had gone through the metal chest plate and right into the bots housing.

He made a mental note to let them know that on the next training run such devastating attacks weren't really needed and that there were only so many of the training bots and he didn't know how long it would take to get the few that were taken out back up and running. Maybe a solid hit would suffice on the bots to indicate a kill and not actually taking their heads off.

 _'Let us get cleaned up and you can get some fresh clothing...if you truly need them.'_ Ghost turned around to leave the area, red footsteps and droplets trailed behind him, it was something that looked more out of an old B rated horror movie than a botched up training exercise.

Following behind, Shawn was able to open his eyes a little to see, though they still stung, "I don't think that James would be too fond of me showing up for our training session's ass naked as it were, besides I still get cold on this ship."

 _'Then it is his problem,'_ Shadow stated flatly, ' _and as I have told you before my love, if you are cold I am more than willing to help keep you warm, both inside and out.'_ Shadow's memories went right back to a few days ago to their first mating, the warm, tightness that he had felt, the emotional closeness and the much-needed release and those wonderful repeated climaxes.

"You know, it might be a tad bit difficult to train with you buried slit deep into me, just saying"

 _'Something I would be more than willing to try.'_ Shadow answered back, trailing behind their two pain coved hive mates by only a few feet.

 _'You two are forever hopeless,'_ Ghost jokingly commented flicking a bit of the red paint over at Shadow with his fingertip. A few of the red droplets spattered up against Shadow's dome and dripped off leaving a red trail down the front of his head.

 _'Oh, I see how this is going to be, that's fine, I'll just wait until you're asleep.'_ Shadow said, with a toothy smile, wiping the red liquid off his head.

 _'Well fuck,'_ was Ghost's only reply to what Shadow had just said, that and a feeling of mild dread, he had no idea what his big brother was going to do, but he was sure it would be interesting if not amusing in some twisted and warped way.

Shawn and Ghost headed down to the Ember-Rose, while Shadow and Alese decided to meet up with the two later on back in the sleeping room whenever they were done and then go from there, more than likely they would discuss what had gone on in the first training run.

It had been an interesting first run, James had been right, panic, even tunnel vision had started to set in, even though the rounds being fired at them were only soft paint rounds, the actual sound of pulse rifle fire was more than enough to set not only Shawn on edge but also Ghost as well. Ghost more so in the fact that he had been in two actual battles now, first on Eclipse station when they were escaping, he had dodge live rounds that had come only scant inches from hitting him and then the fight with the mercs.

Everyone knew that it wasn't going to get any easier either.

Getting on board the Ember-Rose, both Shawn and Ghost made a b-line right for the shower, the main shower room was fairly good sized with large enough showering stalls for both of them, not even bothering to strip down Shawn activated the shower, hot water burst out through the shower head, spraying both of them, Ghost was practically pressing himself up against Shawn trying to get the vile red gunk off of him. The whole stall turned a bright red as the paint was starting to rinse away, Shawn's clothes were now soaked, shoes included, and after a few minutes he finally peeled his clothing away and threw everything in a corner to wash later on.

Grabbing a small towel and a bottle of soap, Shawn squeezed a generous portion of the stuff into the towel and running it under the water lathered it up. "Here, this will help," Shawn told Ghost as he began to scrub the Xeno body. Ghost rumbled and purred at the treatment, the red paint was slowly being washed away, taking a minute for himself, Shawn scrubbed his face and arms down and washed his hair getting rid of the offending gunk.

"You would think that the training area would have showers, maybe we just missed them."

 _'Mmmmm...We can look later on.'_ Replied Ghost, enjoying not only the hot water but also the wash job that Shawn was giving him, he had started with his chest, then neck and worked his way up to the dome, by now most of the pain had been washed away, and only a little bit remained. Though he was hoping that Shawn would continue, he was enjoying the attention and did not want it to stop anytime soon.

Kneeling down, Shawn started to scrub Ghost's thighs and legs, though there wasn't much of the paint left only a bit here and there as most of it had washed away, Shawn could feel it through the mental link, the ever-present need and desire for something more than common contact and attention. For Ghost at this moment, this was about the most intimate he had ever been with anyone, as it stood he was borderline of going back into a depressed state. They could all feel it, and while he tried to put on a brave face and go on like nothing was wrong and told everyone it was alright, inside, internally everything was far from alright. The three of them knew it was only a matter of time before something happened and he receded back to his isolated state.

The simple fact was that Ghost was lonely.

Even with their hive, their bond, Ghost felt like the odd one out, like somehow he didn't belong or fit in and that no one really wanted him. Shawn recalled what he sounded like a few days ago when they were in the training room, he had felt Ghost's arousal, that deep seeded need to be close to someone, and he had been rejected, not for lack of want or need, just because Shawn had been too sore and tired to give him what he not just what he wanted but also needed, that imminent personal contact, that physical bonding.

He felt like shit for having to say no to Ghost at that time and it was something he did regret, but his whole body was screaming bloody murder at him. And even if he had allowed Ghost to mate with him right there, he would not have been able to actually enjoy it and give himself fully to the act something he felt would have been unfair for both of them.

It was a tricky road to navigate, on one hand they had offered to share themselves with Ghost, to let him bond and mate with them, but it was also the fact that he had been so physically abused and emotionally damaged that they were all concerned that they might push too far and too fast and do more harm than good. There was never a simple or easy solution; they were always there for Ghost letting him know and doing what they could to reassure him that he was not alone and that he was wanted, needed and loved.

Though it probably hadn't helped that Shawn and Alese had been going at it only a little while ago, at first it had been slow and steady, then as her more primal instincts had kicked in she wound up riding him like a jackhammer on overdrive for a while, climaxing over and over. Which had woken up not just Shadow but also Ghost, and of course they had watched. As straightforward as they were with their needs, wants and desires, the Xenomorphs had emotions that were just as complex as any human, if not more so in some cases.

Humans could live solo lives in isolation with little to no ill effects, the Xenomorphs however without a hive or at the very least companionship from one of their own or even another race if bonding happened, could be driven insane with no one else around. With no social interaction to fill that ever-present need for companionship and social interaction, it would be a slow descent into madness for the individual.

Thankfully right now, however, was a different matter entirely.

As Shawn continued to wash Ghost's inner legs and thighs, he felt that heated arousal fill his mind, standing up Shawn coaxed Ghost to turn around so he could wash his back. While more than happy to comply with the request as he turned around Shawn couldn't help but notice the glistening black tipped head starting to peek out from the slit opening.

Gently running the wet, soapy towel along the black, skeletal frame, and up the sensitive tubes, Shawn was rewarded with a slew of slow drawn out hisses, and deep chest rumbles, continuing he moved the towel down till he reached the base of the Xeno's tail, rubbing the cloth along the segmented tail and around the lean and powerful _buttocks muscles, Ghost in an automatic reflex action started to raise his tail up and over._

Running the towel underneath the base of his tail Shawn started to slowly rub back and forth, hitting the sensitive spots, Ghost leaned forward and adjusted his position spreading his legs out a bit more, it was right then he let out a high-pitched trilling sound, Shawn was almost overcome by the shear waves of hot, intense, sexual arousal that was radiating from the now very turned on Xeno.

Throwing the towel off to the side, Shawn walked around to face Ghost, reaching around he wrapped his arms around the Xeno waist and drew himself into a tight embrace with his hive-mate, almost as one Ghost mirrored the action, lowering his head, he cupped his chin over Shawn's back and strongly embraced their human back.

Immediately there were strong waves of relief, an outpouring of pent-up emotions as more barriers started to crack, crumble and fall, Ghost quivered as he was held, not from the need for mating, but from the simple fact that he knew he was needed, wanted and truly loved. Shawn could tell that if Ghost did have eyes he would now be crying.

Shawn reached up and ran his hand along the slick dome, such simple acts meant everything to them; it was a way to reassure, to bond, to let a partner or hive mate that was in distress know that all would be okay. Even with the hot water pelting down on them, Shawn could still feel the scarring that was and would forever be marred on Ghost's dome, it pained him every time it felt and saw it, to know what he had to endure and lived through back on Eclipse station. If he had the power within him he would have done everything to remove those scars and memories, to give Ghost a sense of peace and happiness.

 _'It's alright,'_ Ghost picked up on what Shawn was thinking, and while he was forever grateful that their human would have done such a thing if it had been in his power, in the grand scheme of his life as he looked back on all that had happened, he oddly enough found he was thankful for all the horrible things that had been done to him, without those acts that he had been forced to suffer he would never have been able to fully appreciate all the good that had now happened. _'Know that I no longer regret what I had to go through, without the pain that I had to endure I would not be able to appreciate what and who I have now, and know that I am thankful for everything.'_

"You are far wiser and better than I would have been," commented Shawn, looking right up at Ghost, "so that being said, may I add something else?" Shawn slyly said, with a smile and a slight wink, reaching around to Ghost's lower back his fingers stroking at the tail base.

 _'I would not complain,'_ purring out loud Ghost ran his fingers ran down the back of Shawn's head through his water soaked hair.

Lowering his arm and reaching down, Shawn grasped the base of Ghost's half engorged member, at first he began to squeeze and release over and over getting his hive-mate primed for what was to come. Thrusting repeatedly in the air, Ghost let out a slurry of hisses and trilling at the delightful feeling, for so long he had wanted this, to feel something physical, to be with someone in an intimate way. And finally, after all this time, those mental and emotional barriers that he had in place for so long to protect himself had now finally come down enough for him to fully engage without the backlash of traumatic memories assaulting him.

While Ghost was not nearly as big as Shadow was, he was still very sizable nonetheless as Shawn was finding out as the Xeno's slick member quickly became fully erect and started to bob up and down the in the air. Shawn had gone from pumping to simply stroking the full length instead, his hand going over the thick corded muscles that seemed to wrap around and make up the shaft, he felt firm nubs at the base that seemed to run the full length of the Xeno penis, getting smaller as they neared the base of the swollen head. Shawn couldn't recall if Shadow had them or not, that night had been such a sexual frenzy it was hard to recall all the little details of what had happened. Other than the ecstasy of the much-needed release for all of them that night.

This however, this was something that he wanted to take his time on, to give Ghost all the love and attention that he needed, to fully bond with him, just as he had with Shadow and Alese, to dispel any doubts that Ghost might have still have, to let him know that his human, his bond-mate, his soon to be lover was there for him, now and forever, just as he was there for Shadow and Alese, that all four of them were truly a hive, a family and that Ghost had in no way simply become a third wheel.

Lowering himself down, until he was level with the black, glistening cock head, Shawn kept a firm hold onto the shaft, continuing to stroke it back and forth; leaning in forward he started to kiss and gently lick the swollen head, lifting it up some his tongue licked the underneath, the taste of the slick lubricant that was seeping out of the tiny pores throughout the Xenos member, while not really unpleasant did have a very strong sour even tangy taste to it. Possibly due to the acidic nature of the Xenos biological makeup. As long as there was no blood, he knew he would be fine.

Ghost let out a gasp or more of a low-pitched hiss as Shawn licked, kissed and even sucked on the sensitive head, _by the queen mother humans did this,_ Ghost thought to himself, not even his own race had conceived of this act, he watched as Shawn's head went back and forth as he was taking the swollen cock-head in his mouth, partly at first then the whole thing. Ghost moaned, hissed and squealed in delight and pleasure, he slowly thrust back and forth, developing a rhythm with Shawn, he felt his groin starting to tense up as he was getting close to release, to that wonderful and much-needed climax. A part of him wanted to thrust and ram all the way in, but he knew better, that that kind of act would injure or even kill their human. And that was something that they would never let happen.

Shawn pulled back as he felt that Ghost was almost ready to climax, the drone's lips were partly peeled back, quivering, as hot drool was pooled down his chin and mixing with the water on the shower floor, his chest heaving with deep breaths as he drew closer and closer to a much-needed release. Standing up Shawn sent Ghost a mental image, something he wanted to try; Ghost slowly squatted down allowing Shawn easy access. Letting go of his lover's hard member Shawn wrapped his arms around Ghost's thick neck and placed his legs around the Xeno's waist.

As he stood up some, Ghost placed a hand on Shawn's back for support and the other one on just below his neck in a tender embrace, ever so slowly Ghost started to thrust upward, his member sliding up and down Shawn's lower back, coating it with the thick natural lubricant. Rising up some, then leaning back Shawn hoped it would allow Ghost easier access to penetrate him.

Shawn felt as if his whole body was on fire, the sexually charged energy seemed to course right through him, at this point he wasn't sure if it was Ghost's emotions and need that he was feeling and drawing from or if it was his own. His own member was now hard and throbbing, at first, he had figured that after lovemaking with Alese earlier that his own needs would be sated for a while, but his whole body was screaming for that intimate physical contact, to mate, to make love.

He wanted so badly for Ghost to enter him now, his mind was going into a lust filled fog, he was barely aware of the squeals and high-pitched hisses that Ghost was emitting at not being able to enter as he kept missing. "Easy," Shawn gasped, reaching back around and gripping the hard and slick member, "slow...easy,"

With slightly more tentative thrusts and a bit of guidance, Ghost found the mark, and with several careful pushes, he found himself slip up inside of his human, the heat, and tightness as the inner walls clamped down massaging his member was beyond what he had expected. Slowly thrusting back and forth, Ghost began to speed up his rhythm, his penis going in deeper a bit every time, as his grip tightened around Shawn, he lowered his head his lips gently dancing and caressing across Shawn's shoulder and lower neck, giving his human small playful love bites, nothing that would draw blood, but enough to heighten the sensation.

Shawn could only gasp and moan as Ghost's thick member finally entered him, the warm and slick swollen head after a few thrusts plopped fully inside, locking the two in place as the flare at the base swelled up. The firm nibs along the full length of the shaft rubbed against his inner wall with the slick lubrication that was being _secreted, he felt Ghost kissing and playfully biting his shoulder, his mind slowly linked with Ghost's within seconds they both felt what the other was feeling, the physical sensations feeding back on themselves._

 _Ghost's tail lifted up all the way draping over Shawn as he felt he too was being penetrated through his own anal vent, every time he withdrew slightly from Shawn and pushed up a bit deeper he felt it as well. There was a bit of pain at first, but that had now gone away, and now only the satisfaction and warmth of being so close to someone he loved with all his heart._

 _Pumping faster and faster, going in deeper and deeper with each thrust Ghost felt his climax coming and nothing would hold it back, no matter how much longer he would want this feeling to go on. Lowering his hand to give Shawn some more support, the hot climax erupted as he ejaculated, the warm sticky seed being released, coated Shawn's inners, thrust after thrust after thrust, he pumped repeatedly, it was pure bliss, pure ecstasy, they were now one now and forever. Ghost didn't know how long it lasted, only that at the end the sexual tension that had been there for so long final drained out of him, he felt warmth...relief, and a closeness that he had never felt before. Affectionately he nuzzling the side of Shawn's face; sending warm waves of blissful emotions to his human._

 _Shawn tightened his grip and smiled looking back at Ghost, "That was...intense," he quietly said kissing the side of Ghost's head and dome, "and it only gets better." Clinching his inner wall muscles down on the still rock hard and firmly lodged member sent waves of carnal delight though Ghost's body._

 _Ghost purred at both the statement and act, the deep rumbling from within his chest going into overdrive, reverberating around the shower room._ _'You still have need,'_ _Ghost said, still kissing and nibbling on Shawn's shoulder and the base of his neck,_ _'I wish for you to enter me, for us to be as one, to feel you inside of me.'_

 _"Mmmmm, I wish that too my love, but I think you're going to have to soften up a bit so you can pull out, then we can go to my quarters and really enjoy ourselves," Shawn replied back, kissing Ghost on the side of his dome again._

 _Ghost stood there still as a statue, holding Shawn as the warm water continued to pelt the two of them, after a few minutes Ghost was able to carefully pull himself out of Shawn, lowering his human down to the floor, Shawn took a few minutes to clean himself and Ghost up before turning off the water. He had only ever tried having sex in a shower with another guy one time and it had hurt, water was no substitute for a good lubrication especially when being on the receiving end. Shawn was very grateful that the Xenos secreted a thick lubricate otherwise he knew with as big as Ghost was, he would have been in agony the whole time and Ghost would have been wrecked by guilt regardless of whether or not he achieved climax. As it was, it had been a glorious and joyful experience for both and it was just the start._

 _Drying himself and Ghost off some, Shawn led Ghost to his own personal quarters, it had occurred to Shawn that even when the Xenos had been in the Ember-Rose this would be the first time any of them had ever been inside his quarters, while it wasn't small, it wasn't large by any means either, a fifteen by twenty foot room, with a bed, several built-in drawers and a few tables with odds and ends on it, books, a few date tablets, a couple of old and worn but still in good condition plush lounge chairs with small tables next to them. Empty cups and plates even clothing were also scattered around, a large monitor was mounted on a swivel stand on one of the walls opposite the bed._

 _"Still a bit messy, I haven't really thought about coming down here to clean up to tell you the truth," Shawn said watching Ghost go over to the bed, his inner tongue coming out opening and closing, Ghost reached down and began to stroke himself, regaining his erection._ _'It smells of you, it smells wonderful,'_ _Ghost climbed on the bed, rubbing his face in the sheets, spreading his legs wide, his tail lifted up and parted giving Shawn a full view of everything, he could see the thick, black member bobbing up and down again, wet and glistening._ _'I desire you, enter me, please let me feel you slid yourself inside of me.'_ _His finger curled up grabbing at the sheets as he let out a low-toned lustful hiss._

 _Coming up behind Ghost, Shawn ran his fingers up underneath Ghost's tail, a loud hiss echoed throughout the room, "Are you sure you want this, after everything that you went thoug..."_

 _'I'm sure, I truly do want this, I want you to be the first to enter me, you whom I desire, I want our coupling to erase what I experienced on that station, to know that it can feel special and warm and pleasant, to finally heal completely. And most of all I want the four of us to be able to be intimate together, no regrets, no more specters of the past haunting us, only the four of us and the future, whatever that future may be.'_

 _Smiling, Shawn nodded, "Alright, It'll be gentle; it'll be soft and warm." Getting up on the bed, Shawn ran his hand from the base of Ghost's tail to between his legs, gripping the Xeno's hard member he ran his hand down the slick shaft, reaching back he ran his index and middle finger through the thick natural lubricant, the stuff glopped up and was hanging off Shawn's finger, slowly and carefully he ran the tips of his fingers along the entrance to Ghost's anal vent, pushing in, Ghost let out a hiss of pleasure, his tail raising higher, slowly Shawn slipped his fingers in and out, loosening up the Xeno's vent area._

 _There were images that flashed through Shawn's mind for a few seconds, images of Eclipse station, Ghost being restrained on a table his tail being tied out of the way, cold hard metal probes being forced up his vent, rammed in uncaringly, men laughing and mocking him. "It's alright Ghost, I'm here, it's alright," Shawn said, slowing his pace, rotating his fingers back and forth as he slid them in and out._

 _'Specters of the past my love, ohhhhh...nothing more, they have no power over me any longer...yesssss, please continue, more, that feels nice.'_

 _Pulling his fingers out of Ghost's vent, Shawn reached around and ran his hand down Ghost's penis again, getting more of the thick lubricant, this time applying it to his own rock hard member, his heart was pounding in his chest and his whole body felt hot, it was like he was back with Shadow during their first time, that heightened anticipation on what was to come. Kneeling on the bed and scooting up behind the Xeno, Shawn positioned himself, his cock-head just an inch from Ghost's vent, running his hands along the Xeno's flanks, he started to gently thrust back and forth, the tip pressing up against the vent opening then he would back off a bit and then press up again, after a bit of resistance at first he pushed harder finding himself slipping in._

 _Right away Ghost let out a high pitched squeal, arching his head and back up, he pushed his hips back firmly determined to take everything in that his human had to offer. It felt so warm and soft, nothing like what he had experienced back on that station, this was a world of difference, nothing about it was unpleasant or cruel, this was the way it was supposed to feel, hive mates sharing themselves with each other. As Shawn began to ever so slowly and gently thrust back and forth, the memories of what had happened on Eclipse station began to melt away for Ghost, those last few remaining barriers crumbled and were little more than dust and a Phantom's bad memory._

 _Pushed himself in all the way and then slowly pulling out, the internal mussels clamped down on Shawn's member massaging it, gripping it tightly and then loosening up, then repeating over again. He wanted to go slow with Ghost, to make it last, but the warmth, slick wetness, and tightness there was no way he could last more than a minute or two at most. Already he had started to speed up, his hands gripping Ghost's hips for better support._

 _Ghost grasped the sheets tighter and tighter, his sharp claws slashing through the thin material as it were little more than razor-sharp daggers cutting through wet tissue, rocking back and forth his own pace both increasing and matching up with Shawn's as waves of pleasure tidal waved over him._

 _After all this time, after the abuse, the depression, self-isolation, and doubt, he had finally crossed his self-created threshold and broken down the barriers that he had formed. He had given himself over without doubt or hesitation and let his beloved human and hive mate take him, to finally feel that physical closeness and intimacy as he had always wanted and desired to but was always afraid to engage in. A flurry of chirps, hisses, low-pitched screeches filled the room, his once again fully erect, slick member slapping his belly with each thrust adding to the sensation of being penetrated and taken._

 _Shawn was gasping for air as he continued to thrust in and out of Ghost at a fever pitch pace, stopping only just for a few seconds, he reached in between Ghost's legs running his fingers over the Xenos slimy, hard member; applying some more of the thick warm lubricant to himself and started up again. He was feeling younger and hornier than he had in years, he felt he could go all night and then some if needed, he was getting closer and closer to reaching that first climax. Stroke after stroke he plowed into Ghost's vent quicker and quicker, seconds later he ejaculated going as deep and as hard as he could, for a few long moments they were both lost in a sea of ecstasy as he both unloaded himself inside his hive mate and as the mental link as before fed back on the two of them. With one last gentle thrust, Shawn finally stopped, leaning down on Ghost's back, stroking the alien's sides, his breathing, for the time being, was long and labored._

 _While it had only been a couple of minutes Shawn felt as if he had just run a marathon and this was only a small break before the next round. His own member was still rock hard and fully engorged inside Ghost, not that either one of them minded the warm tight feeling was nice for both of them._

 _'Thank you,'_ _Ghost painted, turning his long head to try and look at Shawn,_ _'this was what I needed, what we all needed, it was wonderful and beautiful and far more than what I had ever hoped for, thank you.'_

 _Shawn could tell, in fact, he was sure that Shadow and Alese were aware of what had happened, all that tension, shyness, the repressed feelings melted away, a great and massive emotional weight had been lifted from the drone. "You needed this more than anyone of us, I'm just glad I could help heal your wounds," reaching up, Shawn rubbed one of the dorsal tubes. "But I would say that it looks like you're ready for another round or even several."_

 _'Oh yes, my beloved human I am more than ready.'_ _Leaning forward, Shawn's penis slipped out, climbing off the bed, Ghost came up behind Shawn and grabbed his hips and leaned forward pushing their human down onto the bed some._

 _Shawn was down on all fours as Ghost mounted and gently pushed himself up inside again. This time there was no resistance, with a single firm but gentle thrust Ghost was over half way inside Shawn, the firm nibs, stimulating the fleshy inner walls. "Oh gods Ghost, please don't ever stop, please keep going," Shawn begged as the slick member started to massage his insides again sending him well over the edge._

 _Leaning forward a little more Ghost placed one hand on Shawn's left hip and the other hand ran up and under his right shoulder chest muscle. Thick, warm drool pooled down coating Shawn's left shoulder and back as Ghost begin to quickly thrust back and forth, the drone was trying to pace himself make this session last, as the sexual tension was gone all he wanted to do now was enjoy the moment, and make said moment last as long as he could._

 _Ghost never went too far in or too fast, as one felt what the other was, several minutes went by as Ghost continued to make love to their human, as his second climax hit he jerked his hips forward harder than before going in several inches deeper than he had intended to as he unloaded himself. Shawn gasped and moaned at feeling the warm liquid fill him up._ _'You were right, it does get better,'_ _leaning over Ghost nuzzling the size of Shawn's face._

 _"I told you so," chuckled Shawn, nuzzling Ghost back. As much of a hand full as one of them were or two as he had found out, he was wounding what all three of them would be like at the same time, something he figured he would find out at some point soon._

 _'Something I am curious about, what you were doing to my penis earlier with your mouth, what was that?'_ _It was an act that he had never even conceived of, and he was eager to find out more about it._

 _"It's called a blowjob, it's a way to get someone off or get them excited, it's very pleasurable if it's done right."_

 _After a couple of minutes of silence, Ghost slowly pulled out,_ _'Please sit, I wish to try this blowjob on you.'_

 _Shawn was a bit hesitant, while he trusted Ghost with his life, there was the not so small fact of all those very sharp steel colored teeth and what they could do. Shooing away his fear, it would be alright, Ghost would never do anything to hurt him, "okay, just please be careful." Shawn said, sitting down on the edge of the bed._

 _'Don't worry, I won't bite anything, that is unless you so desire it,'_ _Ghost purred squatting down in front of Shawn. Gripping the human's legs he pushed them apart, and leaned in, looking with delight and lust at the human's erect member, he wanted that back inside of him again but this he wanted to try this first. Ghost was just a few inched from Shawn's penis, thick drool dripped from his lips down to his chin, his lips peeled back some as he opened his mouth, a moment later his inner mouth ever so slowly came out which opened and closed several times._

 _There was a mix of heightened arousal and nervousness, there had been times Shawn had wondered if this was even possible and now he was about to find out._

 _With a quick smooth action, both Ghost mouth and inner tongue opened up fully, he leaned in and in a flash engulfed Shawn's cock into his mouth, the inner tongue pushing out all the way taking Shawn's shaft in all the way._

 _Shawn was hit with waves of ecstasy as the slimy, tight, ribbed appendage began to piston and pump his hard member for everything that it could. Shawn leaned in forward his hands rubbing and gripping Ghost's dome, he could barely control his legs and they seemed to want to go all over the place on their own. "Oh shit, shit, shit." Shawn couldn't stop repeating himself as he began to thrust up into Ghost inner mouth wanting to go as deep as he could. Wrapping his arms around Ghost's dome and holding on he leaned in as much as he could and just kept thrusting as much as he could._

 _'Well, it seems I too have discovered a sensitive spot, I find this most enjoyable; your fluids are not unpleasant to my taste.'_

 _Under normal circumstances, Shawn would have been rolling on the floor with what Ghost had just said laughing uncontrollably, but at this moment his mind and body were reeling as the Xeno's relentless blowjob was sending him to new heights of pleasure. As it was he was barely able to last a minute before he climaxed again sending his seed into Ghost's inner mouth. After a few moments, Shawn was able to regain his senses, "O...okay that was seriously something new, holy crap dude." Panting, all Shawn could do was stay prone and rest on Ghost's dome for a little while._

 _'I'm glad that you enjoyed it, I would like for us to try it again, both of us. Do you think that Shadow would like it?'_

 _Sitting back down, Shawn rubbed Ghost's dome, "I get the feeling once Shadow finds out about this he won't be able to get enough of it, my god that was something else." Laying back on the bed to catch his breath and rest for a few more minutes, he knew that this was just the beginning of a vigrous night._

 _Ghost sat down next to Shawn on the bed, his tail coiling around the human. Reaching over Ghost grabbed Shawn's hand and gave it a firm squeeze,_ _'Thank you, for everything.'_

 _Squeezing Ghost's hand back, Shawn smiled at him, "You and I, all of us, Shadow, Alese, we are hive, we are family, and we are no longer alone."_

 _Ghost's heart swelled up at hearing those words, leaning over until he was just inches from Shawn's face, the Xeno smiled,_ _'No we are no longer alone, any of us.'_ _He said, leaning down his thin lips dancing across Shawn's own._ _'I love you, now and forever.'_

 _Those simple words always cut right into Shawn's heart, it didn't matter how many times he heard or said them, they always left him an emotional quivering pile of mush, closing his eyes, several tears ran down the side of his face as he returned Ghost's kiss,_ _'I love you too, now and forever.'_

 _Hours more would be spent making love and exploring each other's bodies until the two collapsed and fell asleep together. As Shawn and Ghost started to fall asleep holding each other they picked up that Shadow and Alese were too engaged in a fevered mating session themselves back in the sleeping room. No doubt the two had picked up on what Shawn and Ghost had been doing and had put them in them in the mod as well._

 _For the time being, all would be well, at least for a little while longer._


	24. Point Of Contention

**Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story, any constructive feedback is always welcomed.**

xxxxx

Chapter 23: Point Of Contention

Bio readouts flashed across the various monitor screens displaying the health reading of the caged Xenomorphs, Ryan sat slumped at his desk his eyes unfocused, staring blankly at the monitors. It had been a little over a week since his altercation with Mason, and in that time he had been expecting the hammer to come down on him, only it never did, at this point he wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

The worse that happened so far, was that he was confined to his personal quarters during his off hours and that a combat android would accompany him at all times, he was just thankful that it stayed outside of his office and quarters. The only exceptions were getting supplies for his quarters and being able to go to medical and see Elizabeth, other than that it was work, home, and repeat.

Elizabeth was still in critical but stable condition; every day that went by was another day that she was able to hang on and get closer to recovering. Only the medical doctors and specialists weren't sure if she would truly recover from what Mason had done to her, he had almost caved in the back of her head in an explosive fit of psychotic rage. Even with as far as medicine had advanced over the many centuries since humanity had gone to the stars, there were times that being able to heal someone went so far and it was simply up to the human body to see if it wanted to go on or if it was just time to give up and pass away.

For Elizabeth, this was one of those times, either she would make it or she would not.

It wasn't just Elizabeth's injuries that had his mind in a frazil, leaving him unfocused, it was the dreams he started having the night Elizabeth was hospitalized, what had happened to her and the Praetorian was now happening to him and the small warrior that grabbed his hand when he was retrieving Elizabeth from the pod.

That first night, when he had finally managed to drift off to sleep, he found himself in a void, at first only him, then a short time later the Xeno warrior. When Elizabeth had told him about her experience he was understandably skeptical, he wanted to believe her, however, there was doubt in the back of his mind that kept him from fully believing, that doubt was now gone.

The small warrior was not aggressive in any way, maintaining a semi-respectful distance; trying to be as non-threatening as possible. Over the week that followed, every night as Ryan went to sleep he would find himself in the odd mental construct; every night since then was a night of discovery and learning, while the warrior could not communicate with him in their language, she could communicate through images, waves of feeling, sign language of sorts, more than enough to help him understand what was she was saying.

It was an eye-opener, to say the least, to have heard it coming from one person was one thing, experiencing it yourself was something completely different. Another huge surprise was finding out that there the Xenos were male and female and not just an asexual race as first thought. Ryan and the other scientist had never seen anything to suggest different genders but then none of their research had covered the reproducing aspects of the alien race. In that week he had learned more about their race than all his time since being assigned to Eclipse station.

Overall it was a lot to take in and process, but it was a welcome distraction after everything that had happened. There was still no word on what was going to happen to him, or when Mason would be back on duty or even what the fate of the Praetorian was going to be. Security had moved the large Xenomorph to an isolated area with a reinforced pod to hold him.

Ryan was thankful that despite that, his duties still required him to take the day to day readings as well as feed the alien, although he couldn't be there for more than a few minutes, he got the feeling the big guy was grateful for the visits even as short as they were. There had been four combat androids assigned to guard the alien, two outside the main room and two inside and from what he saw a hastily installed monitoring system which was little more than a couple of cameras that had been mounted on the upper walls.

His gut feeling was telling him that no matter what Commander Snyder might say or regardless of what the video would show, the higher-ups would want the Praetorian killed off, something that Ryan was determined to try and not let happen. Thankfully no one had said or even asked about what had happened to Mason's security card, at least not to him, a little item that he had hidden quite well in his quarters. And was his one ace in the hole, something that he might get a chance to use once maybe twice and that would be it. Once it hit the security system that Mason's card was in use it would be blocked out and that would be it.

There was also the matter of using the card, it would be able to free the Xeno from the holding pod, however using it directly would draw attention from the combat androids, and freeing the Xeno needed to look like a freak accident. Thankfully the pod that was being used was an older model and was prone to certain malfunctions, like the door opening at inconvenient times, that is if the unit was nudged the right way, something that a small low frequency, short-range transmitter with the right access codes might be able to do.

At this point, it was a matter of waiting and preparing for the worse.

Minutes slowly ticked down as his shift came to an end, and as regular as clockwork his escort entered and waited in the door entrance, the dull white eyes that showed no emotion or even a hint of expression stared at him as he shut down his systems and gathered his things. For Ryan it there was a certain sense of twisted irony with the combat androids, they had been built by humans centuries ago, designed to be both protector and servant, in many ways they were humanity's children, yet in some ways the constructs felt just as alien as the Xenos if in some ways even more so, at least the basic units.

Leaving his office the android was in step with him walking right at his side, it never spoke to him, not once, Ryan had tried to engage it in conversation at first, the only thing that he received was an answer of "that function is not within this units programming."

Just freaking lovely.

He was about halfway to his quarters when he was unexpectedly stopped in the hallway by Commander Snyder and one of his Lieutenants, there were no guards in tow so it whatever it was hopefully wasn't that serious. If it was he figured that there would be at least a few armed guards, though with the combat android right at his side maybe extra guards weren't needed.

"Mister Anderson, I need to speak to you for a few moments." Commander Snyder said, walking up to the lab tech.

Ryan froze up, every worse possible scenario starting running through his mind, had the Commander found out somehow that he had pocketed Mason's security card, no that's couldn't be it; if it had been he would be in the brig or being dragged away right now. Had Elizabeth passed away, his heart started to race in dread at that possibility, she was one of the few real friends he had on this shithole of a station and not one he wanted to lose.

"I thought that I should tell you first hand instead of you finding out later on, more of a courteously than anything else, Mason will be back on duty within the next couple of days, the doctors finished the reconstructive surgery and he is almost fully healed."

Ryan didn't move, this was not the news that he wanted to hear, he was hoping that psychotic piece of garbage would be out of commission a lot longer, he hadn't heard that Mason had to undergo reconstructive surgery, no surprise there, though Mason's employers must have gone all out and spared no expense to get him fully healed.

"I know this isn't what you wanted to hear and believe me I'm not too happy about it either but it's not my call, however, I will have him under guard at all times so something like this does not happen again. There is also something else I have to inform you about, the investors have made the decision to dispose of the Praetorian Xenomorph, we'll have to space the creature in the next few days. They feel after what happened in the Xeno labs the creature is too dangerous and unstable to keep."

It wasn't surprising that bit of news had come, in fact, Ryan would have been far more surprised if whoever was funding the project had decided to let the big guy live. His attempt escape had scared the living shit out of the whole team and had disproven that their escape-proof containment pods were in fact not completely escape proof after all. A few more minutes and the Praetorian would have torn through the wall and been out. Pity, all sorts of hell would have rained down on most of them, and Mason would have died that day.

It was info he would communicate to the small warrior that night when she visited him in the mental construct, info that he hoped that she would pass onto the Praetorian if that was at all possible. Events would be moving quickly now and he would need to find some way off the station, with luck on their side maybe one of the outbound freighters wouldn't notice a stowaway or two.

"I can't say I'm happy about either decision sir, but as you say it's not anyone's call but the investors and I doubt the complaints of a lowly lab tech is going to make any difference, in fact, it may be prudent for me to stay low and out of sight for a while." Ryan was trying everything he could to hide the panic in his voice though it still crackled with nervous tension, while he guessed it would be happening, he had hoped for the best outcome, but to hear it and know it was going to happen in the next few days, his heart bottomed out, and it seemed he and just fallen into a dark bottomless pit. He just needed to keep cool and not draw attention to himself or let on what he was thinking about doing.

Commander Snyder nodded in agreement, "It would be a wise decision at least until we get further orders, I can't say that this will end very well, there's a good chance that you may be banned from any further projects and ejected from the conglomeration entirely. And despite what Mason did to Doctor Brooks he's not going to face any consequences, the fact of the matter is this, he's their golden boy and they do not want to see any further harm come to him. Frankly, I personally wish that you had caved the fuckers head in and ended him, the universe would be a much better place with him gone, but it's not our place to say otherwise, however, unforeseen accidents that are far beyond our control do happen from time to time, even to those that are well guarded."

Ryan honestly didn't know if that last part was a not so veiled threat against Mason or if he was telling Ryan to go and finish what he had started. "Yes Commander, they do." He replied back, figuring that if Snyder had his way Mason would not be long for the earth.

"Go and continue with your normal duties and don't bring any more attention to yourself than what you already have, at this point I have no idea what will happen, even if the investors decide to let this slide and go easy on you, Mason will not, he'll come after you at some point, I'm just not sure how he'll do it," Snyder told him, suddenly jerking his neck side to side several times loudly popping it.

"I understand; sir if it's still permeable for the time being I'd still like to continue to take readings and feed the Praetorian until the end, sir, it might be best to maintain a sense of normality."

Snyder didn't say anything for a little bit thinking it over, while he didn't have much in the way direct control over what the scientist and lab techs did, he could declare an area off limits if it was in any way deemed too dangerous, something he could very well do if he felt the Praetorian was too dangerous. "Very well, continue as you see fit. Just be sure to stay vigilant after Mason is released, I'll have as many eyes on him as I can, but I have no doubt he'll try to pull something."

Ryan only nodded slightly, his mind racing trying to think of something...anything that he could do to save the big guy's life and at the same time not get himself killed in the process. While he wasn't going into an actual panic just yet, his heart was racing and he was trying to force his anxiety to stay down, he only hoped that the Commander and his Lieutenant hadn't taken notice. If they did he could tell them it was nerves due to Mason's release.

If they did, none of them said anything about it as they turned to resume their duties, "I'll let you get to your quarters; like I said, try and be vigilant after he's released." Snyder told him as the two walked away leaving Ryan with his android guard.

"Shit," Ryan muttered to himself, he figured the chances for this were high and while he had hoped for the best, unfortunately, it didn't pan out like he had wanted. However Mason being back so soon was a real punch in the gut, at least the bastard would be under guard, so there was that. The real problem he was now facing was that he had two days, three at the most until the big Praetorian was spaced, even if he was able to free the Xeno and not get killed in the process, what was the next step after that, they would need to hide, and then try and get off the station without being seen. As soon as the Snyder got wind that the Xeno was loose the whole station would be on lockdown with team's scouring every inch of the station looking for it...no not it, him.

The android guard placed its hand on Ryan's shoulder and nudged him forward, letting him know in no uncertain terms it was time to head back to his quarters.

That night as Ryan finally drifted off to sleep after spending the better part of the evening working on his little device and testing it out, a few bugs here and there popped up but overall it was promising. Shortly after going to sleep he found himself in the mental construct again, it was no longer a void of nothing, over the week it had been slowly transformed into a relaxing scenic landscape of grassy plains, with mountains in the distance and a lake close by, some of it was bits and pieces taken from his own memories, other parts memories from the female alien, memories that she somehow carried with her, how that was he had no idea, it was a pity that he didn't have the time to find out or the capability to actually understand their language, there was so much that he wanted to ask, to try and understand.

Unfortunately, time was simply not with them.

Ryan never saw or heard, not that he ever did, the black serpentine figure slowly creeping up on him from behind. It was only when black clawed hands softy grabbed his shoulders catching him by surprise did he know that he wasn't alone in the mental construct.

When he turned around to look at her, she reached out and cupped his face, long fingers gently wrapped around his head as she drew him in, lowering her head she touched her forehead to his. He had found out a couple of days after his first time in this mental construct that this was a form of greetings, humans shook hands, Xenos touched foreheads. Oddly enough he had come to find the greeting and even her touch both comfortable and welcoming.

His memories of the day, the conservation with the base commander and the idea of what to do played out in a matter of seconds, everything for him seemed to flash forward at an inconceivable speed. It always felt like a string was being pulled through his brain, there was no pain or real discomfort, just an odd pulling feeling that centered in the middle of his forehead.

The small warrior, at seeing his memories was shaken; not only by Mason's return but also that her brother was going to be spaced as the humans put it. While it would not be lethal at least not at first, it would eventually kill him. Her brother had been a source of strength for many of the Xenos, as well as having the courage to try and make contact with the few friendly humans that might help them. It had been something that had worked, at least partly, until Elizabeth was injured, she worried about the female doctor and what was worse was that Ryan feared was that even if Elizabeth did pull though she might never be the same.

Bringing the human Ryan into a friendly embrace, the warrior rested her chin on the back of his shoulder as her tail snaked and coiled around them. It was a way to offer comfort and reassurance in hard and desperate times, and each day they were growing more and more desperate. She knew what he was going to try, it was dangerous, but the fact that he was willing to put his very life on the line to help her brother, it told her that he was someone that she could trust and that not all of his race were evil monsters.

She knew that he wouldn't be able to free the ones in the lab, security was far too heavy, but maybe, just maybe, if one more of her kind could gain their freedom... she just wished that she could come with them, that they all could. If he was able to pull this trick of his off and get away, she would never see either Ryan or her brother ever again, just as it had been with the three that had escaped and the one that had died. She often wondered what had happened to them, where they free somewhere, had they been fortunate enough to find someplace far away and start a hive and live the lives they all should have had or had they been killed in the cold depths of the void, their bodies floating aimlessly forever in the depths of space to eventually be forgotten about.

A wave of distress and sadness washed over Ryan suddenly, while he couldn't see it physically on her, being connected in the mental construct he could pick up that the small warrior's emotional state had changed; if anything she now seemed very vulnerable. A vulnerable Xeno seemed like such an odd and almost impossible thing for him to wrap his mind around, yet there it was. He wrapped his arms around her waist and tried in the only way he knew how to offer her some amount of comfort, she let out a small hiss, nothing that was threatening but more of a 'thank you' in return.

The rest of the time was spent trying to offer some kind of reassures to each other, simply sitting and trying to enjoy the wonders of the mental construct, even while it was not real it was a refreshing change of scenery, there was for the first time a minor sense of peace even if it was only a slight reprieve from the oppressive reality of the station that they both would have to face soon.

xxxxx

 _'I understand,'_ the large Praetorian said, he sat in the darkened room, his gaze shifting back and forth between the two android guards, even from the distance he was easily able to keep in contact with his hive mates. All of them had been worried since he had been gassed and removed from the main room they were all housed in.

 _'You understand?'_ A deep voice boomed in his mind, a voice that he recognized as the drone that Mason had turned his attention too since the three of their kin had managed to escape. _'Is that all you can say, the human Ryan told our sister that they will place you in the void to die, and all you can say is that you understand,'_ The drone's voice was wracked with nervous tension and fear. ' _It will be a slow and in the end an agonizing death, how can you remain so calm, does the fact of such a death not scare you? Or do you have such faith in the human's plan that you think that it will work?'_

Looking around his gaze fell on one of the wall-mounted cameras and then slowly over to the other, _'You think that I am not afraid, I am my brother, I have no desire to die in such a way, but we live with death and pain every day that we are held captive here, and while we have no control over when death comes to take us and while I am afraid I will not let that fear control my actions.'_

 _'I believe that Ryan's plan will work, he seems to have a good idea on what to do and how to, it will require proper timing which is the key.'_ The small warrior said, and while the confidence in her voice for Ryan's plan was there, they all could tell she too was scared but what came through even more was the fact she was sad. Sad that should this work she would never see her brother or Ryan ever again.

 _'Dear sister, if this plan does work know that I will not leave any of you behind, we will, all of us escape this hell and if fate is indeed kind to us even once, maybe we can find our other brothers and sister that escaped and rejoin them.'_ The Praetorian announced to them, though deep down it seemed it was little more than a hollow promise. Even if he could free all his brothers and sisters there was the question of how to get off of the station and even if that did happen he knew that there would be no way in the whole of creation they would ever rejoin with the ones that escaped.

First thing was first and that was to get free, after that he would deal with what came and go from there. The door to the room opened up and regular as clockwork Ryan walked in pushing the cart full of meat for him, this human was always a welcome sight, it was a pity that the android that followed him around now would not let him visit for more than a few minutes, and that was only long enough to take their readings, whatever that meant and to feed them.

As Ryan approached he kept glancing up at the large Xeno who had now moved to the edge of the pod as was looking back at him, stopping the cart he opened the sliding tray and placed the meat in and in seconds the food had been transferred inside the clear pod. Right after he began to transfer the readings that were displayed on the monitor attached to the pod's control panel. It would take a minute or two to finish downloading, for the remaining time all he could do is stand there feeling like shit for not being able to do anything right then and there.

Nonchalantly he glanced around, looking up at the ceiling, taking a rough guess he figured it was around twenty-five feet high, give or take a foot or so, it had been a storage room for some of the larger pieces of equipment but had been empty now for a while. He spotted a couple of vent covers on each side of the room, but they were too small for the Xenomorph, a human maybe even one of the smaller Xenos, but the Praetorian was just too damn big.

So much for that brilliant idea.

There were however large maintenance covers just a few dozen meters away, bolted in from the outside, but with the Xenos strength and acidic blood getting those covers off wouldn't be a problem. Get him out of the pod, take out the android guards, get to the maintenance tunnel and figure it out from there.

A high pitched beeping signaled that the download was done and that it was time to go, Ryan tried to linger for a bit longer, he and the Xeno looking right at each other, each one trying to guess what the other was thinking, not that it would have been that hard, considering the circumstances. It wasn't until the android guard reminded Ryan that it was time to go and that was it.

The Praetorian watched as Ryan was taken away, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the human male; in a way, he too was now as much of a prisoner as they were. He was one of the few decent humans that had helped and been kind to them, if they were freed, all of them, and couldn't escape than they would make this station their new home, then everyone that had commented harm on their race would face judgment and receive the same act in kind.

xxxxx

Shawn stood there, dumbfounded as to what Shadow had just suggested, he blinked a number of times not really sure if what he had heard was real or not, or maybe he had just simply misheard Shadow, though he knew that was not the case at all.

He had come up to CIC to get a better look of the layout of Eclipse station on the holographic projector in the main command room to try and gauge what might be a good route to take. Looking at the station's layout on the data pad had been a decent start but it had only gotten him so far, he needed to see it in its entirety, thankfully the holographic projector had been a godsend. He had been staring at the image for what he thought was for only a few minutes, maybe ten at most, his eyes darting across the floating three-dimensional image, picking up areas of interest that he had missed the first few times. It wasn't until Shadow came in and broken him out of some sort of deep trance that his lover had told him he had been standing there unmoving, just staring at the image for close to an hour.

He had been explaining to Shadow what he was doing and looking over, looking at the station layout this way he figured that it would give him a better idea of how to get to pod three and then to the labs, though going into a trance was unexpected, it only felt like he had been there for a few minutes.

Shadow had peeked into his mind when it happened and found to his astonishment that Shawn's brain activity had sped up but his thought process was all over the place, sloppy and undisciplined. What was most unexpected was that the human's mind now seemed to becoming more attuned with that of a Xenos from the way it felt. It would explain how Shawn had, over the course of the last couple of weeks, started to become more and more razor focused on some of his tasks, almost to the point that he would lose himself, but never once had he gone into a deep trance like that.

It was right after that, Shadow had dropped the ball on him, more or less.

"You want me to do what again?" Shawn asked, wanting to see if by some off chance he actually had misheard the Praetorian.

Shadow looked over at the holographic projector, all he could see was a mess of white false energy bouncing in an isolated area just above the table. _'I said I want that station destroyed, all of it. It's an evil place, one that should not exist.'_ Shawn had neither misheard him nor was it a joke or a bit of odd humor, there was a hard edge to the Shadow's tone, right now he was being deadly serious about what he had just said, _'If we allow it to continue more harm will come, be it to your race or mine and I will not allow that to happen, we have the ability to stop it, so I say we should destroy with the weapons of this ship and be done with it.'_

He just shook his head in disbelief, Shawn couldn't believe that Shadow had just asked this of him, while it wasn't that surprising that any of them would want the station destroyed after what they had all gone through, it was still hard to hear it being asked of him. Going onboard to rescue the Xenos that were still trapped was one thing, but to straight out destroy a station with the weapon systems of the Saratoga, it would be straight up murder and that was something he could not, would not do.

"No, I'm not going to do that, I'm sorry but the answer is no." Shawn flatly stated, looking right up at Shadow. "I can't and I won't do it."

 _'After what you have seen them do to us, you know what we all went through, you know what they did to all of us, what they still continue to do to my kind, that place needs to be destroyed.'_ Shadow pleaded, looking back to Shawn, _'If we are able to rescue our brothers and sisters, what is to stop them from birthing more of our race unless that place is destroyed?'_

"I get it, believe me, I get it. And to be perfectly honest, if you want to take vengeance on the scientist and guards and whoever else hurt you and Ghost and Alese, I'm not going to stop you, I won't get in your way or try and talk you out of it, I'll turn a blind eye and let you do what you need to do." Shawn looked over at the transparent image of the station slowly rotating in the light field, 'but I'm not about to go and condemn innocent people to their deaths for an act of revenge."

' _INNOCENT?!'_ Shadow bellowed, his voice reverberating around in Shawn's head, he couldn't believe that his beloved human, his lover and hive mate would use the word 'innocent' to describe the people on that station, had he lost his senses somehow, how un the name of the queen mother were any of them innocent.

Rubbing his temples slightly, it felt like a not so minor slap right across his brain at Shadow's mental vocal level, "Ok, please tone it down a bit, shit, and yes I did say innocent. Look I'm not talking about those asshole scientists or guards that hurt and tortured you and your kin. What I'm talking about are the people on that station that you probably never even saw, I'm talking about the low-level personal the maintenance workers, the dock workers, the cooks the cleanup crew, I'm talking about the men and women that have to work long hours fixing and repairing stuff, or spending eight, nine or ten house a day preparing food for hundreds if not thousands of personal, or the poor slobs that had to clean up someone's shit and piss day in and day out. Do they deserve to die because of someone else's actions, Christ Shadow there are probably people that got that gig out of desperation and are trying to support their families with whatever money they are getting. And I sure as fuck am not going to be the one to end all that for them, I don't want to be the one responsible for their families to get a letter letting them know that their wife, husband, mother, father and so is now dead, because to be perfectly honest with you I sure as fuck couldn't live with myself If I was the one to pull the trigger and cause another Darrius station incident."

It was something that he had not considered, seeing where Shawn was coming from he calmed down a bit, he still felt that the station needed to be destroyed, but maybe there was a way that might allow the others, the ones that had not hurt them or were part of the scientific team to escape with their lives. _'So then it will not be destroyed?_ ' asked Shadow.

"Yes, no...I don't know, shit." Shawn crossed his arm and leaned back up against one of the consoles, clearly frustrated by what had just come up, on one on hand he did agree with what Shadow wanted but not to the point he was willing to become a mass murderer. "I agree with you that that station does need to be destroyed, but not with the way you suggested, we need to give them time for an evacuation and give them a chance to get to safety." 

Shadow leaned up against the console next to Shawn, placing his arm around his human and drawing him in, _'What then would you suggest?'_

"Well there's ordinance heavy enough on board to do the job, a couple of problems with that is the size of the weapon itself would make it impossible to move it around quickly plus it'll vaporize the station instantly when it goes off, they probably need a minimum of an hour or two." Shawn looked back up at the holographic image of the station as it ever so slowly it rotated, his eyes going to down to the mid part of the main station column, it was right then an idea popped into his head. "The reactor, that's what we need to do."

Shadow tilted his head in curiosity not fully understanding what Shawn was talking about, human technology was something that he did not have a firm grasp on, while he understood that certain technology did function for certain reasons, how it worked was beyond him. _'Your idea, you know what can be done?'_

Looking up at Shadow and then over at the hollow image, "Ok, here is an idea, it's risky, but I think that it should work," Shawn said, walking over to the holographic table, "I know that you can't see this so bear with me on this one."

Shadow watched as Shawn raised his hands and started to slowly wave and turn them around, he guessed that it had something to do with the hologram that he was looking at, though to him all he could see was the false energy being disturbed and scattered about within the confined space.

Raising his hands up, Shawn zoomed in on the main reactor area of the engineering section; from what he could tell most of what he was looking at seemed pretty straightforward, nothing too fancy, just a very powerful high output reactor. "Okay, reactor technology is fundamentally the same across the board and had been for centuries, materials advance, the tech gets refined, but the underlining technology is still the same. The reactors for a station when it comes down to it aren't that much different from the ones on a ship, be it the Saratoga or the Ember-Rose or whatever. Fuel rods are used in the reactor's core to generate power, and those fuel rods when they are activated generate a ton of heat, heat that needs to be kept to a minimum which is why there is a cooling system. And if we were to breach the cooling system or shut it down, namely the cooling intake mains that lead right into the reactor's core, that would cause a cascade failure and should result in either a meltdown or breach of the reactor core."

 _'And that will destroy the station I assume?'_ Shadow asked following the logic of what Shawn had just told him.

"There's a good chance of it, if the reactor goes into meltdown, it might not explode but a massive amount of radiation would be released, probably more than enough to render the station useless and uninhabitable. If a breach happens we're talking about a nuclear explosion that will vaporize the station entirely, either way, once the reactor starts to overload and go into meltdown the station should start evacuation procedures."

Cocking his head from side to side a few times, Shadow continued to look at the holographic projection. _'And how will you breach these mains?'_

"That should be easy enough, there are military grade thermite charge packs on board, we use those to melt large holes into each of the cooling intake mains and then destroy whatever consoles and controls are in the area, they might have backups but with a little luck the damage with be too extensive for them to make any kind of repairs. In addition what I can do to make things more difficult for them is to shut down the cooling intake mains as well as most of the outtake mains, I'll leave one or two of the outtake mains operational so it'll vent some of the pressure, not all of it, just enough so it'll gradually build up and will give us enough time to get out. We just need to be sure to be clear of the area before setting off the charges, coolant gas is lethal; I don't know if it'll affect your race in any way but for us humans, we'll be dead in a matter of seconds if we breathe any of that shit in. However, if it all goes as planned we should have a few hours to get back to the Saratoga and get out of the area before the station goes up. At least in theory anyway," Shawn finished, turning around to look up at Shadow, who was intently looking at the holographic projection.

Shadow did not say a word as he was thinking over Shawn's plan, he followed the logic of it, and it did sound like a solid plan or as solid of a plan as any of them might be able to come up with, he quietly wondered to himself if it would work the way Shawn wanted it to or if it would backfire on them in the worst possible way. _'While it sounds like a good plan, I hope that it does work the way it is supposed to.'_ He finally said, hoping that it would not blow up in their faces.

"Yea, me too, and trust me if I can come up with something better I will let you know, though I have to say I never thought I'd be trying to sabotage a space station, especially some top secret space station in the middle of freaking nowhere. Guess those years on Darrius station wasn't for nothing after all." Walking over to the control panel Shawn with a few taps on the control screen the layout image of Eclipse station disappeared, seconds later a smaller image of the station appeared once that looked to be a tactical view, the image zoomed out until it was little more than a blinking red speck, going further out a second blinking red speck showed up.

"Earlier I was seeing if there was any info on patrols or ship traffic that we could use to help avoid detection and found this little oddity. You don't happen to remember anyone mentioning anything about a second station in the area?"

Searching his memories from his time aboard Eclipse station trying to remember if there was anything, only a few times had something been mentioned. _'There were a couple of times a few of the scientists and some other humans were talking about something called a supply depot that was nearby, none of us knew what a supply depot was, perhaps this is what they were referring to.'_

"That would be one hell of a lucky break if it was, get fully stocked up for a few years, maybe some extra maintenance androids as well."

 _'Would there be any info in the ship's database on it?'_ Asked Shadow, looking at the holo display again, his head tilting a few times, seeing the false white energy bouncing around, he hoped that one day he could see these images, it fascinated him to no end, but more than anything he wanted to see what Shawn saw on the screens and monitors a part of him felt like he was missing out of something truly wonderers.

Shrugging as he deactivated the terminal, "I'll look later on and see, I was about to go and get something to eat, feel like joining me?" Shawn asked, turning around and headed for the CIC exit.

Coming up beside Shawn, Shadow placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder, _'Yes, I am starting to get hungry as well,'_ the Praetorian stated, thin drool strands trailed off his chin and dripped onto the floor, _'by the way, thank you.'_

Looking up at Shadow, his head tilting to the side some, slightly confused as to what Shadow was thanking him for all of a sudden. "For what?"

 _'For helping Ghost, he seems to be far more relaxed since you two mated, much of the pent up sexual frustration and anxiety has subsided.'_

"I'm glad he's doing better, there was a lot of bottled up sexual frustration, as needy and you and Alese were, Ghost was ten times worse. Hell that being his first time with anyone I'm a little surprised that he didn't completely lose control." Reaching his arm around, he placed his hand on Shadow's lower back just above the base of the Xeno's tail, his fingers gently caressing the sensitive area. "You know the morning after you, Alese and I made love, Ghost and I went to check out the training area, he offered himself to me there. I had to decline and felt like shit for doing it, I wanted to give and share myself with him, but I was so sore from swimming and overdoing it the day before and then the three of us mated later on that night, there was just no way. He understood, but the disappointment in his voice was so heart wrenching I felt like a real piece of crap for not giving him what he needed right there, I feel as if I let him down."

 _'No,'_ The Xeno's voice echoed in his head, Shawn knew that Shadow could be fast, but in a black flash the Praetorian was in front of him hunkering down until he was close to being eye level. _'Please, never think that you let him or any of us down, he understood why you had to decline his advances that morning, neither one of you would have been able to enjoy it. It was better to wait a couple of days before engaging so where both you and he could enjoy the acts.'_ Reaching out, gentle moist fingertips pressed up against soft, warm skin, ' _Shawn, you still do not fully understand how much of an effect you have had on our lives, how in so many ways you have become the center of our world, you gave us a chance, did not see us as just things or monsters, you felt regret and remorse and even guilt as what your race had done to ours, and you apologized for their actions even when you had no reason to. You could never let us down; please never feel bad for saying no to our advances if you cannot engage, we would never what to pressure you into feeling like you needed to mate with any of us.'_

"As much as you might tease me I never felt like I was under pressure to comment," reaching out, Shawn's fingers glided against the firm chitin jawline and ever so slowly trailed up to the black, hardened crest. "You, Ghost, Alese are the center of my world now as well and I do not know what I would do without any of you. You saved me more in more ways than you realize and for that, I am forever grateful." Leaning forward, pressing his forehead to Shadow's, "I love you, my heart, soul; all I have, all I am is yours and theirs now and forever."

Reaching around, slick, black arms drew the smaller human into a warm, heartfelt embrace, resting his chin over Shawn's back; butting up against his shoulder blade, Shadow found a lump forming in his throat as his heart swelled up at the words their human as spoke. Slight high pitched keeling noises made their way out from the Xenos maw, his body shuttered, the keeling noise rising in pitch and tone slightly each time he breathed out.

Waves of warmth, joy, overwhelming gratitude, cascaded through Shawn's mind and deep into his being, enveloping him in a thick emotional blanket, he finally recognized what he was hearing from Shadow, it was a Xenos version of crying, something he had never heard before; the waves of warmth that continued to flow through his being and into his heart, love that Shadow felt towards him. Pressing his face into Shadow's neck, all he wanted to do was stay there forever, warm and safe in the company of his mate and lover.

For those few brief few precious moments, the universe was not such a cold and horrible place to be in, for those few brief few moments the small child inside him came to the surface, wide-eyed and full of wonder, innocent, ready to play and see all, to be wrapped in the loving warmth that had been absent for so long, to trust without question, to curl up and be held. For those few brief few precious moments, all was right with the world and the universe and just for those few precious moments, Shawn felt whole again, warm and unconditionally loved.

 _'I love you,'_ words that slowly, choked with warmth and joy came out, even if they were mentally spoken, seemed to take forever to come out as the large Xeno tightly held onto his human not wanting to let go, to stay in this warm unexpected bliss for as long as the universe would allow them. These moments he would hold onto for the rest of his life, as small as they might be to others, to him they were the ones that truly did mater, the ones that would make going through any hell worth any pain and suffering he might have to endure.

Perhaps, in the end, it would be all any of them would ever truly have to call their own.


	25. Decisions and Consequences

**Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story, any constructive feedback is always welcomed.**

xxxxx

Chapter 24: Decisions and Consequences

Trying not to draw attention to himself or look as anything was off, Ryun and his android escort went their usual route to his office, carrying a few extra bags slung over his shoulder which hung to his sides, thankfully the combat android did not say anything or ask as to what the purpose of the extra bags he was carrying was, more than likely due to a function that was not within its programming. Keeping his head down ever so slightly as to look like he was lost in thought, he would either nod or wave to familiar personal and colleges as he continually passed the morning shift personnel. A part of him kept expecting a squad of fully armed guards to come around the corner any second pointing their weapons at him ordering him to get down on the floor and surrender.

Much to his relief as he found himself at the front of his office door and walked in, his fears did not come to pass, at least not just yet, though the day was just getting started. Walking over to his chair he sat the bags down on the floor, turning on his workstation, he began to count down the minutes. Deep in his stomach, which was quickly becoming a pit of nausea and raw terror stirred, he had barely slept, even in the mental construct he was scared of what was about to happen so much so that the small warrior was not able to offer him much in the way of comfort or relief.

Bile crept up from his stomach, reaching over and quickly grabbing a trashcan he doubled over and retched up whatever he had left in his stomach, soon all he was doing was dry heaving. _Nerves_ , he told himself, that's all it was, there was no denying that he was scared shitless, every sane part of his mind was telling him not to go through with it, to call it off, to let the Xeno be spaced, he was trying to push those thoughts back down, to tell himself that was he was doing was right, and since he was scared so damn much he figured that it must be right.

A small comfort at best if at all, for the time being, all he could do now was sit back and count down the minutes as each one slowly ticked by, and then see if he did indeed have the balls to go through with this it.

xxxxx

 _'You cannot expect the human to go through with his plan, he may want to help us, but he has too much to lose and we are not of his kind, why would he ever risk his life to help us. You are holding out for hope where there is none brother. I am sorry to say but I cannot see the Ryan human going through with this plan of his.'_ The scarred drone was pacing back and forth in the transparent cell, his nerves on edge as they had found out that their Praetorian brother would be sent into the void by the end of the day, where he would float until he died a slow and agonizing death.

The last remaining Praetorian in the pens stood up, while he and most of the others were hopeful that Ryan's plan would work, even if it was risky, they were all getting very tired of the constant negativity that their drone brother was bombarding them with. And while none of them could blame him for his cynic attitude, they needed to try and be hopeful that something good would come out of it. _'Brother, I understand your doubts, I do, but please do us all a favor and keep it to yourself fucking self, the Ryan and Elizabeth humans are the closest things we have to friends and allies in this place, no one else has tried to show compassion or kindness to us, much less go to the trouble of making contact. They have, and I for one would like to at least give Ryan the chance to prove himself.'_

Snorting and hissing the scarred drone look right at his Praetorian brother, _'Yes, they have gone to the trouble of making contact with us, and look what has happened, Elizabeth was attacked by Mason and almost killed and even now we do not know if she will ever heal from her injuries, and Ryan is constantly under guard and his every move is being watched, what can either one of them do for us now.'_

 _'You would be surprised just how resourceful the humans can be.'_ The large Praetorian's voice boomed in their heads, he had been eavesdropping on the not so private conversation going on in the pens. _'While I do not understand the technical aspects to Ryan's plan I do have faith in it, so I choose to believe that he will follow through with it.'_

Unable or unwilling to keep his cynical negativity to himself the scarred drone spoke up, _'and supposes that Ryan does not follow through with his plan but decides instead not to help and let you die, there is that chance and you cannot tell me that that thought has not entered your mind at least once.'_

 _'Brother please, enough of this,'_ the small warrior pleaded, _'he is the only chance we may ever have to be free, yes he is scared and yes he does have second thoughts about this, but I believe that he will make good on his promise to help us.'_

 _'The promise of a human is less than nothing,'_ the scarred drone scoffed laying down, _'and even if he does free you brother, where will you go or do you think that the two of you can somehow overtake this station, the human warriors and their mechanical drones will cut the two of you down without mercy or hesitation.'_

The large Praetorian voice rang out, laced with frustration and irritation by his brother's constant doubt, while he understood the drone's mistrust and fear the endless nay saying was wearing thin on his nerves. _'I don't know, I don't know where we will go, I don't know if we can be free, and your right we may die minutes after he frees me, or he may go back on his word, which I would not blame him if he did. What I do know is we have a chance and yes it is a small one at best, but it is the best one that we have ever been given and I will not squander that chance. Brother, all I ask is for you to give Ryan a chance to see if he comes through, nothing more.'_

The drone said nothing for a while, finally lifting his head he slowly looked around at his brothers and sisters, most were looking in his direction waiting for any kind of answer, cursing himself silently a fool for giving trust to a human, he gave his brother an answer. _'Very well, I will give him a chance but not nothing more than that, I only hope that for your sake that he does follow through on his promise, for if he does not I will never forgive him.'_

 _'We will soon find out then,'_ stated the large Praetorian, _'however if he goes back on his word I would ask each one of you not to hold it against him. Fear is a powerful enemy and he is forced to face it every day.'_

 _'Then he has had a small taste of what we deal with every day, poetic irony I would say.'_ The scarred drone's words were met with a course of angry hisses immediately, while none of them had any love for the humans, Ryan and Elizabeth were the only ones that had treated them with any sort of respect or kindness.

 _'That was uncalled for!'_ Chided the small warrior, _'and unnecessary, neither Ryan nor Elizabeth deserve our disrespect, they are trying to help us, or he is now.'_

A pang of regret filled his mind and heart and it was right then he wished that he could withdraw what he had just said. His sister was right, his offhanded comment had been uncalled for, from the start Ryan had tried his best to take care of them all, even going against Mason and his underlings. And watching Ryan beat Mason to a bloody pulp had been the most satisfying thing any of them had witnessed, even more so than their brothers escaping and killing a few of the scientist that had tortured them. _'I apologize, you are correct it was called for, I...I do not believe I can take this for much longer, a part of me wishes that I had died alongside my brother, he and I had strong feelings, desires to be a mated pair, and now that chance is gone forever, if we all had made it onto that ship...'_ And now that slim chance of happiness was lost, ripped away forever as far as he was concerned, a part of him had died that day and since then the hole in his heart and soul had been left to fester and rot. Everyday less and less of him cared, the universe was a hard, cold and uncaring place that did not care about them at all; in turn why should he give a damn about the universe.

He was so close to saying the hell with everything and everyone even his own kin and giving up completely and let despair take his soul; all it would take was just one more thing to push him over the edge and to plummet into that abyss. If Ryan did not follow through with his plan than that would be it, there would be no hope as far as he was concerned, if he couldn't hold onto hope then perhaps it would be better to feel nothing at all.

xxxxx

The door slid open, heavy footfalls echoed inside the tiny room and then stopped coming in only a few feet, only the sound of the mechanical sliding door closing let him know that the office was shut.

"You seem to be unwell; if you deem it necessary I can contact medical personnel to assist you." The lifeless, synthetic voice announced, the android stood motionless for several seconds looking down at the human lab tech that was on his knees doubled over.

Shaking his head, Ryan turned slightly to acknowledged the android, "No it's alright, just some minor stomach cramps that's all, I just need some help getting up," reaching out his left arm he hoped that the android would at least be able to help him get up. He half expected to hear the android tell him that that function was not within its programming. A room temperature rubber hand gripped his and pulled him up off the ground, not expecting it to happen, Ryan stumbled a step before regaining his balance.

"Thanks," he said, turning his back slowly to the android, "I just need a few minutes before we go, if that is alright." His right hand ever so slowly coming out of his lab coat, fingers gripped around the soft cotton cloth.

"Your schedule must be maintained, if you are unwell I will contact medical personnel for them to assist you."

A deep lengthy sigh was let out, shaking his head, "No, that won't be necessary, I'll go." Finally giving in, Ryan turned around, swinging to face the android his right arm outstretched, white cloth tightly wrapped around his hand, a large lump protruded at the end. "Sorry..." was the only thing he was able to get out before he took that step to cross the line that there was no returning from.

"What are you..." The android never got a chance to finish its question, a sharp crack ripped out in the tiny room, the cloth end flipped up for a second and dropped back down, black smoke and powder staining and scorching the once pristine white cotton fabric, white synthetic liquid compound sprayed and splattered over the back of the wall, door and ceiling coating the area.

For what seemed like an eternity Ryan just stood there, looking right at the android guard, he expected it to lunge right at him, only now, nothing; it just stood there motionless as if for it time had suddenly come to a standstill, its hands only an inch maybe less from his outstretched arm. Thick droplets falling, hitting the floor echoed in the office, only one white eye with pulps that could barely be seen stared blankly back at him.

Stepping back, he hadn't even realized he had been holding his breath the whole time until his lungs started to ache and burn, exhaling he found himself dropping down to the floor, taking in deep breaths, "Shit, shit, shit, fuck," he repeated several times over, the realization of what he had just done hitting him. Looking up at the android, he had expected it to fall down, over, not just stand there unmoving. Of the things he had seen in his life, it was one of the more freakier things, and one that he would for a very long time remember, or at least as long as he had left, which might be a very short time now.

Gathering his wits and remembering what was on the line, he picked himself up, a puddle of white synthetic blood was pooling up at the android's feet, he didn't know how long he had until security was alerted that their android was no longer responding, if not already, no alarms were blaring, so he hoped that that was a good sign. He needed to maintain a sense of normality, which would mean heading to the Xeno pins, feeling the aliens, take their readings load the cart up for the Praetorian and hall ass back to his office to collect everything.

If he could get that far without anyone noticing anything then maybe he might have a chance. Unwrapping the cloth from his hand, his Glock pistol still emitted small trails of smoke from the barrel opening that flowed up, his hand still shaking so badly that he forced himself to loosen his grip, afraid that another round might go off.

And that was another worry, that some passerby or sensor might have heard or detected the gunshot, with the door closed and the weapon wrapped up, he hoped that it would dampen the round going off just enough that even if someone did hear it they might not know it was a weapon discharge.

He needed to move now, time was no longer a luxury and in fact it was an enemy that he needed to not only get ahead of but try and beat. Stacking the bags he had brought with him on his desk, as well as a separate shoulder bag that held the magazines and ammo for his pistol, he placed his pistol under the bag. Going over to the android he removed the sidearm, another Glock, only this one was military grade with a dozen magazines that seemed to have various ammo for different situations, as well as a small but powerful taster gun with half a dozen charge packs. Dumping the weapons and additional magazines and charge packs in the shoulder bag he zipped it up and laid it over his pistol.

It would be nothing short of a miracle if he didn't get caught, walking out and locking his office up, he didn't see anyone around and there was nothing but silence from what he could tell, nothing unusual there. Trying to regain his composure he slowly walked down the hallway and toward the Xeno pens. His stomach growled and every step he took he could swear that he was going to double over and throw up again, _just nerves, nothing more,_ he told himself, one step down a few more to go, pulling the trigger was the hardest part, the worse, Ryan was glad that it wasn't another person that he had to shoot, if it had been, he wasn't sure if he could have pulled the trigger, taking a life to save a life didn't seem to balance out, at least not in this case.

Getting to the Xeno pens and so far nothing had happened, no squads of armed guards descending down on him, no sudden rifle discharge sending his guts spraying all over the place, only the normal routine of the lab and it's personal. Walking in, and heading back to his area, he wanted to have hope that it was all going to plan, that the first part had worked, but deep down he knew that he wasn't going to be that lucky. Things never worked out the way they were supposed to, if they did Doctor Elizabeth Brooks, one of his few friends on board, wouldn't have had half her skull caved in by a raging psychotic lunatic.

Looking around the pens, he saw that most of the Xenos were focused on him, intently too, they knew what was going on as the android guard was not with him this time; looking back ahead he just needed to keep focused on what he needed to be done next. Get the cart, feed them, take the readings and then make it to the Praetorian, after that his plan would either work or it wouldn't.

Making his way to the storage area, grabbing one of the large carts he quickly loaded it up with the synthetic meat and was about to make his way out. Stopping for a few seconds he took several deep breaths to get his heart rate back down, the last thing he needed was to look nervous as all hell. _Alight_ j _ust act normal, nothing going on, the android is out for routine maintenance in case anyone asks._ Ryan kept telling himself, running the excuse though his head a few more times to make it more believable in case anyone did ask.

As he pushed the cart through the pens, feeding the aliens and taking their readings, probably for the last time, there was a gut-wrenching feeling in the bottom of his stomach as if he was saying goodbye to them. He figured that after this it might very well be the last time he would interact with them in any way, his rounds almost finished up, the small warrior was the last one he needed to attended to, coming up to the pod, he placed the meat on the tray and began the download of the data.

While the data transferred over to the pad, he stood there looking up at her, she kneeled down until she was more or less eye level with him, while it was hard to make out their emotional state by their looks, he could feel sadness coming from the Xeno warrior, under different circumstances he and Elizabeth would have been ecstatic, bantering back and forth about the discoveries they had both made and experienced over the last few weeks with the Xenos. But now, now all he wanted to do was crawl into a dark hole and cry, he should have been happy with all the information that had been discovered in such a short period of time about this race, instead, there was just an empty bitterness at the whole situation.

A few more minutes passed by before a repeated beeping informed him that the data was downloaded, putting the pad on the cart, he glanced up at her, a couple of more moments passed by, a slow nod came from her, right then he got the impression that it was her way of saying goodbye to him. Turning around and gripping the cart handles he pushed the cart back to the large cooler to load up on one last serving of meat, this one for the large Praetorian. He had to fight back tears, afraid that he was going to lose it at any second, as he pushed the cart back into the pens, he didn't look at any of the aliens this time, he couldn't, any more and he would break down on the spot.

Leaving the pens, the small warrior never took her gaze off of Ryan, only when he walked out the doors and out of sight did she look down, a part of her wanted to rip her own heart out, it would have been far better than feeling the deep heart crushing ache that she now had to suffer.

 _'I am sorry dear sister, I truly am.'_ The scarred drone told her on a private link, fully aware of how deep her pain was becoming, as jaded as he had become he fully sympathized with what she was going through now and hated to see any of his brothers and sisters in pain.

Unable to say anything, all she could do was lie down and curl up, holding herself, her tail wrapping around her head and back as she formed into a small black ball of misery and grief as her heart seemed to crush in on itself sending waves of sharp stabbing pain through her body and soul.

xxxxx

Pushing the cart as fast as he could a part of him didn't care if he met up with a squad of armed guards, let them, he didn't care anymore, his chest ached and he felt himself falling into an abyss of despair. Ryan was starting to hate himself more and more for walking away like he did, but it was something he knew he had to do; if he had stayed any longer or even turned to look one more time, he knew he would have tried to free the small warrior right there on the spot. An emotional but what would have been an ultimately foolish move, the large Praetorian was counting on him and that was what mattered, he was hours away from being spaced not the small female warrior.

As before he never ran into a squad of armed troops ready to take him down on his way back, nor did any alarms go off as he had been expecting, only an eerie and still silence that was broken by the hard plastic casters of the cart as they rolled over tiny crisscrossing groves in the metal plating of the floor.

Arriving at his office a few minutes later, Ryan opened the door and rolled the heavy cart into the office slamming it into a wall, as the door closed he collapsed to the floor, sitting up against the wall clutching his head, every horrible negative situation poured into his mind, closing his eyes he tried to clear his mind and get a grip on the situation, it hadn't been until he had gotten into the pens that he started feeling like this and mostly it hadn't been until he had gotten to the tank containing the small Xeno warrior.

Slowing his breathing down, Ryan tried to take an emotional step back and analyze what was going on with himself. Fact, he had been feeling fine before going into the Xeno pens, well, as fine as he was able to feel considering what he was doing, but he hadn't felt like he was about to take a running jump and go plummeting feet first right into a pit of despair and dread. Fact, it had been right when he had gotten to the small warrior or more precisely right when he started to leave.

Breathing in a few long steady breaths he tried to get himself calmed down some, Ryan wondered if somehow she might have been projecting her own feelings onto him. He knew almost nothing about how this bond or link or whatever it might be the two were now sharing worked, and if this how she was feeling or even a fraction, then it was the first time that he had had any tangible proof that beyond anger or rage they had emotional feelings that were similar to humans.

While it would have made a fascinating subject to learn more about, on top of everything else he had started to learn about their race, there simply was no time. Getting his composure back, more or less, Ryan picked himself up off the floor, sliding a small door open on the cart that was for storage, carefully grabbing the bags he had brought and laid out on his workstation he carefully placed them within the storage compartment, all except for one. Opening the small bag open Ryan removed the small device that he had been working on, a small low-frequency short-range transmitter that would hopefully work on opening the Praetorian's cage, it was low powered enough that the range was only a couple of meters, but with any luck it would work, he would just need to have the device right next to the cage.

It was all ready to go, all he would have to do is get close and turn it on and hope...no, pray that it would work. Bagging the device back up into the small shoulder satchel he removed his lab coat, slinging the satchel over his left shoulder he put his coat back on, reaching over and feeling where the bag was and pressing down in several spots he found where the switch was. All he would have to do was give it a quick flick and that would be it, either it would work or it would not.

Steeling his nerves, he grabbed the cart and pushed it out of the small office, a place that he doubted that after today he would ever see again, not that he had many regrets about that, most of his time on this station working under Doctor Ford Mason had been what he would describe as a living nightmare. Guilt for the way the Xenos had been treated was a constant and dealing with Mason himself was like dealing with a living time bomb, one that had no qualms about going through with what he wanted.

There was now a weird sense of relief, either way, this part of his life was now over, whether or not he lived long to reap the rewards of what he was about to do was another matter entirely. As he pushed the cart down the hallway he softly hummed a tune to himself.

xxxxx

Looking back and forth at the two android guards that were stationed next to the only door in the room the large Praetorian's crested head slowly paned to the left then to the right, occasionally looking up and over at the two security cameras that were mounted on the wall. From what his kin had told him only a few minutes ago, Ryan was going through with his plan, his android guard was not with him, why, none of them knew, but it did not matter, if everything went according to plan, in a short while he would be free.

Free…

His heart raced at the thought of that, barely contained excitement gripped his body and soul, he had only known the confines of these clear cages for his whole life, only ever a few times was he and his kind allowed out into larger rooms and that was usually for tests, cruel and horrific tests that Mason would be ever present for, those cold, dead eyes staring at him and whoever else was with him, looking down at his brothers and sister with nothing more than loathing, utter contempt, and raw hate.

None of them knew why they were treated the way they were, it did not make sense to any of them, what had they done that warranted such treatment, he had wondered when mind-numbing boredom kicked in, which was often, what things would have been like if someone had only tried to communicate with them. How much pain and suffering might have been avoided if maybe just one of the damned scientists had tried to communicate with them in the past.

A wishful daydream, nothing more than that, however, at least Ryan and Elisabeth to their credit had tried and succeeded, that was something at least, something that did, in fact, mean a great deal to all of them. Pain gripped and squeezed his heart at the thought of what had happened to Elizabeth, he had watch Mason attack and almost killed her and he had been unable to do anything to stop him, despite being so close to freeing himself from his pod, it had been for nothing.

If only...if only he had gotten himself free, he had no doubt that he would have slaughtered so many of those humans, only sparing the select few that had done no harm to him or his kind.

His thoughts were interrupted as the door slid open, Ryan walked in pushing the large metal cart loaded with synthetic meat. When it came down to it, he had in truth no idea what Ryan was going to do to free him, as he entered the room the androids while didn't move, they did look at each other and then looked at Ryan. It was odd as he had never seen them do that before, maybe something to do with the not so small fact that the android that was normally with Ryan was now, in fact, not.

Turning his gaze back to the approaching human, he cocked his head as Ryan seemed to reach around and scratch his side for a second. Parking the cart right next to the pod the young human went through his normal routine, the meat was transferred into the pod and the readings were taken. He noticed that Ryan was looking nervous, glancing around as he continued to look at the screens, the human's heart rate was up and he could tell that his breathing had quickened in the last few moments.

A quick low sounding mechanical "click" came from where the door was, right then he noticed Ryan was slowly backing away a few feet from the pod door, his heart jumped as he saw that the door ever so slightly fell out of alignment, opening up just a fraction of an inch, backing up his whole body tensed up, the heavy tail blade slamming against the clear plexi-steel floor.

A deafening screech ripped from the Praetorian's lungs as he exploded forward, his body slamming into the door with as much force as he could bring. The door flew open slamming back into the clear pod wall, the hinges twisting and bending from the raw brute force. Spring out from his confines, he bolted toward the two combat androids with lighting speed, covering the distance in a matter of scant seconds.

Although both of the combat androids saw what happened and had been programmed to respond with lethal force if the situation was called for, neither one had a chance to bring their weapons to bear down on the hulking, black death that was charging toward them.

Dropping down to all fours and whipping around letting the momentum of his charge carry through, the deadly tail blade sliced right through the air, barely slowing down as the razor sharp edge cut through the rubbery synthetic skin, bone and organs. With a wet dull thud, the halves of the two combat androids fell to the floor, while liquid sprayed out, coating the floor and the lower legs and feet of the Praetorian.

He had expected their reflexes to be far better than what they had been, neither one had been able to raise their weapons more than halfway before being cut down. A few seconds later the door slid open revealing the other two combat androids, weapons drawn and ready to fire.

Bright strobing flashes lit up the small room with the deafening roar of weapon fire, the Praetorian's shrieked in anger as the rounds impacted off of his thick chitin bony armor doing little more than to invoke his full rage. Lunging forward, he reached out, he grabbed one of the androids by its head, his sharp claws ripping into the synthetic's skull and crushing the artificial brain to wet pulp.

The last android started to back up barely taking a couple of steps back as it continued to fire the pulse rifle, the deadly rounds impacting into the Xeno's armored body, only a few small sprays and tricks of the lethal acidic blood splattering into the nearby wall and floor eating into the metal gave any indication that the massive Praetorian had been hurt in any way, even if in truth the wounds were little more than superficial injuries at best.

A quick second later the head of the android was sent flying through the air as the Praetorian swiped a deadly arc decapitating the synthetic with his clawed hands. A dull thud echoed slightly as the head fell to the floor and rolled hitting the back wall, its pasty, white, eyes blankly staring openly into nothing.

Looking up at the newly installed wall mounted camera's, he knew that time was not on their side now, more of the artificial machines and human warriors would be coming soon, leaping up he grabbed the first camera and yanked it out of the wall, bounding over to the other camera he did the same, leaving the humans blind, at least in that room.

Now it was time to leave, turning his attention to where Ryan was at, he saw that the human was laying on the ground as he had taken cover behind the metal cart, smart move on his part to stay out of the line of fire and not get involved in the fight, if he could even call what had happened a fight. Looking down at his chest he noticed a few trickles of yellow blood ever so slowly running down the black bony structure and dripping onto the metal floor plating, smoke rose up with a slight sizzling sound.

Despite the heavy rounds that the androids had been using, his Praetorian physiology had all but made the weapons useless. Maybe multiple weapons, sustained over a period of time would eventually wear him down and kill him, but one or two, as he had just found out, did little more than break his thick, armored skin.

Walking over to where Ryan was still laying down his arms covering his head, he stopped and squatted down keeping a safe distance, last thing he wanted to do was accidentally injure the human with his blood, he let out a quick low hiss letting Ryan know that it was, for the time being, safe. He hoped that Ryan on some level would understand.

Uncovering his head, Ryan looked up only to see the Praetorian squatting down a couple of meters away, looking right at him, his head cocked ever so slightly as he continued to observe him. As soon as the pod door had slammed open, he had dropped the ground and taken cover, he had no idea about what would happen or how the fight would go, his money had been on the Xeno, but bad luck seemed to be systematic at this station and at this point nothing would have surprised him. Thankfully from what he had heard and was now seeing, the four combat androids never stood a chance against the Xenomorph at all.

Slowly picking himself up Ryan took a quick look at what was left of the androids, the grizzly carnage was unbelievable, in just only a few seconds the Praetorian had take out four combat androids, one had its head caved in so badly that it was almost unrecognizable, two others had been cut clean in half and the last one was missing its head entirely.

Deadly, quick and efficient, just as the ones that had escaped the station had been, they had left a trail of death and carnage that none one on board had ever seen or even come close to experiencing.

Ryan turned back to look at the Xeno, who had not moved an inch, it was in no way showing any aggression to him, not that he expected him to, but being in an a room along with such a large and deadly being was a bit unnerving, even if he knew that it had no intention of harming him, if the Xeno had, he knew that he would have died moments ago.

"Alright big guy, we need to get out of here, you may want to down as much of that meat that I brought as you can, not sure when we are going to get a chance to get any more food, other than what little I brought with me," Ryan said, reaching into the compartments and grabbing the bags that he had snuck in and slinging them around his shoulders. It was a curious thing as he walked over to the remains of the fallen androids that none of the alarms had gone off just yet.

Grabbing a few more pistol clips and energy packs from each of the androids and placing them in his bag, he could hear the Xeno tearing away at the meat that he had brought. He started to wonder if the security cameras were even working...no there was no way his luck was holding out this good today, though maybe the guard or whoever was monitoring this room had taken a coffee break or just hadn't caught what had happened. Or maybe Snyder was keeping this quiet as not to alert anyone and spook the Xeno, a cold chill ran down his spine at that thought, he figured that as soon as he opened the door he would finally find that fully armed squad with their weapons at the ready pointed at him...them.

But if, just if their luck was truly holding out, maybe they might be able to get onboard one of the outbound freighters or transports without anyone detecting them and then go from there to god knows where, though at this point, any place would be better. Right there his thoughts turned to Elizabeth, he hated the thought of leaving her here, even if Snyder was able to protect her from Mason, he had no idea how long it would be before this place consumed her. That was IF she ever recovered, as bad of shape as she was in he couldn't risk moving her, no matter how much he wanted to.

Ryan was so preoccupied in his own thoughts that he never heard the Praetorian walk up behind him. It was only when the Xeno reached out and placed his hand on Ryan's shoulder, startling him slightly that he realized that the alien had finished eating and it was now time to go.

Walking over to one of the androids that had been cut clean in half, Ryan knelt down, upholstered the stun pistol and pointed it in the direction of the pod, the alien tilted its crested head, curious as to what he was going to do with the weapon. Letting loose a volley of blasts from the pistol, Ryan strafed the area around the pod hitting the pod's control panel several times, sparks flew, smoke began to trickle up followed by a small fire. Using his lab coat he wiped his prints off the weapon and placed it in the android's hand.

Perhaps it might look like the syntactic had gotten off a few shots off with the stun pistol before being taken out; hitting the pod's control panel would hopefully erase any evidence that Mason's card had been used in any way. "Can you do me a favor and crush this things head, make it look like it happened in the fight?" Asked Ryan getting up and backing away a bit.

Noticing that the Xeno seemed to almost smile at that request, something that he had never seen before, the steel colored teeth, bits of warm drool trickling down to the floor, it was a bit unnerving to see so close up without any sort of a barrier between the two of them, it was something he was going to have to get used to and quickly. Taking a step up, the Praetorian raised his foot and slammed it down crushing the synthetic's head to a white mushy pulp. Retrieving any info about the fight from that unit would be next to impossible.

"Alright, let see if we can get out of here and stay hidden or if we both are going to be facing a firing squad." Hitting the button next to the door, the door slid open, both Ryan and the large Praetorian were expecting to have guards with weapons raised, but nothing, peaking their heads out of the doorway and into the hallway only to see nothing, no personal, no guards, nothing at all.

"If I remember right there's a maintenance hatch around the corner and down about a few dozen meters, we get to that we should be able to get into the inner guts of this station and hide for a while, figure out where we need to go from there." Ryan's heart was jackhammering in his chest as he inched along, the massive Xeno literally inches behind and towering over him. At this point, he would have felt better if the alarms had been going off and a warning was going out that a Xeno was now on the loose, not this eerie silence that seemed to be closing in on them.

Making their way down the hallway and around the corner Ryan spotted the heavy maintenance hatch just a few dozen meters down, yet still no one was in the area, and while it was a section of the station that was not readily used by most of the personal, it was still unusual that no one was around, he at least had half expected to see the odd maintenance worker or guard around.

It didn't matter, once inside they could hide and plan what to do next. Breaking into a quick run, both of them coved the distance in short order, unlocking the hatch Ryan pulled the heavy steel door open, thick hinges squeaked in protest as the door was pulled open. "Alright big guy in you go," Ryan told the Xeno, the alien tilted his head to the side and looked down at Ryan as if he was unsure about this plan all of a sudden.

"We can't be out in the open like this, otherwise we are going to get shot at real damn soon," Ryan told him, the tension and frustration in his voice rising, the last thing he wanted right now was to be spotted by some random person walking around, not that it mattered anymore, as soon as he finished speaking the alarms started to blare. "Well guess someone found out that you're free."

The Praetorian didn't need any more persuasion at that point, going down to all fours, he turned his head and squeezed himself through the door, Ryan was right on his tail looking in both direction to see if they had been spotted, he thought he could hear the sounds of footfalls echoing in the distance. Slowly closing the hatch to stifle the noise from the hinges, the door closed with a dull but soft metallic click, locking the hatch up the two started to make their way through the labyrinth of maintenance tunnels.

Slinking around the twists and turns going over, under or around metal pipes, conduits and t trying to stay quiet as possible, neither one had any idea where they were going nor what their location was, Ryan had tried to keep a mental map but had soon given up on that as he could no longer keep his bearings on what section or level they were on.

Even in the tunnels and shafts, through the thick walls he could still hear the security alarms going off and muffled announcements on the PA, while he was unable to make out the words, he figured that it was something along the lines of "Xeno loose, lock down in procedure, matinee calm" or some shit like that.

Occasionally the two would come across a grate or grill that gave them a view of the hallways or rooms, it seemed that Commander Snyder had every guard, combat android both standard and heavy out on patrol looking for the Xeno, and now probably him as well. Ryan had no doubt that the android guard that he had put a bullet though had been found, there was no way he could ever explain that. He knew he was in so deep that there would be no way he would ever be able to talk his way out should he be caught. He wondered if should have grabbed one of the pulse rifles and brought it with them, then quickly dismissed the idea, no…they needed to be able to move quickly and not get loaded down, besides the last thing he needed was to have a weapon that he had never fired go off by accident and either injure him or his new companion and give away their position.

Spending the next few hours going around, having to lay still and be quite as possible when a patrol was near, the two found themselves in a fairly large room that had large sections of pipes and conduits snaking in and out of the walls, ceiling, and floors. The room was fairly warm and slightly sticky, while not really uncomfortable; it was hard to see anything as only a few red lights placed around the room offered any illumination at all.

The Xeno rose up and stretched out, letting out a lengthy hiss, almost immediately he started to relax some, the air was warm, humid, comfortable, and deep down some long forgotten instinct rose up in the back of his mind and told him that this area was safe and the perfect spot for a nest, a hive. Looking around there was enough room to move around and to stretch out and even dark enough with plenty of cover to safely sleep, but not big enough for a hive of any kind, not that he could ever start one. Only a queen could do that, and that was something that they had never had, and for all he knew, something they never would.

Ryan looked around, reaching into one of his bags, he fumbled around until he found what he was looking for, pulling out a flashlight he hit the button a couple of times, the tube glowed softly lighting up the area enough for him to see. "I think that may be one of the sub-junction rooms, some of this looks like power cables, heating and cooling vents, hot and cold water as well as waste tubes." The ceiling looked to be around thirty feet tall, large pipes and conduits coming in and splitting off and running to other areas of the station. "But other than that I have no fucking clue as to where exactly we are at."

Sitting his bags down on the floor, Ryan leaned up against the steel bulkhead wall and slid down, "Well, guess I'm in all the way now, you know I almost didn't go through with this, came so close to backing down a few times, I don't know what kept me going and I honestly don't know if we are going to make it." Ryan said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Now that he had a chance to relax and maybe even rest some, the emotional high, the fear, terror, wounding if he was going to die earlier, all that tension finally started to drain away leaving him exhausted.

Sauntering over to where Ryan was sitting the Praetorian knelt down, leaned in and lightly pressed his forehead against Ryan's, startling the human slightly. He was grateful to this human for releasing him and helping him escape, he would now do what was necessary to protect him, he owed him that at least, for now, however, he could at least offer Ryan thanks for what he had done.

From spending time with the small warrior in the mental construct he had come to recognize this gesture as an act of thanks, a way to comfort, or sometimes it was both. Ryan was a bit taken back by the act, being in physical contact like this, it was a bit unnerving, not that he thought that the Xeno was going to kill him, it was just something he wasn't expecting. Looking up he could now see the all too human-like eyeless skull through the semi-transparent dome, it was something he had caught glimpses in the past but never long enough to really get a good look at, now he was getting a very up close and personal look.

"Ummm, you're welcome," Ryan said meekly, hoping that he had given the correct response.

Pulling back a bit, the Praetorian nodded slightly letting him know that it was. He sat there unmoving for a couple of minutes simply observing Ryan, the human was exhausted, as he had been through a flurry of strong emotions throughout this whole ordeal and it was no surprise that he was starting to nod off as the emotional tension was wearing off.

' _Sleep little one, you will need your rest, strength, and wits if we are to survive and have any chance to release my race.'_ And although he knew that Ryan could not hear him, at least not yet, maybe on some level the human might pick up on what he was thinking now that his mental shields were lowering as he began to slip away.

Moving away and sitting down, he figured that he would need to contact his brothers and sisters to let them know he was alive and for the time being safe. None of them had tried to contact him yet, he figured that they were scared that any sudden distractions might result in injury if he was in the middle of a battle with the human and synthetic warriors.

Opening his mental link to the others in the lab he was met with a barrage of concern and questions, all of them wanting to know what had happened, was he free, if so, where was he at, was he was alright, had he been injured.

He quieted their concerns letting them know that he was alright, and in hiding with the human Ryan, and his injuries were little more than scratches. He was however curious if anything was happening back in the lab now that he had escaped.

 _'More of the human and machine warriors are in here now all of them are heavily armed; a number of the scientists are very scared now, they seem to dislike the idea of you being on the loose.'_ The last reaming Praetorian in the lab said with a hint of amusement and satisfaction in his voice. _'Perhaps they are afraid of you doing something unpleasant to them.'_

 _'That thought has crossed my mind and now they have good reason to fear,'_ replied the large Praetorian to his brother, he looked over at Ryan who was now fast asleep, odd little noises came from him as he breathed in and out. As much as he wanted to go out and kill some of those in the lab, such reckless action would get them nowhere, he needed to be smart and stay out of sight and avoiding the patrols would a challenge, he had no disillusions that every human and synthetic warrior would out hunting for them and would not stop until he was captured or killed, which at this point was the more likely scenario.

 _'Was Ryan injured, how did he do?'_ The small warrior asked, worry laced her mental voice as she had grown very fond of Ryan since establishing the mental construct and being able to visit and get to know each other.

' _Exhausted from the stress but sleeping, for now, he was afraid the whole time but did what needed to be done, Ryan is a brave human, I hope that I can keep him from harm.'_ The fear that he had picked up from his sister seemed to drain as soon as she heard that Ryan was alright. _'I will need to scout and mark this area and become familiar with it, if anything of interest happens in the lab let me know right away.'_

 _'We will, good luck my brother.'_ The other Praetorian said.

Standing up, he walked toward the exit of the sub-junction room and into the labyrinth of inner hallways, tubes, pipes and shafts. Stopping at the doorway he took a look back at the sleeping human, he would not be gone any longer than a few hours. He doubted the patrols would be this far in so soon, and while Ryan might not have had good direction sense, thankfully he himself did, and he knew that they were far away from the room that he was freed from.

A few distractions might become necessary to keep the human warriors that would be searching for them away from the area, maybe a false nest or two could be set up to lead them in the wrong direction, or perhaps a sighting or several at the opposite side of the station, it was something that he would need to think on as he entered the inner workings of the station to scout around.

xxxxx

A warm breeze swept across the grass laden planes, the smell of sweet flowers, age-old trees, and clean water from a nearby lake filled his senses as he took a deep breath, for a brief second confusion entered his mind as he wondered where he was but was quickly dispelled as he remembered that he was now in the mental construct.

Looking around he didn't see the small warrior yet, normally she would either be there waiting for him or would show up shortly after he went to sleep. With no sight of her, Ryan sat down on the soft grass and waited, while he knew that this place was nothing more than an illusion, a fabrication of the mind, but it was a place that he had come to enjoy and even looked forward coming to.

Minutes passed by, then from what he could tell almost half an hour before he felt her presence as she arrived in the construct. Coming up next to him, she sat down, her tail coiling around his waist as she drew him in wrapping her arm around his shoulder. Ryan could tell she was tense, nervous even scared, reaching around he wrapped his arm and her backside as best as he could and pulled himself in as close as he could.

A stillness, taunt and silent, hung between the two, as if neither one knew what to communicate to the other, Ryan had plenty that he now wanted to say, he just couldn't come up with the words, more than anything he was afraid that whatever came to mind would be clumsy sound foolish at this point. Maybe just sitting here right now was all either one of them needed, for now, leaning over he rested his head on the side of her arm.

She let out a slight hiss letting him know that she was grateful for the act of comfort and appreciated all that he had done for her and her kind and that she would be forever grateful to him for what he was now doing.

While Ryan could not understand the words to what she had said, if there were indeed words, the feeling that was behind that small hiss had made it more than clear. "You're welcome," he said, looking at the natural landscape enjoying the company he was now with, wondering just how long he would be able to stay like this. Maybe minutes, maybe hours, he had a feeling that when it came down to it, he would be woken up either by the Praetorian or by guards that were searching for them. But for now, he just wanted to try and relax and spend some time with a being that he was coming to care for a great deal.

xxxxx

Moving silently, purposefully; methodically through the winding network of ducts, pipes, and conduits the large Praetorian continued to meticulous scout out the area mapping everything in his head, trying to gather as much information as he was able to. He had stopped by vent areas, listing to what the humans were saying as staying still when the search patrols came by. Many of the personnel were on edge now, not knowing if one of them was going to be attacked or abducted, already wild speculation of Ryan's disappearance was running rampant, most thought that the Praetorian had carried him off to kill and feast off of his body.

It would have been amusing if the rumors were not so wrongfully sad and misguided.

Continuing to move on he was going to search for another thirty minutes then head back to the sub-junction room when a voice caught his attention, it was a voice that he knew all too well, and one that he hated wholly, that voice, it brought up a deep seethed rage and hate, emotions that he was forced to hold tightly in check. Finding a grate to observe though, he saw who it was, while it was not Mason, the human was perhaps only second to the scientists that they all hated, while they could tell that something was very wrong with Mason as a human as he did not process or feel emotions as most normal humans did, however this particular human reveled in his races suffering, this human was known as Steffen to all his kind onboard.

How many times had he taken away their elder brother, only to violate, hurt, humiliate, even rape him over and over again, all the time laughing, taunting...mocking their brother while he relentlessly penetrated and forced himself inside the drone?

While he had told himself that he was not going to go to the labs to kill any of the scientists, he had not made any kind of promise that he wouldn't follow at least one certain scientist and deal with that piece of filth when no one was around. Resolving himself to this one task before heading back, he began to follow behind, while there were several times that the human scientist was alone in the hallways and it would have been an opportune time to plummet through the vents, grab the piece of filth and deal with him right there, however he wanted to take his time with this one.

Having to stop or slow down due to search patrols he never lost sight of his prey, his heart began to race with what was to come, after all this time all the hurt, the pain, being forced to watch his brothers and sisters writhe in agony and never being able to do anything about it, now he could at least prevent this piece of human garbage from ever hurting any of his kind ever again.

His human quarry went down several levels, taking him that much further away from the sub-junction room that Ryan was at; finally after more twists and turns the human scientist finally stopped and entered a large area with several rooms. Though the vents and grates he saw what looked, at least from what info he had picked up from Ryan and Elizabeth, like to be the resting area for the humans, their own personal hive or nest. He smiled to himself, this would be perfect, no one was around, they would not be interrupted, and he could make this piece of human filth suffer, at least for a little while.

He would wait for while to see what the human would do, maybe go to sleep, yes that would be perfect; unfortunately, his thoughts were interrupted as someone was pounding on the door. He could not see clearly but the human did walk to the door and let someone enter. Who it was he could not see just see yet. But the new voice was one of a human female, one that he did not know.

"Well I'm here, what do you want?" She said, displeasure lacing her voice.

"You know what I want."

"Alright, fine, but two stipulations, one it'll cost you extra."

"How much extra?"

"Two-hundred on top of what you're paying for."

"Two-hundred?" Steffen scoffed, almost laughing, "Lady you might act high class with those prices but trust me your not, one fifty."

"One-seventy-five then, and that's as low as I'll go considering what you're wanting and what you did to me last time, if you don't like it, go jerk yourself off in the bathroom or where ever it is you get off at."

"Fine, one-seventy-five, what's the second stipulation." He asked.

"That you lube up this time, last time you went in dry my ass hurt like a son of a bitch a few days, and I don't want to have that happen again."

"Your body, your problem, not mine."

"Fine, have fun by yourself then; I've got better things to do than let you fuck me dry again."

"Alight fine, shit, I'll lube up, anything else?"

"Yea, no ramming in either, go slow at least at first."

"Christ, next you're going to want flowers, chocolates, maybe I should break out a bottle of Champaign too and whisper sweet nothings into your ear."

"Personally I would settle for you not being a total fucking asshole all the goddamn time."

"Well, I am an ass-man as you know."

"Minus the man part."

"That's really cute and original, very funny, now get the fuck undressed so we can get this little transaction over, I've had a shit day and would at least like to blow off a little steam before trying to get some sleep." Steffen barked waling over to his bed, the human female in tow.

"Oh yeah, that's right, heard that one of your pets escaped, wandering around the station as we speak, rumor is that that tech guy, Ryan is it, that was his name, correct, either got nabbed or helped that alien of yours escape."

"Yea, and now our pod is on lockdown cause of that little, worthless shit-stain, isolated from the main hub and the other three pods, and sooner or later that big fucker is going to come out from somewhere nab someone and make Xeno chow out of them. Personally, I hope that it killed Ryan and is munching on his face right now, guy was always trying to coddle those ugly ass things, treated them as if they meant anything, and let me tell you those damn Xenos are nothing more than a bunch of dumbass animals and that's it. Personally, I hope Ryan got ripped apart, it's exactly what he deserved. Now, why don't you take off that jumpsuit, spread your legs and let me get down to business, the sooner we start the sooner we can finish up and I can get some sleep."

"You don't seem to be all that worried; you know something the rest of us don't?" She commented removing her maintenance suit, socks, and shoes, turning around, she placed her hands on the bed and leaned over. She was ready to have this done and over, she needed the cash but dealing with this ass-hat Steffen was going way over her tolerance level for dealing with B.S. and he had it in bucket loads.

"That Praetorians too big to be sneaking around in any of the vents or anything like that, so I'm not too worried about it coming crashing through the ceiling or anything like that, besides we have patrols around going around the clock, if it shows up we'll know. If it was a drone or warrior I might be worried, but like I said, it's way too big, hell it's probably stuck in some hatch or vent right now." He said, undressing and applying the lube to his rock hard member and coming up behind her, he grabbed her hips and positioned himself ready to enter.

"Hope you know what you're talking abou..." She cut off as pain ripped into her rectum, "FUCK YOU, I TOLD YOU NOT TO RAM IN LIKE THAT! THAT FUCKING HURTS." She screamed at him, gritting her teeth until the pain let up.

"Relax, you're getting paid, I'll even though in that extra twenty-five like you asked for." He grunted, his mind now in a full lust induced haze, speeding up and ramming in all the way, within a few minutes he speed up more, pumping as deep as he could go, climaxing and unloading inside of her. "Yea, that's much better." He said, yanking out; walking over and messing with a datapad on a counter. "Cash has been transferred, now time for you to go." He said, unaware that just above not more than a few meters away, everything that he had said and done had been carefully watched.

"Next time...there is no next time, you want to pull that crap get a fucking synthetic pleasure bot!" The lady berated him, putting her clothes on, "I told you not to go in like that, and now I'm bleeding out some."

"Like I said before, your body, your problem, you agreed to it and you got paid, so quit bitching about a little bit of blood and pain, you'll heal, so get over it and get out." He said walking to the restroom to clean himself.

"Fucking asshole," she muttered under her breath, as she finished getting dressed and stormed out.

Having witnessed the whole scene left the Praetorian with a sick feeling in the bottom of his stomach, this little display had only made the intense hatred he had for the human scientist Steffen burn that much more, not only had he repeatedly raped and violated one of his brothers, but he seemed to treat his own race with almost as much contempt and disdain as his own, seems that Mason had willingly picked the excrement of the human race to work for him. Anyone that he would have to kill he would normally try to make it as quick and painless as possible, this piece of garbage, however, he was going to make him suffer and take his time with.

Listening to what was going on within the small confines, he heard the sound of running water, the smell and feel of steam wafted into the area, the human was cleaning himself it seemed, good, it would give him time to see about making an opening. His claws gripped around the small holes in the grate, giving a slow but firm pull, it resisted at first, creaking and groaning as he pulled, a small popping sound came from the grate corners as the bolts flew out. Stopping, he listened, waiting for a reaction from Steffen, nothing ever came, the sound of water continued to flow as more steam came from the room the human was in.

Pulling some more, the grate gave and came detached, the hole was small but not so small that he would not be able to slip through when the time came. If the human Steffen truly believed that he was so big that he would be unable to traverse the maze of ducts and pipes then the human was about to be in for a very unpleasant surprise shortly.

Placing the grate back into place as the sound of flowing water stopped, he waited, a few minutes later Steffen walked out of the room drying himself off. Throwing the towel over the head rest of a chair, he plopped down into bed and covered himself up. "Computer lights out," he barked.

 _Yes, little filth, go to sleep, that human female will be the last one you hurt or breed with._ He thought bitterly to himself, listening to the breathing patterns of the human, gradually Steffen's breathing slowed down, noises similar to what Ryan was producing came from him only louder. Ever so slowly he lifted the grate up and placed it to the side, going in head first the Praetorian's body seemed to twist and contort, almost unnaturally so, allowing him to slip through the vent opening, his tail coiled around a nearby pipe for support, extending his arm out, his hand made contact with the floor, turning his body he seemed to almost flow out like a living mass of black liquid from the vent opening until his entire bulk was inside the room.

Slowly rising up, he turned toward the soft, comfortable bed that his human prey was laying on, completely oblivious to the deadly predator that was now in his room. Taking a few quiet, deliberate steps one at a time he was at the side of the bed, leaning over, he peeled his lips back, warm drool started to pool up and dripped down in wet clumps landing on the human's face.

Groaning and waving his hand around, half asleep, "What the hell…" Steffen moaned still partly asleep, another warm, wet drop of saliva landed on his forehead, irritating him even further, opening his eyes partly he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, though the room was almost completely dark now. "Computer lights," he said, as the lights came on, his eyes widened open to the gruesome, midnight, black toothy horror leaning right above him. He could have sworn that it was smiling right at him, oh god, it was smiling at him.

He was about to scream to alert the guards, to get someone in here right away, to save him, only as soon as he opened his mouth and started to breathe in, to yell out to someone that might or might not hear him, the Xeno's hand shot down grabbing his head, clamping tightly down on his mouth preventing him from screaming.

 _Go and bite down, please, you know what my blood can do to you,_ The Praetorian said, and while he knew that while the human couldn't hear his hive speech, it wasn't going to stop him from talking to this little worm. His smile became more twisted and demonic as Steffen started to try and struggle against the ironclad vice-like grip. _Yes, filth, struggle, try and break free, this is only the beginning, you will suffer, you will bleed and you will die, this is for what you did to my brother and all the others you hurt._

His hand moved up a few inches the Xeno clamped down even harder, Steffen found that he was now unable to breath, panic started to set in, all the time he had spent in the Xeno pens, laughing and mocking at their suffering and pain, everything that he had done to them, thinking that they were little more than dumb animals, his realization now came far too late. His eyes caught sight of the hole in the ceiling, right where the vent cover was supposed to be. Had it been there the whole time, listening to him, watching him, waiting for the right moment to strike, terror gripped his soul as an icy chill ran down his back as he now realized he was going to die, and not quickly either.

He tried to breathe, just a small bit of air, that's all he wanted, his chest ached, he tried so hard to suck in any air that he could, but nothing, as much as he could Steffen tried break free, hitting, pulling, his body thrashed around on the bed, screaming as loud as he could but to no use as his voice was muffled, in the end, nothing worked to free himself.

Hot pain ripped through his chest, his vision slowly faded as darkness close in. The last few seconds before darkness closed in, his eyes met the Praetorian, he saw the vague outline of the human skull through the semi-transparent dome, the eyeless sockets looking right down at him.

Steffen's body went limp, the human's heart was racing wildly and suddenly started to slow down, removing his hand, the human sucked in air, filling up his lungs. _No, no, no, little filth, you don't get to die so easily and not so quickly,_ the Praetorian thought to himself tilting his head ever so slightly, thinking of what to do. The human would be out for a few little while, hopefully just long enough to get him ready for the last few minutes of his miserable existence. Looking over to the hole in the ceiling an idea came to mind, while he could take the human and make him suffer for days...no even that was going too far, he wanted the human to be found, to send a message, and he knew now how to do it.

Grabbing the human's naked body and pulling the limp form out of the bed, along with a couple of sheets, it was time to get started, while he didn't have much time, he figured it should be enough.

xxxxx

Slowly opening his eyes Steffen wasn't sure if he had just had the worst nightmare possible, at least he hoped that's all it had been, the last thing he remembered was looking right into the dome of a Xeno, and not just any Xenomorph but the large Praetorian, it had its hand clamped over his face, not letting him breath, the only thing he remembered beyond that was pain and darkness and that was it.

He mentally chuckled to himself, there was no way it had been real, only a messed up nightmare, something from the previous day, only something was wrong, very wrong, he wasn't in bed, his head shot up and he looked around, he was still in his quarters, but he was restrained, tied up, hanging from the ceiling.

Looking right up, cloth bindings secured his hands together and formed a makeshift rope that looped over some pipes from the vent opening in the ceiling, not only that a tan substance covered the cloth and his hands. Immediately he recognized the substance, it was resin, Xeno resin, he went to yell but found that his mouth too was gagged; cloth and warm wet resin mixed together gaging his mouth shut. Looking around he found that his legs were spread apart and his feet up to his shins were encased in hard resin securing him to the floor, unable to move.

Turing his head as much as he could to look around, he didn't see the Xeno, maybe it was gone, maybe it had left him, maybe this was just a warning of some sort, if he got out of this he was going to find some way off this station and not look back. His mind still wasn't able to fully grip was had just happened, what he had witnessed and experienced, he had thought that the aliens were nothing more than dumb, mindless animals, running off of nothing more than raw animalistic instinct. This, however, was a slap in the face to everything that he knew. What had happened, what was happening, this wasn't the act of some mindless animal this was the act of a higher, intelligent creature and one that might very well be out for blood.

His mind started racing, going back over every act that he had commented against them, the tests, tortures, the one drone that he had had his way with so many times, the very first time he had gone through with that act, gassing the drone, transporting it down to a solitary area where only the two of them would be, restraining the helpless drone so it couldn't move, there had been such a heightened anticipation of what was to come, he had removed his clothing, kneeled behind the Xeno, that first time his heart had been racing, it was a taboo act at best, but a part of him wanted...needed to do this. He had rammed himself in, the tightness, the warmth, he repeatedly climaxing inside of the restrained drone over and over, gods it had been so wonderful, the feeling the power, of sheer bliss of it all, listening to that stupid alien howl in pain, screeching, screaming, trying everything to break free, finally giving up and only whimpering. It only made him want to fuck the creature even more, one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe and he was now making one of them his own personal fuck toy.

Steffens snapped out of this past thoughts as a low menacing hiss came from behind, warm breath washed over his shoulder, he turned his head to the left only to see the deadly toothed tongue right next to his face, pasty white, with thick saliva caked to it dripping off in globs. Reactively jerking away or trying to, he could only move so far as he was restrained. He heard a repeated shuddering hiss, for a moment, it almost sounded like, laugher, no that couldn't right, could it.

The looming, black skeletal figure walked in front of him, its tongue slowly retracted back into its mouth, saliva dripping off, clinging to the Xeno's chin then falling to the floor. Its lips were peeled back in full aggression, leaning forward, he found himself staring right into the toothed dome, just inches away, its mouth opened all the way and another low menacing hiss came out.

"Please, god no, please, please, please, doesn't do this, please." Steffen tried to beg; plead, but only muffled cries came out from the gag and nothing more.

 _Please, no, have mercy, don't do this. Is that what you are saying little filth, hmmm, did my own brother not ask you the same, begged, pleaded, cried out for you to stop, and what did you do, rape and fuck him,you laughed at him and you mock him, you showed no mercy or remorse to him at all. Do not expect me to show you any in return. I know you cannot understand what I am saying, you cannot hear our language, but you do know what is going to happen, you know you are going to die, you just don't know how._ The large Praetorian did regret that the human could not understand him in these final few moments, there would have been a great deal of satisfaction seeing the expression in his eyes of shock and disbelief knowing that what they considered a stupid and dumb animal was in fact far more intelligent than what they could ever realize. Bringing his hand up just below his own mouth, he extended his index finger up and placed in right on his lips, giving the human the "shush" sign, something he had seen many time before.

The black and deadly tail blade came around, snaking and coiling up like a serpent, Steffen' eyes grew wide as the color in his face turned a stark white. The blade made its way between and up the Praetorian's legs stopping at the groin and pointing right at him, slightly bobbing up and down, a deadly, phallic instrument ready to make its claim of human flesh. A slew of muffled cries erupted, cries for mercy for him not to do this, mercy for the Xeno to stop, fear took grip loosening up his bladder, as warm, yellow piss streamed out of him and pooled on the floor beneath.

 _Disgusting,_ the Xeno sneered at the lost of the human's bodily functions, _now you realize what is to come, you penetrated my brother, now I penetrate you._

Steffen's breathing quickened, as the Bladed tipped tail, slowly started to worm it's way toward him, reaching between his legs, the tail tip's edge rubbed up against his privates, sending him into a hysterical fit, tears ran down his face and he was close to hyperventilating. He looked up at the Xeno, looking right at the eyeless dome, even gagged he continued to beg, asked for mercy, pitiful sobs and high pitched whines escaped from him.

Perhaps, if it had been anyone else, he might have spared them or given them a quick death, but this one, this piece of filth, garbage, no, there would be no mercy, he had taken such pleasure in hurting his brothers and sisters, tormenting them, in any way he could, in that regard he was worse than Mason, at least with Mason, the man he did not feel, there was a reason to his madness an understanding to the way he was, but this human, no, he knew what he had done was wrong, sadistic, even evil, and he enjoyed it. While the Praetorian did not take much in the way of personal pleasure in doing this, satisfaction yes, but pleasure no, it was something that needed to be done.

Closing his eyes tightly, long sobs wracked him as he knew what was going to happen, he didn't see the tail blade point up, he didn't want to see it slowly inching its way toward his rectum, only when the blade came into contact with and slid between his checks the tip poking into his opening did he fully loose what little composure he had been holding onto. Screaming whatever he could, he prayed that this was just a bad dream, a nightmare that he was going to wake from any second, he prayed to whatever might be out there not to let him die like this, that he was sorry for all that he had done and he would be better, all he wanted to do was live and not be mutilated like this.

Whatever prayers he might have offered were met on deaf ears, the blade thrust up a couple of inches slicing into Steffen's anus, splitting it open. Howls of muffled agony ripped out of his lungs, his eyes teared up and started to become bloodshot, as his body jerked and spazzamed trying to escape the tight confines to get away from the agonizing black probe that was now inside him.

Pulling the blade out an inch, he waited for a few seconds, then with a second thrust he plunged it deeper into the human's body. More wails of pain, followed by choked sobs followed, he began to piston his tail blade, pulling out and then ramming in faster and deeper, going in an inch or two further with each thrust, cutting open his sphincter wider and wider each time, shredding the human's insides to bloody ribbons. Dark red blood gushed out, coating the floor, his gaze lock on the human, he could tell that Steffen was close to death, his heart rate was dropping and he was no longer screaming, he had not passed out just yet, but his eyes were dull and almost seemed to be sunken in.

Pity taking hold he decided to finally end it, pushing his tail blade deep inside Steffens body; the human jerked once and then finally went limp and lifeless. Pulling his tail blade out, blood combined with excrement poured out of the gaping cavity mixing with the human's piss from earlier as it pooled out and coved the floor in a vile mess, the lifeless corpse slowly swung back and forth ever so slightly, dull, lifeless eyes staring into nothing as small tricks of blood continued to run down from his nostrils.

While vengeance had been served, a part of him now wondered if he had crossed a line, that maybe he should not have gone as far as he had, maybe he should have just killed the human outright and been done with it. Regardless, however, this would send a strong message to those that had commented harm against his race and what would now happen to them all, he cleaned his tail off, wiping the blood and shit off on the bed sheets, now he needed to get back to his temporary hiding place and see if Ryan was still asleep and how he was doing, with a swift and effortless jump he disappeared back into the vents and was gone.


	26. Fallout

**A/N:** **So it's been a year since I started posting this story to Fan Fiction, and a little over a year since I first started writing it out. At first I thought that it would be a much smaller story, maybe 20 or so chapters at the most with maybe 150K words and that would be it. I honestly had no idea that this story would balloon out to what it has become, expanding character with developing new story acres for said characters that were only suppose to be in very briefly.**

 **Over all it's been a pretty good learning experience, I wanted to thank everyone that has taken time to sit down and read this story, comment on it, follow, fave it and so on. Needless to say there is a great deal left to tell and I hope that I can continue this story until its very ending.**

Chapter 25: Fallout

Cold silence permeated throughout the small living quarters, a few lone figures ever so slowly crept through the area, their vision shifted around the small space, each one waiting for something to jump out from the dark shadows, grab them and retreat leaving behind no trace that they had ever been there.

Keeping their weapons drawn, level and ready to fire, Commander Snyder, one of his Lieutenants along with several heavily armed guards, slowly swept through the living area of the now deceased Doctor Steffen. A small contingent of guards armed with heavy pulse rifles, flamethrowers, smart guns, and a few long range high power sniper rifles for good measure, stood outside of the now cordoned off area.

Steffen's body, still hanging in the spot that the Praetorian had left it, was a gruesome reminder of just what it was they were dealing with. Several months ago, five of the deadly creatures had escaped the lab, and left a bloody swath while trying to get off the station, it had taken an immense amount of concentrated firepower to bring down just one of the creatures, round after round had been fired and just seemed to bounce off of the creature's bony bio-mechanical exoskeleton, only the high powered stun rifles had slowed it down enough to place well-aimed kill shots with heavy weapons and even then it had fought to the bitter end killing several guards in the process.

And that had been a warrior, not a Praetorian. In truth Commander Snyder had no idea if they could or even had the capability to bring the Xeno down when they found it. The heavy combat androids were their best bet, the problem was if they blew it to pieces, depending on the location and area of the station, they ran the risk of having the acidic blood eat a hole right through the station's bulkhead, nothing said trouble like explosive decompression.

"Nothing on the motion tracker sir," one of the guards whispered, "you think that it's still in the area?"

"Probably not, but I don't want to take any chances," Snyder replied, "Lieutenant anything?"

Panning his pulse rifle in a slow motion around the room, Lieutenant Blare kept a lookout for anything that might not sit right in the shadows. "Negative, sir," he answered back, his voice was a forced calm, but tight with nervous tension. "Trackers are at full power and maximum range but outside our own group I'm not picking up a damn thing."

Carefully checking the other rooms, taking note of any of the vent covers and trying to stay away from them, Snyder called the area clear, that, however, did nothing to ease the tension of anyone in the area that had seen the grisly spectacle. "Doc, you're clear, get in here," Snyder ordered.

Walking in, carrying several shoulder strap bag, a middle-aged man, who on first glance might have looked he was in his upper fifties maybe sixties, most of his short black hair was now peppered with splotches of white and grey, along with a face that looked to have seen hard times, wrinkles mixed with several light scars were set within his face. "Alright Commander you wanted me here, what was so improta..." looking up at the remains of Doctor Steffen he stopped abruptly, "well, that explains that," He said wit out missing a beat, even the horrid sight of the man stung up did nothing to cause surprise at least not outwardly, a sign to most that he had seen a great deal in his life and most of it was probably not pleasant.

"Yea, Doc, I'm sure we can all agree what the cause of death is," Snyder said, looking at the bloody, shredded mess that was Steffen's lower reign.

Tilting his head down slightly, he gave Snyder a quick, disapproving look, "Commander If you don't mind, please let me make the decision on the cause of death, sometimes the obvious is not the actual cause."

"Well, far be it for me to step into your field of expertise," the Commander said, giving Doctor Lee Harper room to proceed with his examination of Steffen's body, "Just please be careful around that vent opening, I don't want any surprises jumping out."

"That my dear Commander is why you and your expertly trained troops are here, is it not, to deal with any sudden surprises, and to help answer any questions that I might have, like what the hell is this stuff that's on him?" The Doctor ran his fingers over the hardened, tan colored risen that anchored Steffen's feet to the floor.

"Resin from a Xenomorph," answered Lieutenant Blare, looking over Steffen's body, carefully observing how the Doctor body was displayed, the feet spread out and secured to the floor, the hands bound and tied, the way his body was hoisted into the air, the gag that was still stuffed in his mouth and finally how he had simply been left for anyone to find. "Supposedly they secrete it to form nests and bound prey or hosts."

Laying his bags down, Doctor Harper pulled out an aged medical scanner that had, like the man himself, seen far better days, spots were bent, cracked and what was left of the original paint job was either faded or chipped away, standing up, slowly and with great care he began to scan the body, "Well, it seems that someone opened Pandora's box, I'm guessing you boys don't quite know what you have on your hands here or am I mistaken?" He asked as he slowly circled the body, raising and lowered the scanner as he went. "Hate to say it...well, not really, but there are some things in the galaxy that we just were not meant to fuck around with, always poking our noses where we don't belong, acting like we can just take whatever we want, and rarely do we think about the consequences of our actions. And when something turns around and bites us in the ass, we cry foul, no fair, and act as if it wasn't our fault and feel we need to punish whatever it was that fought back, acting as if it didn't have the right to defend itself for one reason or another."

"Doc, I need answers, not a fucking lecture on the respective boundaries of our race...again, no offense, but now is not the time," Snyder stated sharply. "I've got a loose Xeno on my station, I got a lab tech that from the way it looks may have actually freed it, who also is missing, maybe he's dead and maybe he's not, I don't know, and now I've got a Doctor who strung up like livestock with his bowels shredded out. So, for the time being, can we just stick to dealing with..." Snyder gestured to the body, "...this."

"Sure," was Harper only answer, he continued to scrutinize over the remains, looking at the face, his own eyes looking right into Steffen still opened lifeless dull eyes, bloodshot and stating out into nothing. "Interesting..." He muttered to himself, taking a small flashlight out of his jacket pocket and shinning it at the area around Steffen's noise and the sides of his face.

"What's interesting?" Snyder asked.

"There is bruising along the noise area, and at the left and right sides of his face, looks consistent like hand and finger marks, except much bigger and more spaced out, also several small puncture wounds."

"Are you saying that it grabbed him and strung him up itself?" Lieutenant Blare asked not sure if he quite believed it, even though from what he was seeing all evidence pointed to the contrary.

"Well, he sure as shit didn't tie himself up that's for sure." Harper retorted back, looking down at the scanner, "what was his shift schedule?"

Looking at a data pad, Snyder scrolled through the shift logs. "He pulled second shift and that was the last time he was seen alive, had the next twenty four hours off; was scheduled to be back on second shift after that. When he didn't report for duty one of the lab techs with a guard stopped here by to check on him and found him like this.

"So roughly forty hours then, and according to the scanner he's been dead for almost that long give or take an hour, which means this happened shortly after he left the lab, and you were right about how he died, I'm picking up large amounts of an unknown DNA in what's left of his bowel cavity, Probably Xenomorph DNA if I were to analyze it and cross-reference with the labs computers."

"That's a shit way to go Doc," Lieutenant Blare said, looking more uncomfortable at the thought of what Steffen had experienced than the actual remains that were right in front of him.

"Trust me, kid, there are not many good ways to go," Harper commented, continuing to look over the body, "especially when it involves getting a sharp, long and very wide blade shoved up your ass. Poor bastard was awake too when it happened, felt everything, didn't last long thankfully, maybe a minute possibly two at the most, shock, trauma, blood loss would have taken its toll on him quickly. There is bruising and rope burns around his wrists, he was struggling to break free when it was happening. Looks like the blade or whatever the hell it was penetrated a little over two feet into him, odd though...according to the scanner most of the damage, however, is only about ten inches in."

"None of this seems right." Blare stated outright, "and I do mean none of it."

Looking up from the scanner, Harper locked his eyes with Lieutenant Blare for a few moments before returning down and taking a few notes on the scanner. "Okay Lieutenant, what doesn't seem right about this? Remember I'm not a Xeno expert in the least and have only heard bits and pieces about what they are, so please share your opinion."

"Well for starters Doc, those things are supposed to be little more than animals, running on raw aggressive instinct alone, incredibly hostile, killing anything on site that isn't one of their own, and now this." He waved his hand to Shaffer's body, "I would have expected a hole in his skull or in his chest and that would have been it, not to find him strung up to be tortured and slaughtered."

Harper looked at the Lieutenant Blare, "Like I said, I don't know a damn thing about Xenos, but let me ask you this," he said, looking at Blare, then nodding to Steffen, "what exactly do you see, and please do not say a dead stiff that's strung up, take a good look at what he went through, how he is displayed, look at how he is bound up, and tell me what do you see. Forget that a Xeno did this, take a step back and try to imagine what would cause someone to do something like this to a human being."

Blare stepped closer to the body, trying to figure out both the motive and the why, why of all the people on this station had the Praetorian choose Doctor Steffen and why kill him in such a horrible manner. Logic would have figured that the Xeno would have indiscriminately killed the first people it came across, starting with Ryan, yet nothing had happened...until now, this however almost seemed to be premeditated. And to his as well as Commander Snyder's knowledge, no one else was dead or had been reported missing.

The whole thing made Blares' head hurt, why the hell couldn't things be simple for once. Taking a few more moments to look at Steffen's body, he tried to put out of mind that a Xeno had in fact done this just to play along with Blair's game.

"I see an act of revenge, an act of hate and rage, not just some random act of violence or someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time, it wanted Steffen to suffer and suffer greatly, it was an act that was calculated and thought out, perhaps not meticulously, but some thought had gone into it. Maybe it wanted revenge for the way it and the others had been treated in the lab?"

Harper nodded, "I think that you're close, though an act of calculated revenge would require intelligence would it not. And according to you and apparently so many others, the Xenos are nothing more than mindless animals. My guess is that Steffen may have been in bed when that Xeno broke in, grabbed him by the face, possibly rendering him unconscious, then strung him up, secured and gagged him so no one could hear him cry out, and then once he woke up, your Xeno went to town, now please tell me does that sound like an animal running on instinct to you?

Snyder was silent during the whole conversation, as much as he had tried to ignore all the signs that he had seen, there was always something about the Xenos that unnerved him to the core, it wasn't just their appearance, it was the way that they looked at everyone, as if somehow they could see right into a person's core. The way the first five had broken out, the way they interacted with both Ryan and Elizabeth, the way the small warrior had held Elisabeth when she was injured and then thrown into the pod, the way it had reached out and touch Ryan's hand and not attacked, and now the actions of the Praetorian. Hell, it had almost ripped through the pod that it was in as soon as Elizabeth was attacked by Mason.

Although he kept quiet about it, he did agree with Doctor Harper, there were just some things in the Galaxy that should not be fucked with. Pity that those rich, arrogant investors didn't know better, if it had been up to both him and Director Collins, the Xeno project would have been closed down months ago. However it was not up to him, he was just hired to keep the peace and make sure things were running smoothly on the station.

Maybe, just maybe the Praetorian would come across Mason; internally he smiled at that thought, it would be an unfortunate accident, one that was beyond his control.

"Sir, what do you think about all this?" Blare asked the Commander, "You've seen what they can do and how they are."

Snyder looked at Steffen's body, he didn't say anything for a few moments, "What I think is irrelevant, we have a hostile alien on the loose and we need to contain and deal with it before anyone else winds up like this or worse. However, off the record...I think we made a huge fucking mistake, I don't think that we are dealing with an animal, I think that it's something far worse." Snyder said, looking right at Doc Harper, "Doc, finish taking your readings, then get your team in here and get his remains to the morgue. Lieutenant, pool together whoever you need to and find out if Steffen was in contact with anyone before he was killed and get me any records on if he was working with anyone or any group in particular."

"You think that it's going to go after more people?" The Lieutenant asked.

"If it is then we need to find out who they are and get them into protection." Snyder said, walking out of the room, "the last thing I want to do find more people strung up like Steffen, or explain why we couldn't stop a single Xenomoroh from slaughtering a bunch of people." Lieutenant Blare was right, none of this made any sense to him, this kill was deliberate, the Praetorian must have spotted dozens of personal before getting to Steffen, yet it left them alone, so why had Steffen been killed first and the way it had killed him too, he didn't have much doubt that it had been an act of revenge, he just didn't know for what. It would be interesting to see the reactions of the late Lance Steffen colleges when they found out. Maybe then he could get some answers.

xxxxx

Being in hiding and on the run didn't sit well with Ryan as he was finding out, he hadn't slept all that well since fleeing into the inner workings of the station with the Praetorian, thankfully the last couple of days had been quiet so far, no search teams had come to the sub-junction room...at least not yet, but both him and the Xeno knew that it was only a matter of time before search teams came into the area they were hiding in.

The Praetorian had come and gone a few times, being out for a couple of hours at a time, it worried him sick that the big guy might leave and not come back, not that there was anything he could do to stop him, but he still found himself worrying about it more than what he thought he should.

He had tried to keep himself busy going over the weapons that he had on hand, which included his own Glock pistol as well as the military model he had gotten from the android, the stun gun, and the ammo and energy clips.

The military grade Glock was a far more robust weapon than his own personal Glock, the barrel just over two inches longer, a better-textured grip on the handle and slightly better balanced it from what he could tell. The clips he had picked upheld an additional six more rounds than his own, a slight bonus, it also helped that in addition to jacketed round, there were also what he thought might be clips of armor piercing and explosive tips rounds. A part of him was starting to regret not grabbing all the ammo and energy packs from the four downed androids when he had a chance.

No, he needed to keep light and be able to move at a moment's notice, last thing they needed was to be bogged down by a bunch of excess weight, even if it was extra weapons and ammo, he just hoped that he wouldn't be put in a position to have to use them. When it came down to it, he didn't know if he could pull the trigger and take another person's life.

Separating and bundling the different ammo magazines together he hoped that it would help if he need to go after a certain ammo type instead of fumbling around and randomly grabbing a magazine and hoping that it worked.

Scrapping of something hard on metal echoed into the room, jerking his head to the sound, his heart skipped a beat, cold chills ran right down his spine, grabbing the stun gun he flipped the power button on, a low humming sound came from the weapon before a small green light indicated that it was ready to fire. Pointing it at the slightly opened door he waited to see who it was, a few seconds later the door was pushed opened, revealing the eyeless black domed head of the Praetorian. Lowering the weapon he let out a sigh of relief, facing a bunch of pissed off armed guards was not what he wanted to do right now, or ever.

Pushing on the door and slowly closing it shut, the Praetorian turned toward Ryan and quickly walked over to the sitting human towering over him. Ryan could tell that something was wrong, the Xeno didn't seem his usual calm self. His mannerism, the way he moved, even his posture was unusually tense. The Xeno pointed right at Ryan, then himself and finally up to the ceiling, as first Ryan didn't understand what he meant, only when the Xeno pointed to the door several times; then flexing his fingers up and down several times then pointed into the room, that Ryan's brain clicked.

They were about to have company.

Ryan didn't say a word, collecting his bags and slinging them across his shoulder, he quickly looked around seeing if there was anything that he had left on the floor, seeing as it was clear he looked up, wounding just how the hell he was going to make that climb. His questing was quickly answered as the Praetorian knelt down turning his back to the human.

"You want me to climb on your back?" Ryan couldn't believe this was happening, he was about to ride bareback on a Xeno, and get hauled up about thirty-five feet into the air.

Turning his head and giving a quick nod, the Praetorian gave Ryan a small hiss as if telling him to get on now. Not saying another word, just thinking about how completely insane this was, he climbed on the Xenos back, wrapping his legs around the base of the lower dorsal tubes and grabbing onto the upper tubes for support, he was about to say he was ready, but never had the chance as the Praetorian bolted forward, latching onto the thick pipes and conduits and hauling himself up.

Ryan almost lost it, his stomach felt like it had been left below on the floor, even after seeing how quick the Xeno was back at the containment room, he still had a hard time believing that something so big could be so fast, yet, here he was holding on for dear life as the massive alien effortlessly pulled, jumped and wormed it's way through the pipes and up to the top of the room, finding a couple of large outtake pipes to hide on top of.

"Crap, a little more warning their next time bud," Ryan said, wishing his stomach would stop turning over and over.

Turning his massive crested head, a rapped slurry of quite hisses escaped from the Xeno's maw.

Although Ryan couldn't see it, he had the impression that the Xeno was smiling at him, and had just, in fact, had a bit of fun at his own personal expense. _Well at least the big guy has a sense of humor to him,_ Ryan thought to himself peeking over and right then wished he hadn't, while thirty-five didn't sound like a long way down to him it was.

A lengthy metal creaking groan echoed throughout the room, both Ryan and the Xeno tensed up, slipping his hand into his lab coat, he brought out the electrical stun pistol, his thumb right over the activation switch, he wasn't sure how this was going to play out, but he had no desire to be a defenseless target.

Light from the shoulder mounted spotlights and handheld flashlights illuminated the area below, while Ryan couldn't see the exact number, it looked like it might have been around eight maybe ten in the party. Snyder wasn't taking chances and had search teams in full force, though, in this small of a room, he wasn't sure they could win if the Praetorian decided to attack, he could easily jump into the center of the party and do some heavy damage in just a few seconds.

"Anything on the motion sensors," Ryan picked up one of the men saying below, closing his eyes; Ryan tilted his head so he could hear better, maybe pick up whatever they were saying.

"Picked up something for a couple of seconds before we entered but nothing now, and I'm not seeing anything that looks like a nest. Could have been a rat, we get a few of them on the cargo transports every now and then."

"One of the teams found what looked like the start of a nest in the lower area of the pod, but no sign of that big thing."

"Shine your lights up there, and be on your guard, just in case."

Both Ryan and Xenos remained motionless as the floodlight bathed the area, moving shadows from the array of pipes and conduits dancing around on the ceiling and walls, with all the piping, low light levels and the height they were at it would have been almost impossible to see them clearly, the guards could have been looking right at them and probably would have never known it.

"I can't see shit up there, here let me try this...," the electrical crackling of stun rifles being discharged echoed throughout the room, bright blue light strobed, illuminating up the area, the scent of electrical ozone permeated the area, and white and blue sparks exploded everywhere. The Praetorian let a slight low hiss escape, one of clear annoyance, but stayed completely still as the electrical bolts hit below and around them, finally stopping.

"Well...anything at all?"

"I got nothing sir, no movement, not even a peep."

"Alright, one more look over and then we move on to the next area."

Ryan and the Praetorian kept still as possible and did not utter a sound, the men looked around for another few minutes before finally declaring the area clear and leaving. At first, Ryan thought that they would go back down immediately, but the Xeno stayed hidden in the pipes, his gaze fixated on the door. Ryan wasn't sure if he could sense something or if he was simply being cautious and waiting to make sure the search team was far away before going back down.

"Their moving quick, I didn't think that the search teams would have gotten to this area just yet. Guess the commander must have pulled as many guards as he could from the main hub and the other three pods, couldn't even tell if there were any synthetics mixed in with the group or not." Tucking the stun pistol back into his inner pocket, he tried to relax some, his heart was still beating quickly and this little scare had done nothing for his already frayed nerves.

It was, from what Ryan could tell, close to an hour before the Praetorian began to move and ever so slowly made his decent, even so, Ryan closed his eyes and just waited to be back on the floor, while he didn't actually have a fear of heights, it wasn't one of the favorite things, and riding on the back of a Xenomorph of all things, had not helped that minor disposition.

Unhooking his legs, he dropped off the Xeno's back, "Ok, that was close, hopefully, they won't be back in this area for a while." He whispered, "We need to think about how to get access to the main hub and get on board one of the freighters and get the hell off this station, if we stay here and we are dead. Maybe if we can get to one of the space doors I can get into a space suit and we can cross across the outer hull."

The Praetorian turned around and shook his crested head and let out a firm hiss, giving Ryan a definitive 'NO' that they were not going to be leaving.

All Ryan could do was stare right at the Praetorian's eyeless dome completely dumbfounded, his whole stomach knotted up right there almost to the point he wanted to just double over and throw up. The whole reason he had risked his life was to help this big sonofabitch not get killed and get off the station and now he was refusing to leave. Covering his face at first, he ran his hands through his hair his fingers clutching at gobs of hair in frustration, at that news all he wanted to do was crawl into a hole and just disappear, "you have got to be fucking kidding me, Jesus H Christ guy give me a break will ya, I just risked my life to free your ass so we could get as far off this station as possible and now you don't want to leave!" Ryan balked, not caring if the large Xenomorph took offense to his tone, "Please, tell me that this is some kind of joke, that you're just having a bit of fun at my expense…please."

Slowly he shook his head, giving Ryan the same answer as before, he felt awful for the small human, he had risked his life to free him, but despite that he could neither leave his brothers and sisters at Mason's mercy or lack of , nor could he leave Elizabeth behind to face her fate alone. He was grateful to Ryan for freeing him and would do all in his power to protect him, he owed him a debt and would stand with him now no matter what.

Pacing back and forth, Ryan was clearly frustrated, and with good reason, however what was the most frustrating thing about this who damn situation, was that despite the fact that the Praetorian could clearly understand him, Ryan however in no way could understand what the Praetorian was saying, to him it was all hisses, growls, shrieks, and other vocalization that he could not in any way interpret.

Communicating with the small warrior in the mental construct while they were sleeping had been challenging, but despite that there was a mental connection, no matter how diminutive it was, a connection was there and that in itself had at least allowed him to feel to some extent, her emotions, that and the way she had communicated to him was with visions that changed, forming a mental tapestry that she could help visualize to try and at least let him know what she and the others wanted.

But with the Praetorian, that connection was just not there, and right now communication was a must. "Alright, how about his," Ryan muttered out loud, still pacing back and forth, "we go old school on this problem."

The Praetorian tilted his head in curiosity, _old school, what in the name of the queen mother was old school,_ he wondered to himself watching Ryan.

"Here it is, since you can understand me but I can't understand you, I ask you a question, you raise one finger for a yes, and two fingers for a no, how's that sound, will that work?" Ryan asked stopping in front of the Xeno looking up at him, biting down on his lower lip hoping that this would work.

Nodding an affirmative, the Xeno raised one of its fingers as to give Ryan a definitive "yes" answer.

"Ok, good start then," Ryan said relived a little, at least he could try and get some answers, he just needed to ask the right questions, thankfully he had a good suspicion of why he did not want to leave just yet. "I'm guessing the reason you don't want to leave is because of the other Xenos, correct?"

One finger raised, _yes_.

"Do you want to try and free them and get them out of the labs?" Ryan asked, his stomach once again knotting up as he knew what the answer was going to be. He figured that there was no way the Praetorian was going to leave the other Xenos in that place if he could help it.

One finger, _yes._

"Is that the only reason you don't want to leave?"

Two fingers, _no._

Ryan thought on that for a minute, then it hit him, other than his fellow Xenos, there was only one other reason he might want to stay. "Is it Elizabeth, is that why you want to stay?" He asked, Ryan had noticed that the Praetorian had always seemed curious almost enamored with Elizabeth since day one. To say nothing of what had happened when Mason had attacked and tried to kill Elizabeth, that act alone had said it all.

The Praetorian lifted up one finger in response to the question, _yes._

Ryan only nodded at the answer, "Well, can't say I blame you for your reasoning, but we have a couple of rather large problems then, one being is that Elizabeth is in the main hub and still in ICU, we can't really get to her much less move her and if we do, we could hurt her more than what she already is. The other problem is that if we somehow free the other Xenos, then Commander Snyder will more than likely jettison this pod to save the rest of the station and with all hands on board too. Now the plus side is that this unit can act as a lifeboat for a long time, years in fact, depending on how many are on board and what the food and water rations are like, but I don't fancy the idea of floating around at the mercy of others. He might just use one of the corvettes stationed here or a heavy drops ship to launch a small nuke and vaporize the pod."

Ryan just shook his head and sat down on the cold steel floor, his back up against the wall, "You know this was supposed to be simple, get you out; board a ship and then leave, and now you just had to go and make it complicated, and the bitch of it is, no matter how much I want to argue the point with you I can't. And to be honest with you, other than hiding, I have no idea on what to do, I really don't, and I'm sorry for that, guess I should have thought this through a little better."

Taking a single stride up to Ryan, the Praetorian squatted down and playfully ruffled Ryan's hair with his massive hand. To him, it seemed a way to help ease the tension a little, and Ryan's hair felt nice to his touch, warm and soft.

Ryan smiled a little bit at the odd act, he honestly never thought that a Xeno would be playing with his hair like that or so freely touching him. Reaching up he touched the side of the Praetorian's domed head, it was warm, the skin if that was what he could call it was softer than he thought it would be, it reminded him of smooth, slick and moist leather in a weird way. Unexpectedly the Praetorian pressed his head forward, startling Ryan a little, the last thing he had expected was the Xeno to get into this so quickly. "Guess you like that huh, big guy?"

Raising up a single finger the Praetorian gave Ryan an answer he already knew.

"You want me to continue?"

Lying down on the floor, with his arms crisscrossed, the Praetorian leaned forward some and let out a small hiss telling Ryan that he would like him to continue. Physical contact was an important aspect of their race and it was something that had always been lacking in the labs, at least the positive kind of contact, stun sticks, rifles, grenades, being exposed to extreme heat and cold, vacuum and torture, in general, did not count as positive contact as far as any of them were concerned. This, however, this was very pleasant, possibly the first time that anyone had physically touched him in any way that was enjoyable.

"Well...what the hell," muttered Ryan to himself, running his hand along the smooth part of the dome, his fingertips bruising along the rough edges of the crest, a deep rumbling sound came from the Xeno as the heavy set deadly tail started to ever so slowly sweep across the metal floor. To Ryan, it sounded like a cat purring almost only much deeper and far more powerful. _A cat, right Ryan, sure,_ he thought to himself, only this cat was almost ten feet tall, chitin covered, and could not doubt go toe to toe with an entire squad of heavily armed guards and more than likely come out on top. And yet here he was, with its head almost laying right in his lap, enjoying a good rubbing, _more like a dog...yea, a really big scary alien dog._

Ryan just had to laugh a little at the scene; he was positive that it looked completely absurd, a Praetorian lying on the floor, arms crossed with its head almost resting in his lap, enjoying head rubs and scratches. He had no doubt that if Mason were to ever see this, the man's brain would have no doubt imploded in on itself, not that that would have been a bad thing. He just wasn't sure how he would ever explain it.

Even within those few moments of physical contact, he could tell the Praetorian was already starting to relax some, his breathing had slowed, and his posture was no longer as rigid as it had been, he even found himself starting to relax a little as his hand glided across the smooth eyeless domed head. Maybe he could figure a way out of their predicament, the Praetorian wasn't going to leave without the other Xenos or Elizabeth for that matter and that would mean freeing them and that would no doubt result in a massacre in the lab, blood that would be on his hands from his actions.

"Mind if I ask you something else?"

Lifting his head up and looking Ryan right in the eyes, the Xeno tilted his head slightly, curious as to what Ryan was going to ask him.

"I know you want to go back to the lab and free the others, I also know that if we do that, there will be a lot of deaths, mostly my people getting torn to pieces. I understand why you and the others hate most of the people that work in there, and I can't fault you for that. I know that you and the others of your kind have every reason to want them dead, but it's not going to change anything that's already happened. And I'm just wondering if it might be possible in any way to avoid a bloodbath?" And there it was, the question that had been hanging in the back of his mind, while he didn't care for most of the personnel in the lab, he didn't hate them enough to sit by and watch them get ripped and torn apart. "I know I can't stop you, but I would ask you if there might be another way, something else you might consider if it would work."

Looking at Ryan for a bit, the Praetorian tuned his gaze down to the floor, mulling over what Ryan had asked, there were a lot of those scientist that they would all like to punish, to hurt and yes, even to kill, very slowly. It wouldn't undo anything in the past, Ryan was right about that, but a part of him couldn't let go of what they all had gone through.

And yet, Ryan was asking him to find a different path, one that would avoid spilling blood, or maybe not as much of it. Why was it that with humans nothing was ever simple, it probably had not helped that he himself had put in a not so minor kink in Ryan's plan to get him off the station and too safely, he guessed that it was only fair that Ryan asked something of him in turn. But still, the pain and humiliation that they had all had to endure, it was something that was not easily forgotten about, much less forgiven.

Lowering his head down some, he raised his hand along with a single finger a moment later. Ryan seemed relieved, right until a few seconds later both fingers were raised.

Blinking a couple of times, Ryan turned his head slightly, not entirely sure what kind of answer he had just gotten, and there it was again that damn language barrier. "Yes...no...You don't know, is that it, you don't know?"

Nodding an affirmative, the Praetorian raised one finger.

"Fair enough, figured that it couldn't hurt to ask," He replied, continuing to gently rub his hand along the Praetorian's dome, closing his eyes he tried to relax some, while he wasn't sleepy, he was tired, tired of this place, tired of the oppressive weight that seemed to bear down on everyone all the time, tired of have to put up with the constant guilt of what was happening around him and not being able to do anything about it and no one seeming to care.

Looking over at the closed door, he wondered how long they would have until another patrol checked out this room again, days maybe a week. Hopefully, by then, they both could figure something out, for the meantime all they would have to do is stay quiet, hidden and not do anything to draw attention to themselves.

xxxxx

Pressing her thumb down hard and rubbing it repeatedly on the side of her index finger, Maintenance Tech Janet Farish sat across from Commander Snyder in a small twelve by twelve foot room that was more akin to a metal box that an actual room. The cool gunmetal gray wall gave the room a cold, uncomfortable and uninviting presence, a few overhead lights shined down on them, though the lights did nothing to give any kind of warmth, if anything it made the room even more hard and oppressive. Nor did it help that in each corner of the room a camera looked down on them with unblinking glass eyes, each one focused right in on them.

She was thankful though that she was not the only one in the room with the station commander, a young science tech sat right next to her, Edward Taylor, she recognized him as being one of the newer techs from the Xeno lab, but other than that she knew nothing about him. She and obviously Commander Snyder could see that he was nervous, perhaps scared as his legs kept quickly shaking back and forth. Why the two of them had been brought in under armed guard, she didn't know, but something was up and the sour disposition on the Commander's face told her that whatever it was, it was none too pleasant.

"I going to be as straightforward about this as I can, so no bullshit and no games from either one of you, because to be quite frank I neither have the time nor the patience for it. So I'm going to come out and say it, Doctor Steffen is dead, we found him in his quarters." Snyder said, his tone flat and direct, he kept looking between the two of them, Edward seemed shocked by the news, but there was also something else in there, it seemed to be a look of relief almost.

Snyder noticed that Janet, on the other hand, was scared now, her eyes widened up at the news, and her breathing quickened, as her fists balled up and she began to rub the flat of her thumbs on her tightened index fingers.

 _Interesting_ , Snyder thought as he reached in his lap and placed a data tablet on the table. "Don't worry, we know neither one of you killed him, however, your reactions are rather unusual." Snyder activated the tablet, taped the screen several times and placed it on the table for both of them to see. "That escaped Praetorian Xenomorphic killed him, in fact, according to Doctor Harper, he was killed shortly after his shift was over." Snyder looked right at Janet, "Now I doubt that either of you had anything to contribute to his death, however Miss Farish, according to our records, Steffen did contact you shortly before his shift was over, and we did trace a transfer of funds from his account to yours, four-hundred credits in fact. Now I get the Xeno killing people, but what I can figure out is why it killed Steffen the way it did. Or why Steffen contacted you and why he transferred funds to your account shortly before his death."

Images of Steffen hanging in his room flashed on the screen of the tablet, both Janet and Edward had to look away at the horrific images that were running by.

"Shit," Edward said, covering his face for a moment, before looking back at the screen.

"Yea...Shit," Snyder said, "Everything indicated he was dragged out of bed, strung up, and then that Xeno proceeded to ram its tail blade up his ass, while he was both alive and awake, almost as if it was an act of revenge. And just so we're clear on this, he didn't die right away either, according to Doctor Harper, Steffen was alive for probably a good minute or two, so it didn't seem to want to kill him right away."

At hearing that, Edward froze up, his eyes widened slightly as he slowly looked right up at the commander.

Something that Snyder took full notice of.

"So Miss Farish, since you were the last person to see him alive, would you mind telling me what was going on between you two and if maybe you heard or saw anything." The commander said, his eyes locked right on Edward, the lab tech knew something by his reaction, but he wanted to hear what Janet had to say first.

"I didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary, not a Xenomorph, nothing. However, when it came to Doctor Steffen, we had an arrangement that started a month ago." She said as she looked down at the table, she took several deep breaths as if she was preparing herself for something.

"What was it, this arrangement?" asked Snyder.

"Steffen found out that I was needing some extra income, this job pays well and all, but it's not enough, I try to transfer what I can to go back home to take care of my kids, but it's just not enough, he offered to pay me for..." Janet paused for a moment, she glanced up at one of the cameras, as if trying to gather herself, "companionship," She finally let out.

"You two were having sex, and he was paying you for it?" Snyder asked, he knew that this was a breach in the regs, but at this point he honestly did not care.

"Yea, four times, the last time being as you said, just before he died, though the money it wasn't worth it, he liked to inflict pain on me." She muttered, closing her eyes.

"How so?"

Janet didn't answer right away, it was hard to admit to what amounted as selling oneself out as a whore to some piece of garbage for a few extra credits, "He liked to go anal," she blurted out, "he liked it dry and he liked it when it hurt. Last time I told him to lube up, which he did, but he still managed to hurt me, so after that, I told him it was over and that was it, I walked out. I was only there at his place a few minutes, I know that it doesn't matter, but that's it, I didn't see or hear anything."

Snyder was silent for a bit, and then nodded, "You broke some regs, but I don't care about that right now, we can work on taking care of that later on, I'm not really looking to bust someone for trying to get a few extra credits back home to their family."

Slumping back in the chair, Janet let out a sigh of relief, she needed this job, and badly, it was the only good thing that she had been able to land, and she didn't want to wind up begging for scraps again. "Thank you," she said, trying to hold back from breaking down.

Nodding at her, Snyder then turned to look at Edward, "You, on the other hand, do know something, that look you had when I described what had happened, you look like you had just seen death itself. And I want to know what it is. I know that you were the last member to be put into Steffen's team, and that he had contacted you many times before that. So do us all a favor and start talking."

Edward almost deflated in front of Snyder and Janet, this was it, he was going to have to face everything that he had seen and kept quiet about, maybe it was for the better. "You remember the Xenos that got loose?" He asked, knowing full well that there was no way anyone who had been there could ever forget that or the aftermath.

"How in the hell could I forget, we lost a lot of people that day," Snyder replied back, the sight of all those bodies were still fresh in his mind even months later.

"One of the drones that did manage to escape, subject zero-one, the one that Mason loved to work over all the time, well let me say that Mason wasn't the only one that seemed to want to inflict pain on it," Edward stated flat out.

"Go on," Snyder said.

"Steffen and five others from the lab, two of them assistant doctors, the other three were lab techs, they would gas the drone, secure it and take it below to a secure area while Mason wasn't around," at that point Edward wasn't sure how to phrase what he had seen, so he just came out and said it, "they would each take turns fucking it."

Snyder leaned back in his chair, his mouth open, of all the things that he had expected to hear this was pretty much the last thing. "What?" He finally managed to ask?

"I said they would take turns fucking it, they had it strapped down, muzzled, its tail secure, it could barely move at all, at that point, usually starting with Steffen they would start to fuck it and as soon as one of them finished up someone else would start in on it. It was in agony, screaming, hissing, trying to break free, it...it made me sick to my stomach to see it, just the way they were treating it was appalling, I get how dangerous those things are, I do, but this was horrendous. All of them were enjoying it, laughing; joking about it, hell they were even ramming electrical prods up inside it, even hitting or whipping it over and over."

Nothing came to mind as his brain was having a hard time process this info, Snyder opened his mouth to say something several times, but nothing came out. Though after hearing this news it explained why the Praetorian had come after Steffen. "HOW... how the hell did this happen? Why didn't' you report this to someone, you should have come to me and told me this was happening, why didn't you?" Snyder was reeling from the news still; at this point, he wasn't sure who he should be angrier at, Steffen, and his crew or Edward for keeping silent unless the little shit was in on the action as well.

"With all due respect sir," Edward began, his voice oddly low and calm, "no one is really afraid of you, many respect you, but they are not afraid of you, you're not going to go and space someone or feed them to a pissed off Xeno, or worse, Mason and Steffen would, but not you. When Steffen tried to bring me in on his little group, I saw firsthand what they all had become, cruel, spiteful, torturing something simply because they could. And when I declined to be in Steffen's little Xeno fuck group, he told me flat out that if I ever said anything to anyone, he would find a way to kill me and everyone I knew, and after seeing the way he treated that Xeno I had no doubt that he would make good on that threat, so I kept quiet and didn't say a word, always afraid that one day I would wake up and find myself in an airlock or a cage with a Xeno just ready to tear into me."

Janet had remained silent the whole time, just staring down at the table, Snyder's mind wasn't the only one that was reeling from the news, her brain was in a mental whirlwind as her heart began to race and her breathing became quick, what if she had picked up some contamination from Steffen, what if she was infected by some weird alien disease that he had passed along. "You're telling us that that piece of shit was fucking a Xeno up the ass, please for god sake tell me he was wearing protection of some kind." She pleaded, her mind going through a list of the worse possibilities now.

"No, I'm afraid not, they were bare-backing it the whole time, all of them."

Panic...fear... anxiety, everything started to grip her, a cold pit formed in her stomach that ran up and down her body, this couldn't be happening, not like this. "Crap, crap, crap...oh god," it was bad enough that she had sold herself out to that piece of garbage, but to find this out, that he had been raping a Xenomoph and had not even hinted to her about it in any way. "I need to see a Doctor," she said, as the panic in her voice rose, "what if he was infected with something and I caught it."

"I'll have Doctor Harper run a full examination on you, if you did pick up something we'll find out and take care of it," Snyder said, motioning to one of the cameras.

"And what if it's something that can't be detected; what if I'm infected with something and there's no cure, what if I die or something worse happens." Clutching her hands, she closed her eyes as tears ran down the side of her face, she wanted to run, hide, tell herself it wasn't real, this had to be a bad joke or a dream. Taking in deep breaths Janet grabbed her chest, she could have sworn her heart weighed a ton and was going to drop any minute. "Please tell me this isn't' happening."

"Listen to me, Doctor Harper is one of the best medical practitioners we have, if you picked up anything from Steffen he'll find it, don't jump to conclusions or put yourself into a panic, it won't help and in the end, it'll only wear you out. I understand why you are scared, but working yourself up like this won't help at all. Now I'm going to have Lieutenant Blare and a couple of guards escort you over to Harpers, where he can give you a full examination, if you did have anything at least we'll know and we can work on curing it." Snyder said, a few seconds later one of the guards opened the door and walked in.

"Thank you, Commander, I'm sorry for this, I really am; I know I messed up, I know I was breaking regs, but...I'm sorry." Janet stammered, trying to calm herself down , as much as she wanted to break down she had to keep it together.

Snyder nodded, "We'll talk about that later on when this is cleared up, but for now get over to Harpers and get yourself checked out, I'll inform him here shortly." Looking up over at the guard that had entered, "Have Lieutenant Blare and a couple of armed guards escort Ms. Farish over to Doctor Harper's office," instructed Snyder as he glanced over to Edward.

"Yes sir," the guard responded, saluting the Commander, then turned to face Janet, "Ma'am, if you would follow me please we'll get you taken care of."

Nodding, Janet picked herself up and followed the guard out the door. As the door closed, Snyder picked up his pad and started to type on it, a few minutes later he put the pad down and looked right at Edward.

"Alright Mister Taylor, since it's just the two of us now, I'm hoping that you are willing to corporate with me on this. I get why you were scared, but Mason is going to be under guard for as long as I can help it and Steffen is no longer with us, so I want something from you." Snyder said, putting his hands down on the table, "you help me on this and I'll see about keeping you safe from any blow-back that may come your way, if not, then you'll be fending for yourself."

"What exactly do you want from me?" Edward stammered some, not liking how this was playing out one damn bit.

"What I want, is this, I want the names of those other five motherfuckers that were involved with Steffen in this, that's all you have to give me. But let me tell you this, if you lie to me, or I find out that you were involved beyond what you just told me, I'll do something far worse than space you or let a Xeno take you out, I'll not only inform Director Collins but I'll also inform the investors of this group's little sideshow and name you as one of the participants, they can then decide your fate, which I can only assume would be rather nasty and slow. Now if you're on the up and up with me then you have nothing to worry about." Snyder pushed the table toward Edward, "now, how about you tell me who the others five are."

Not wasting a single second, Edward snatched the tablet and frantically started typing onto it right away, he hadn't really ever been afraid of Snyder, not until now. If the Director or god forbid the investors of this Xeno project ever got wind of what had happened, he doubted they would care who was made a scapegoat just as long as an example was made. And as far as he was concerned that was not going to be him, he had only seen what had happened once and that had been more than enough. Steffen and the others had made their choice and now as far as he was concerned it was time for them to pay the piper.

"If I may ask sir, what are you going to do with them? I mean I doubt that you can physically prove they did anything, the room they were in didn't have any cameras and if it did I doubt they were on." Edward said, laying the pad down on the table and sliding it over to the Commander, "that's all five of the names, like I said, I was only there the one time and didn't want anything to do with what they were doing to that Xeno."

"Fear works very fairly well when used properly," Snyder said, picking up the tablet and looking at the list of the five names. "Let me ask you this, what do you think they will do or say when I show them what is left of the late Doctor Steffen, or how he was killed. I would bet the notion of being suddenly roomed at the lower part of the pod with no guards around to protect them would motivate them to help out, don't you think?"

Edward shrugged slightly, it seemed that the walls were getting closer and closer, closing his eyes he took several deep breaths trying to calm his tattered nerves. "I think that they are going to shit themselves when you do your show and tell and they will do whatever it takes to stay alive and out of trouble."

"They are already in trouble, they just don't know it yet, as for staying alive, well that's entirely dependent on how well they cooperate with me. As for what I'm going do with them, let's just say that as of now they have been delegated to the rank of bait." Snyder said, standing up.

Looking up at the Commander, he couldn't quite believe what he had just heard. "You're going to use them to try and capture that Xeno?" Edward asked.

"Like I said son, bait."


	27. Disturbing Revelations

Chapter 26: Disturbing Revelations

xxxxx

Small brown eyes that had seen far too much, held back a torrent of tears. The tiny dirt-smudged faced that was bruised and bloodied also had deep dark bruises along a well-defined neck with strands of clumped wet hair that hung down across the dirty face. The face that was both a total stranger but yet somehow familiar. It continued to stare back at her as she stared at the mirror, small lips, thin and split open started to move and began to speak to her.

" _Should have died like you were supposed to, you were never wanted, would have been better that way."_

 _"You're an inconvenience, a mistake that should have never happened."_

 _"You're nothing more than the daughter of a whore, you're less than nothing."_

 _"You should have had the good sense to kill yourself like you were supposed to, such a disappointment."_

 _"Do us all a favor and die."_

Amy could only stare back at the young image in the mirror, she blinked as tears unknowingly tricked down her face, nothing made sense anymore, not what she saw and for just a brief second, she wondered where she was. This wasn't home, nicer than home though, warmer, clean...safe.

And just as quickly as it had come, it passed, as she now remembered where she was.

Her heart pounded away in her chest, she tried to breathe and found she was having a hard time drawing in any air at all. So many voices, at first they had been nothing more than small whispers in the back of her mind. And now like the child that now stared back at her, they were somehow all too familiar, she knew that face, those voices, but she had no idea of where.

The small childlike face in the mirror smiled, the tips of her mouth stretching farther than what should have been humanly possible. The smile twisted, warped, and malicious. " _Fucking do us all a favor and die like you were supposed to all those years ago,"_ the image sneered at her.

Closing her eyes, she turned away, she didn't know just how long she had been standing there, but it was too long as far as she was now concerned.

" _DON'T TURN YOU BACK ON ME YOU WORTHLESS, LITTLE CUNT!"_ The voice cleaved into her mind. It was no longer the small childlike voice that had been berating her only seconds ago. This was an older man's voice, much older, creaking and splitting with age like old leather being twisted around and around far too many times, filled with venom, anger, hateful rage, all directed right at her.

Amy whipped around wide-eyed and froze, that voice, just for a split second she recognized it, she knew it, gut-wrenching fear and panic filled her. All she could see was a pair of wrinkled, chapped; aged hands going right for her neck, finger gripping around her neck and squeezing, long fingernails digging into her flesh. She tried to breathe, tried to scream for help, cold water fill her lungs as the cruel fingers squeezed harder onto her neck. Looking up, aged old squinty eyes, cold and accusing, glared down at her through inches of water. She thrashed around wildly trying to break free, her hands swinging out her own fingers hitting something soft, latching on, squeezing hard and yanked. Howls of pain and cursing echoed, even though the layer of cold water she knew that she had caused him harm, injuring him.

Good.

She was yanked out from the water and thrown across a room into a cold metal wall. She dared to look at who it had been, an elderly man's face was coated with blood, an eye missing, who was no longer hollering in pain. Breathing heavily, holding that pain in, he walked over to where she lay, silver engraved walking cane in hand. Blood covered the once pristine, white hospital gown that she had been forced to wear was now tattered, torn and covered with dirt and filth from an age of neglect. Opening her hand slightly, she saw it was red with wet blood; she stared back with hate and rage at the old bastard's eye that she now held in her hand.

She counted the footsteps and waited, and like so many times before she curled up and prepared herself, she caught the glint of silver as it was raised into the air.

A voice echoed faintly in the back of her mind, warm and sad, a voice that she had trusted and had once been a source of welcoming warmth somewhere, now for whatever reason it only held bitter betrayal for her, if only she could remember. " _I'm sorry sweetheart; I truly am...please forgive me for all that has happened to you."_

And like so many time before, she screamed in pain as the silver cane was repeatedly brought down.

xxxxx

"Stop doing that."

 _'Do what? I am doing nothing, my love.'_

Shawn cracked an eyelid open, looking up at his Praetorian mate, "You've been staring at me for a while now." He whispered in a soft tone trying not to wake up Ghost who was spooning up against his back and had their human in a tight embrace.

 _'I am simply admiring beauty,'_ Shadow quietly replied back on a private link, reaching out he affectionately gliding the back of his fingers along the side of Shawn's face.

Reaching up, Shawn gripped Shadow's hand, their fingers interlocking, "Something is bothering you isn't it?" He said, the link they all shared was a two-way bridge and left very little between any of them private or secret. Shawn was picking up more than just a hint of worry from Shadow's mind, not necessarily fear, but something was on his mind and bothering him.

 _'It is nothing, I just like to watch you sleep, you seem so peaceful and calm when you do, no more nightmares, or not as many as you use to have.'_

Smiling, Shawn rubbed the tips of his fingers along the back of Shadow's hand, "I have all three of you to thank for that, but I know that something is bothering you. Are you afraid that we won't make it?" Asked Shawn, it was a legitimate question as he had the same fears as well, what the four of them were going to do was paramount to suicide. They only had a few elements on their side, surprise being the main one, and there was no guarantee that that advantage would last very long once they got on board. And as much as they had been training, it simply did not feel like it was going to be enough.

He had been going over as much of the ship's functions with the three Xenos as he could manage, even though they had a hard time seeing what was on the screens, they could still work the consuls in CIC, even if it was from memory. All three of them had picked up quickly on the control panels in the hangers, airlocks as well as many other rooms on the ship. As long as it didn't involve looking at a bunch of screens they seemed to be able to operate certain functions within the ship just fine.

Something he should have started with them weeks ago, but time just seemed to slip away so damn quickly. So much to do and not enough time, it seemed to be the story of their lives right now.

Shadow stayed silent for a while, just looking at Shawn and Ghost, Alese had been feeling a bit restless and had decided to try to swim it off, leaving the three of them alone for a bit. _'If something happens,'_ he started, _'if we are captured or killed, I just want as many perfect moments to carry with me, something to hold onto until the end.'_

Shawn couldn't argue with what Shadow was saying, he knew all too well what kind of danger they were walking into, training or not, it was going to be a shit storm regardless. But hearing what Shadow was saying, that really did hit close to home, it left him with a nauseating pit of nerves in his stomach, just the thought of losing any of them made him sick.

"Tell you what, we, and by we, I mean all of us, make a promise to each other. We all protect each other, we watch each other's backs, we don't lose, we get in there, rescue them and get out, simple as that, no heroics, no brave last stands, no foolish and stupid acts." Shawn said, breaking his grip, reaching up; stroked the side of Shadow's face.

Nodding, _'I promise,'_ Shadow said, _'we watch and protect each other's backs, no foolish actions.'_ It was something that they would have done regardless, no question to that, but somehow a promise, even if it was one that they all knew could not realistically hold to, made this daunting task seem just a bit more bearable.

"Now, why don't you come in and cuddle some let me add something to one of your memories."

Not wasting any time at their human's suggestion, Shadow slid up to Shawn, coiling himself as best he could, the front of his head nestled in comfortably in the notch around Shawn's neck and shoulder area.

Seemingly to sense that Shadow was lying down to go to sleep, Ghost shifted slightly some, his tail coiling around Shadow's own tail almost in an automatic reflex action.

"So you really think I'm beautiful?" Shawn asked meekly, almost embarrassed to ask, the last thing he ever thought of himself was hansom much less beautiful, the vast amount of scars he carried and even with the weight he had lost since coming aboard, he still carried a visible gut, however his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had decided to ask.

 _'Yes,'_ Shadow answered, slightly nuzzling Shawn's neck, _'always.'_

"You are beautiful too, all of you," Shawn said, reaching up, gently caressing the side of Shadow's dome his hand running down to the Xeno's neck and then side, resulting in a deep rumbling from the Praetorian's chest.

 _'That feels nice,'_ Shadow muttered, placing his hand on Shawn's side, scooting in some more.

Slowly Shawn ran his hand over the moist, bony structure, reaching around his fingertips glided across the sensitive base of one of the dorsal tubes. What Shadow had told him stuck in his mind, trying to get as many perfect moments as he could in his memory just in case something happened. Shawn kept telling himself that nothing was going to happen that they would all make it out alive, find some far off distant planet and live a nice quiet peaceful life. Though a part of him knew deep down that it was never ever that simple or easy, nothing ever was.

It wasn't just Shadow that needed these nice perfect moments either; he did too, they all did, something to hold onto when hell was around them and closing in. He continued to gently rub Shadow's body, reaching down, his hand slid across Shadow's belly; then to his abdomen, finding the spot he was looking for, Shawn every so carefully began to squeeze over and over.

 _'Hmmm...'_ Shadow was about to say something as he noticed what Shawn was doing, but instead only let out a soft hiss of pleasure when his human squeezed his slit opening several times. Feeling his human's warm hand grip and squeeze his slick emerging member, he began to slowly rock back and forth, nothing that was too hard, just slow, gentle thrusts. It was nice, pleasurable and most importantly very intimate, while it wasn't enough to send him into an all-out mating frenzy, it was enough to bring him to arousal.

"That's it, nice and easy there," Shawn whispered, as his hand continued to fondle and explore the swelling member, feeling the hardening slick, corded flesh along with the fleshy nibs along the underside of the shaft and on the swelling head that were starting to firm up.

Scooting in closer, Shadow sped up his thrusting slightly, the sensitive underside of his shaft and head slipping and rubbing along Shawn's belly leaving a warm trail of the natural thick lubricant. Giving off small grunts and trills of enjoyment and pleasure with a loud hiss as Shawn gripped the swollen, slick cock head, squeezing and pumping it several times.

Shawn made mental notes of what spots were the most sensitive, and how much pressure to apply, just enough to bring Shadow to the brink of climax, but never enough to push him over to that release of bliss. Reaching underneath the slick head with his thumb he pressed up rubbing across several nibs. Another lengthy hiss erupted from the Xeno, as Shadow continued to speed up his thrusts, pressing harder into Shawn's stomach.

 _'...please...'_ Shadow pleaded, he was so close to release, he had never experienced this kind of play before, it was new, exciting, and in its own way just as pleasurable as mating. While he wanted to feel that wonderful release, to seed his mate, and bask in that glorious afterglow, at the same time he didn't want Shawn to end what he was doing. His instinct, however, demanded that its desire, its release be sated and fulfilled.

Running his hand and up and down the now fully engorged, black shaft, going faster and faster, Shadow's mind had flooded over into his own, his own member was now hard and in turn he was rubbing up against the base of Shadow's cock, the slick warmth was enough to drive him to the edge as well, all he wanted was release now too, and as he had started it, he was more than obligated to finish it. All it would take was another firm squeeze or two, reaching up he gripped the base of the cockhead and pressed it to his stomach.

Shadow bucked and thrust faster and harder finally reaching his climax, spraying copious amounts of his thick seed onto Shawn's belly and chest, feeling Shadow's release in his mind, Shawn climaxed simultaneously coating the underside of the Xeno's member. After several more thrusts both of them stopped and lay still in each other's hold, Shadow's labored breathing could be heard throughout the whole room.

 _'That was unexpected but very welcome.'_ Shadow said, basking in the blissful afterglow of the much-needed release. He had been both surprised and even amazed by the numerous and creative ways that their human had come up with ways for pleasure and play. Humans for all their faults were nothing if not creative, even ingenious, something Shawn had been proving over and over again since their first mating.

"Thought that you might like that," Shawn commented, "seems that we made a slight mess, though I'm too relaxed to care about cleaning it right now."

 _'Clean it up later, we may make more of a mess here shortly.'_ Shadow told him, it was more than just a hint that he was wanting to continue as soon as he had rested up a bit.

Continuing to fondle and stroke his lover's softening member, Shawn took in everything that was happening, he so wanted it to go on forever, and while it was a slight if not welcome distraction from the weight of what was to come, it was just that, a distraction and nothing more. It was something that was on all of their minds, not just his, during training, play, eating, even sleeping, what they were going to face on Eclipse station was always on their minds, even if it was just sitting in the back, it was still there, an unwelcome passenger that they all could not wait to get rid of.

"Just think, when this is done and over and we can find a nice far-off planet to live on, we can do this whenever we want for as long as we want, no more training, or worrying about the ship, or prisoners or anything, just the four of us together with your kin and no one else."

 _'Yes, perhaps we can make that dream of your reality, deep in a forest, next to a stream, the four of us mating until we collapse.'_ Shadow replied, recalling that vivid dream that Shawn would have so often. He had wondered if it was a foreshadowing of some sort or just simply his human's mind interpreting hive memories somehow and making them into a lucid dream.

 _'You two are forever incorrigible,'_ Ghost playfully muttered to both of them his mental voice still heavy with sleep, _'and also sticky,'_ he added his fingers running along Shawn's stomach through Shadow's spent seed.

Glancing up, Shawn felt a twinge of guilt waking Ghost up, he had been trying to keep as quiet as possible and was hoping that his and Shadow's little playtime wouldn't have disturbed him, obviously, that had not happened. "Sorry," Shawn said, "didn't mean to wake you up."

 _'Don't be, you two put on a nice show, interesting technique,'_ Ghost said, his hand gripping around Shadow's semi-erect member and slowly began stroking the slick member several times, eliciting a deep rumble from his Praetorian brother.

"Looks like none of us are getting any sleep tonight," Shawn said, realizing what he had started was not even close to being finished, not that he minded at all, any chance to share himself with his beloved mates was always welcomed.

Releasing Shadow's member, Ghost placed his hand on Shawn's thigh and gave the human a playful squeeze. _'And who's fault is that my dear love,'_ Ghost purred as he slowly started to rub himself up against their human, his own arousal starting to build.

Closing his eyes, in a few moments he would feel Ghost's member start to poke and then enter, there of course would be the usual pain at first, which would ebb shortly after penetration, then the pleasurable slick warmth that would follow as Ghost would repeatedly thrust in and out for several minutes, perhaps more, before climaxing.

 _'SHAWN!'_ Alese's voice bellowed in his head taking him out of his relaxed state, and not just him but both Shadow and Ghost had heard her too. While she wasn't panicking, there was worry in her voice. Had something happened, an accident, or something worse?

Opening his eyes, he looked around, half expecting her to be there; maybe she was still in the swimming area. Alese, w _hat is it, what's wrong?'_ He asked, half expecting to hear about some catastrophic event below, the alarms, however, were not blaring, so whatever it might be couldn't be that serious, could it?

 _'You need to come down to the brig area,'_ Alese paused for a few seconds, whatever it was that was bothering her was there. And if she was in the bring area, that could only mean one thing, and all three of them had a good guess of what that was. ' _It's the human Amy, something is wrong with her.'_

Ghost let out a hiss of displeasure at this bit of news, for the most part, he had been indifferent to Amy's attitude and antics. While he did not care for how she talked down to Shawn, he realized that she was not truly a threat and was simply scared and just trying to cope in her own bizarre way. Although as far as humans go, she was the oddest one he had ever come across. However at this point, he was about to mate and thanks to her it was now ruined, whatever was going on down in the bring area he hoped that it would not take long to resolve.

He too had needs and would like to have them sated.

 _'What do you mean wrong?'_ Shawn asked, picking up the annoyance from both Shadow and Ghost.

 _'She was staring into that mirror for a long time, turned to walk away and then spun back around suddenly and then collapsed right after that, her body is shaking badly and she is bleeding from her nose.'_

 _'Shit,'_ Shawn mumbled under his breath, getting up and off the bed, _'I'll be there shortly, what you just described sounds like a seizure. Alese you need to get that door open and place her on her side and hold her head to make sure she doesn't choke, especially if she's bleeding from her nose. If it is a seizure it should pass in a few minutes.'_

There was a slight pause, Shawn knew that Alese hadn't liked Amy from the start; in fact, she had always sensed that somehow the girl was dangerous, in what way she did not know. However, ever since being locked up she had behaved like a spoiled, rich brat that acted like everyone should bow down to her and her needs. It had been completely asinine in how she was making unrealistic demands to everyone, mostly him, it almost seemed like she was living in some fantasy world.

However, within the last couple of weeks, she seemed to have calmed down, in fact, she had said almost nothing at all. A few times when Shawn came down to deliver food, she would be standing in front of the small mirror just staring at her reflection. A vacant and far off look on her face seemed to tell him that she was someplace else or just deep in thought.

 _'Alese?'_ Shawn said, growing concerned at the lack of a response.

 _'Very well, I will do as you instruct. The key for the cells is still on the table in the next room is it not?'_

 _'Yes, it's still there. And Alese I know you have no love for her, but...'_

 _'Do not worry; as much as I dislike her, I have no intention of harming her while she is like this.'_ Alese replied back to the unasked question, while there was some satisfaction in scarring Amy when she had been on her ill-mannered tirades; the fact was that the female human had never truly done anything that would have warranted a physical assault.

Though there had been a few times that Shadow and even Alese had come close to ripping the door off the wall and chasing her ass all over the ship. Thankfully, at least for the female merc, it had never come to that.

 _'Thanks, Alese, I'll be there shortly.'_ Shawn said, grabbing a white cloth towel from a stack on a nearby table and wiping as much of the still warm seed off of himself before tossing the towel into a sizable plastic bucket that was over halfway filled with other used white towels. Throwing his clothes on as quickly as he could, he headed out the door with Shadow and Ghost trailing right behind him curious to see what was happening with the human female.

Shawn wasn't sure how to feel about this as the three of them hurried down to the bring area, while Amy had been a pain in the ass since being locked up, he in truth didn't wish her harm. The last thing he wanted to do was bury another person in space, sending the bodies of the dead mercs into the void had been more than enough and that alone would something he would have to live with for the rest of his life. Although he had almost, a couple of times almost agreed to let Shadow and Alese chase and run her down just to see if that would change her spoiled attitude.

Arriving at the brig, all three went right to Amy's cell, the door was open and Alese was inside; as instructed she had rolled Amy onto her side and was holding the merc's head. Amy was still convulsing, violently even, her eyes had rolled up into her head and blood was now dripping from both her nose and mouth.

Alese looked right up at Shawn, letting out a distressed hiss, _'She has gotten worse, how long do these seizures last?'_

Walking inside of the cell, Shawn stopped a few feet away from where Alese and Amy were, "Normally anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes." He stammered nervously, even though the information on how to deal with a seizure had been covered in his first aid training, it had been so long ago he wasn't sure how much of it he remembered. Dealing with someone having a seizure was something that he had never had to do personally. About the only thing he recalled was to turn them over and their side and wait it out until it stopped.

 _'So we just wait?'_ Alese asked, not at all comfortable being in physical contact with the human female. She had gotten a glimpse into Amy's mind as all the normal mental shields came crashing down when her seizure started, and the images she had seen from the human was something she did not understand at all.

Nodding, "Yea, it's the safest thing to do, wait until it ends, then get her up to one of the med bays and have one of the medical androids examine her and see if it can find out what is wrong." Shawn said, sitting down on the floor across from the two of them.

"Shawn, what the hell is going on over there?" James asked, overhearing all the commotion that was happening.

Getting up off the floor Shawn turned to leave the cell, "Amy's having some kind of fucked up convulsive seizure," he said walking over to James cell.

"Did you say she's having a seizure?"

"Yea, and it's a bad one too, I think that it's been going on for almost ten minutes now, Alese was down here watching her when it happened. Did she ever have seizures when she was with the merc unit?" Shawn asked, looking back toward Amy's cell.

"No," James replied back, "if she was prone to seizures she would have never have been admitted in the unit, it's one of the few things that would have kept her out of the more professional mercenary groups; it's strict policy and she would have been cut the second the group's medical officer found out."

"Well, either she hid it somehow or it's something that just came up." Shawn said, "As soon as it stops we're going to take her up to medical and see about having one of the android doctors look her over."

James shook his head looking down at the floor, "Never thought that I would feel bad for that little pain in the ass."

"You and me both," Shawn said agreeing with James, as much as he disdained Amy's childish behavior, like James, he now too was feeling sorry for the female merc. Seeing her reduced to little more than a helpless convulsive mess was more than a little humbling, it reminded him once again just how frail they all were and that none of them were infallible, and that at any time, anything could happen to any one of them.

Even the Xenomorphs with all their strength and durability were not invincible and just the thought of any one of them dying for any reason made Shawn sick to his stomach. As fleeting as the thought was, just for that brief moment he could swear that a hand had gripped his heart and tightly squeezed it.

Stepping out of the cell the black, bony serpentine figure carrying the now still and unconscious human looked at Shawn, even though she had no eyes, he could tell that she was at a loss of what to do now. _'She just stopped having this...seizure,'_ Alese said, sounding even more lost than what she looked.

Shawn had to admit to himself that this was surreal to say the least, and to say that Alese had never liked Amy was an understatement at best, and now the female merc's life was in no small way in Alese's hands, quite literally in fact.

The universe must have been having a good laugh at their expense.

Nodding over to the exit, "Come on let's get her up to the med bay, preferably before she wakes up." Shawn said, stepping away from James cell, all of them could only imagine Amy reaction at waking up being carried in Alese's arms and the shock that would come with it. "I'll let you know what we find out." He told James as he left the bring area.

"Please do, I'd like to know what is going on with her." He said, sitting back down on his bunk and picking up the data tablet, pausing the video he had been watching and set it down. Even though he had rarely spoken to Amy, and the few times he had it had always been a heated conversation, but despite that, she had always been a constant presence, and now that presence was gone. For the first time since this ordeal he felt like he was truly alone, even the room seemed quieter, smaller and darker. Reaching over to the pad, he tapped the interface a few times and brought up some music to listen to, turning up the volume the music blared out and seemed to make it a little less lonely in his tiny cell.

Laying down all he could do now was wait.

Heading up to the closest medical bay as quickly as they could, Alese carried Amy the whole time and while the merc never woke up on the trip to the med bay, she did incoherently mutter the whole time. However very little of what she said while she was unconscious made any sense to any of them, names of a person or two, whimpering, small cries as if she was trying to get away from something or from someone. None of them knew if it was memories that were coming back to surface or just a bad dream that she was having, regardless there was nothing any of them could do about it at the moment.

"Over here," Shawn said quickly going over to one of the medical bio-beds, tapping a few buttons on the control panel at the foot of the bed, the clear Plexiglas dome cover opened up. "Place her in there," a few more commands and the bed hummed to life lighting up, monitor displays, as well as holographic displays on the clear dome cover, lit up.

Alese laid Amy in the bed as carefully as she could, while Shawn ran over to a small cluster of four, eight-foot-tall white rectangle pods each one with a clear Plexiglas door, tucked safely within each pod was an android that was dressed in a standard white medical uniform. "God I hate using these things," he muttered to himself, pressing a few buttons on a console that was next to the pod cluster.

 _'The androids?'_ Ghost asked walking up next to Shawn to observe and examine what he was doing.

"Medical androids mostly, we had a bunch that were used back on Darrius station, and just like the station, they were second hand, broken and needed to be repaired far too often, a lot of the units made mistakes and misdiagnosed quite a bit causing a lot of problems. Chalk it up to overused hardware and outdated code that was border lining being obsolete and was hard to keep updated. The medical staff could never get new models," Shawn turned to look up at Ghost, "the higher-ups always told them that it wasn't cost-effective."

 _'A few were dictating the well being of many and in turn causing considerable harm,'_ it was a flat-out statement rather than a question, Ghost had seen far too many of Shawn's memories and knew better, those few that were at the top of the hierarchy had gained wealth and power at the cost of so many, the concept while not entirely foreign for the Xenos, did in this form, make not only him, but all of them not only sick but enraged at the thought.

The clear Plexiglas door hissed for a second as the mechanical arm engaged and started to open the pod. "To say the least," Shawn replied, taking a step back as the medical android came to life, its eyes opening up, and a few seconds later it stepped out of the pod.

"Primary medical unit zero-five is online and awaiting orders, how may this unit assist?" The medical android turned to look at Shawn and then its gaze went right to Ghost, then Shadow and finally Alese. "Attention, positional hostile Xenomorph species infestation and outbreak, this unit recommends that all human crew in the vicinity move to the ship's shelters until the infestation has been contained and eradicated."

 _'INFESTATION!?_ Shadow's voice boomed in all their heads making even Ghost and Alese wench slightly, _'we are NOT vermin!'_ The Praetorian sneered taking a step forward toward the medical android, his lips started to peel back in anger, he was half tempted to take this fucking thing's head right off for that statement. It had been bad enough being called similar names back on the station when they were still prisoners, but to have some machine imply that all they were some sort of plague or disease that needed to be wiped out.

No that was completely unacceptable. It brought back far too many bad memories that not only he but all of them were trying to put past them.

Pressing his thumb and middle finger to his temple, Shawn turned to look at Shadow and raised his free hand singling for him to stop, _'Dude...can you please turn it down a bit, I think my brain just rattled in my skull some, remember it's a machine, it only knows what it's programmed with, give me second to try and deal with this, remember we need it. Not like the other androids are going to be any better,'_ Shawn told him, hoping that it would calm him down a little.

Shadow paused for a second, glaring right at the mechanical man, his fingers still twitching, oh he would have loved to take a swipe at that unliving hunk of fake skin and false organs, opening it up and watching everything spill out onto the floor. But Shawn was right, it only knows what it has been programmed with; while he didn't understand how the human technology worked, he did know that those things like the androids only knew what information they were given and nothing more. _'Very well, I will not rip that things head off.'_ Shadow answered, taking a step back and trying to relax.

 _'Thanks,'_ turning back around to look at the android, Shawn only hoped that there was enough of a self-learning curve in the programming of the unit that would let it know that these Xenos were not hostile. "Medical unit zero-five be aware that these Xenomorphs are non-hostile, I repeat, these Xenomorphs are to be considered non-hostile, dose unit confirm?" Shawn asked, crossing his fingers and praying that this medial unit could understand on some level.

The android panned its head around looking at each Xenomorph over and over, almost as if it was trying to decide whether or not to accept what Shawn was saying as fact or if it was simply going to go with whatever its program dictated and nothing more.

"Once again I repeat, these Xenomorphs are to be considered non-hostile, do you confirm?" Shawn said again, placing his hand on Ghost's shoulder, a physical gesture to show that the Xenos were indeed not hostile, or rather not hostile to him.

Its blank white eyes focused on the two, its head twitching slightly, a long silent pause lay heavy in the air, only to finally be broken by the barley emotional artificial voice. "Unit confirms, present Xenomorph units are designated as non-hostile. Unit returning to normal parameters, how may this unit assist you?"

Letting out a deep sigh of relief, Shawn chuckled nervously, it was one of the things that he hated about dealing with unfamiliar androids, one could never tell what they were going to do, right until they did it.

"We have a female human, possibly in her mid-twenties; she just suffered from a serious convulsive seizure that lasted for about ten minutes," Shawn stated then walked over to the pod where Amy was, Ghost following behind him. "We need to find out what caused the seizure and if you can suggest a treatment if at all possible."

Turning the android walked over to where Amy was laying down, stepping aside so she would not be in the away, Alese padded over to where Shadow was and observed what was happening. She reached back around and started to gently caress his lower back, trying to ease his tension from earlier at the androids comments.

"Human, female, facial recognition not in ship's onboard crew database, profile unknown, please elaborate profile for this unit."

"First name Amy, last name Trevor, age possible mid-twenties as I said earlier, occupation mercenary," Shawn stated, "that's all the information I have."

The medical android closed the bio-beds plexiglass cover, its hand quickly going over the display console, "Unit suggests that primary ships doctor examine patient." More holographic displays lit up as a beam of light moved up and down across Amy's body, each display giving off information on her vitals and bio readouts.

"There is no ship's doctor or medical staff," Answered Shawn, "which is why we had to activate you."

The android's hands quickly whipped back and forth across the holographic displays and consoles, and more info was brought up, body scans at first, then nervous systems scans, finally brain scans."Standard medical protocol states that there must be medical staff present at all times during normal ship functions. Has there been a catastrophic event to render all medical stall unavailable?" The android asked.

"Not exactly, let's just say that the normal crew and officers of this ship are no longer on board and have been... temporarily reassigned." While he doubted the android would even care, there might be something in its programming, a failsafe that could cause them trouble if he gave it an incorrect answer. Shawn was really hoping that was not the case and it was just going through its normal list of standard protocol procedures.

"Please stand by, processing incoming medical data," The android said, Shawn stood there looking down at Amy waiting to hear what the scans had found out. "Nervous system is normal, no anomalies detected. Detecting multiple healed bone fractures across multiple locations, areas of damage are as follows, left and right Ulna, Radius, Humerus, left Femur, right side, third, fourth and fifth rib, left side Tibia, right side Scapula. Detecting scarring on following internal organs, liver, kidneys, spleen, left side lung and heart." The android continued to rattle off more info on various past torn muscles and ligaments.

 _'Shawn, what is this thing saying about her?'_ Ghost asked, peeking over Shawn's head to get a better look at Amy.

 _'Hold up a second, something about this doesn't make sense.'_ Shawn told Ghost, turning his attention back to the medical android, "Can you give an estimate on how old these injuries are, were any of them recent?" He figured that maybe it was something that she could have received in basic training or with the merc unit but from what he had seen of her she didn't have any physical signs of any recent injuries.

The medical android shook its head, emulating a human gesture, "Negative, scans indicate that injuries range from fifteen to five years old."

Shawn didn't say anything for a minute, as a bitter chill passed through his body at the sudden thought of what she must have had to endure at so young an age, "Fuck," he muttered underneath his breath leaning back up against Ghost, "she was abused and beaten as a child; that might explain some of her behavior…" His was interrupted as the android spoke up again as more data came in.

"Scans detect that there is an unusually high level of unstable neurological activity in her cerebral cortex, medial temporal lobe and hippocampus areas. This unit can neither identify what the cause of the unstable activity is or how it is affecting her. It is possible that the instability is causing the aforementioned seizures." Focusing in on the brain area, a holographic image of Amy's brain came upon one of the monitor displays, a moment later the affected areas were brought into focus, each one pulsing a bright red.

"Is there any recommendations you can make or any ideas on how to processed, like I said, we don't have any medical staff on this ship with the exception of medical androids like yourself," Shawn said, glancing looking back down at Amy. "And it's not like we have the option of just dropping her off at a station or colony that has a proper medical _facility_ right now."

Going over the data for a few seconds longer, the android turned to look right at Shawn, "This unit is ill-suited to make any medical recommendation for such an unusual illness, suggest placing patient in medical cryosleep pod until at such time a more suited medical professional can be found to make an accurate evaluation of the patient's condition and recommend correct treatment."

Rubbing his forehead in mild frustration at the newly developed situation, it was hard enough trying to train, study the station's diagrams to fine tune the entry area, the route to the labs, mark several exit areas. As well as making sure the two mercs were taken care of in their cells daily and have some sort of time for themselves too. Now, this had just been dumped into their laps. "So what...we just stick her in the freezer and wait until someone else can take a look at her? Shawn asked.

"That is correct." The android answered back, "This unit is not programmed to work with mental illness or abnormal brain functions such as the patient had been diagnosed with."

"Alight," Shawn said, while he was reluctant about this, it seemed that it was the only viable option. While he didn't care for Amy all that much after her behavior, he was sympathetic to what she was going through and what she had possible endured in the past. Even if he didn't know what the story was about all those injuries, he seriously doubted she was so accident prone that she would have broken that many bones in her body or had scarring on some of her internal organs on her own. "Can you prep and move her to a medical cry pod?" He asked the android.

"This unit can accommodate your request."

Shawn and Ghost moved out of the way to let the medical android proceeded to prep Amy for medical cryo sleep. All four watched as the Android shut down the bio-bed, went over to a cabinet and gathers several hypo-needles, came back and injected Amy with the contents. After that it grabbed a gurney, placed her onto it and wheeled her over to one of the medical cryo pods, opening the clear pod door, it placed her into it, inputted a series of commands into the pods data pad a moment later the pod's door closed down sending her into a medically induced cold sleep.

Finished with its task, it walked back over to Shawn, "Do you require anything else from this unit?" It asked, its white eyes staring blankly at him.

"No, thank you for doing what you could," Answered Shawn, shaking his head slightly.

Without out saying another word, the android turned and returned to its storage pod, the door closed sending it into sleep mode, until it was needed again.

"Well shit, that was depressing as all hell." Commented Shawn leaning up against the bulkhead wall running his hands through his hair, he could hardly believe this was happening, of all the times for something like this to crop up it had to be now. He was just glad that at the very least they could place her in medical cryo sleep, while it wouldn't fix what was wrong with her, it would at least give them a chance to find someone that might be able to help, provided they lived pass what was to come. "And not just that but we are less than a few days away from getting to Eclipse station and now we have to worry about this shit, I swear that the universe must be fucking with us in some way, it feels like we are the butt of some massive cosmic joke."

 _'While I do feel pity for her, the timing is somewhat inconvenient,_ Ghost replied. He had noticed that Alese had said nothing since entering the medical area with Amy, normally she had a snide comment or gave the human female an offending hiss, this time, however, nothing. In fact, from what Ghost was picking up from her, her thoughts were toward the merc, but something was bothering her deeply _'Are you alright sister, you have been very quiet this whole time.'_

Alese looked over at her hive mates, _'since being in the cell with Amy and being in physical contact with her I was picking up something from her mind. It was an odd jumble of painful and violent images, memories that overlapped somehow and that do not make sense to me. It was odd there were layers upon layers of memories...feelings, images, voices, a range of emotions from happy and sad to cold rage and hate, nothing about what I saw or felt made any sense to me. It was unsettling.'_

Placing his hand on her dome, Shawn gave the female Xeno an affectionate rub along the side of her head to help ease her tension. "You were able to see into her mind?" Shawn asked; then remembered how that first night after Alese had brought him back from the Ember-Rose to the sleeping quarters, that Shadow had been able to glimpse into his mind when he was sleeping. Those barriers were gone or at least lowered enough for thoughts and memories to bleed out some.

 _'Yes, but..._ ' Alese stopped for a second enjoying the physical contact, _'...humans have chaotic minds, you know this, random thoughts, images, all jumbling around, however as chaotic your minds may be, there has, at least with you, been structure to it, with hers there is no structure, as I said it was just a frenzied mess of images, voices, and emotions, and none of it made sense. Could this be some kind of illness for your race?'_

Shawn didn't have much of an answer to Alese's question, in fact he didn't have an answer at all, he wasn't a doctor or even a medic, and beyond his first aid training he had very little medical experience, at least nothing that extended past treating cuts, bruises, burns and the occasional broken bone. There were, of course, mental illnesses that had plagued humanity since the dawn of time, and it always seemed that as soon as one or two of those illnesses were cured, a couple of new ones would crop up to replace them, maybe the universe was maintaining some kind of balance. "It's possible," Shawn said, "humans have suffered from mental illnesses for countless thousands of years, but this, I honestly have no idea at all. If it is, it would go a long way in explaining her fucked up behavior, though that doesn't explain her past physical injuries and why she had so many of them."

Like Alese, Shadow too had been quiet on what was going on with the female merc, minus his outburst with the medical android's comment. _'Regardless of what the cause is, it is for the time being out of our claws and we can do nothing to help her. We need to concentrate on what is at hand, and that is Eclipse Station and freeing our brothers and sisters. As Shawn has said we are less than a few days away and we cannot afford to become distracted by what has happened to the Amy mercenary. As cold as that may sound, it is simply the truth.'_

Both Alese and Ghost agreed with Shadow, it may have been cold but it was practical and logical thinking on his part, the truth was that none of them could help her at all. Shawn, however, seemed distracted and was staring off toward the cryo pod that Amy was now asleep in.

 _'Shawn...Shawn?'_ Shadow's voice rang into his mind, while Shawn had heard Shadow calling his name, his own thought were preoccupying him.

"Sorry, just remembering something from a long time ago." Shawn said his voice now distant, "but yea, your right, we need to concentrate on what is at hand and not get distracted, we can deal with Amy's condition later on."

All of them could tell that something about this whole situation was bothering Shawn, it wasn't just the simple fact that Amy had started going into some sort of convulsive seizure, while he had been concerning, it wasn't until after the medical android had started the scans and found the long healed wounds that he started to become bothered.

 _'Something about this is troubling you, what is it?'_ Shadow asked, whatever it was that was worrying him, he needed, to quote a human phrase, get it off his chest, and not let what had happened to Amy bother him.

Looking over at Shadow, Shawn shook his head slightly, "I was just remembering a friend of mine, Paul, whom I met when I was five years old, back when I was still living on Lunar city." Shawn said, looking back toward Amy's cryo pod. "We became the best of friends, did everything together, which included getting into a lot of trouble, nothing serious or anything like that, you know just kids being kids. Paul, he was a lot of fun to be with, but there was something going on at his home, I was too young to see it or even understand at the time, but I saw it later on and did understand."

Shawn didn't take his eyes off the cryo pod, his voice became more and more distant as he continued, "You see Paul's father was an alcoholic and a bad one too, he was an alright guy when he wasn't drinking, but once he started up, it was like this switch that got flipped, and the more he drank the worse he got. He use to beat the hell out of Paul for anything once he got going, the injuries he got would range from bad bruises, broken bones, even internal injuries and bleeding, it didn't matter what age Paul had been, when his dad got drunk he would turn into an absolute bastard."

"Paul and his mom were so terrified to say or do anything, often they would try to hide and pretend like nothing was happening, but those of us that knew their family, we all knew what was going on. We did try to help early on but there is only so much that can be done if someone doesn't want help." Shawn turned to look back at Shadow, crossing his arms over his chest, "Much later on Paul decided that he had enough and was planning to leave when he turned eighteen, my family and I had offered to take him in until he got a place of his own, try and help him out in any way that we could. Then one day Paul stopped coming to school, stopped answering his calls, nothing, just silence."

Looking up at the ceiling Shawn took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, this was something that he hadn't really ever talked about to anyone outside of his own family, and it was something that he hadn't thought about in a long time. "We found out a few days later that his dad had gone into one of his drunken tirades, starting beating both Paul and his mom. Paul tried to fight back this time, tried to stop his dad, but that made him even angrier. I'm not sure exactly what happened but somehow his dad got ahold of a steel pipe and hit Paul in the head with it. His head was split wide open right there killing him on the spot, his dad, however, kept hitting Paul over and over screaming at him the whole time. I don't even think that he realized what he had done until it was too late."

 _'What happened to his parents?'_ Alese asked, horrified by what Shawn had just told them. Killing an enemy or someone that meant them harm was one thing, but this was such a senseless and random act of brutal violence, nothing about it made any sense to her.

Wiping a few tears away, Shawn coughed trying to clear his throat, "His father was sentenced to life in prison, and last time I heard, Paul's mom was still in a mental ward. She wasn't able to cope with the pain and guilt of everything that had happened and she just shut down. The real bitch of it is that Paul was only three months away from turning eighteen. He had gone through all that shit for so long and was starting to feel like there was some hope after all, a light at the end of the tunnel. He was even starting to make plans about everything he wanted to do with his life, and just like that, his dad snuffed it all out in an instant. Just three fucking more months and he would have been able to legally leave and there would have been nothing his dad would do to stop him." At that statement, came all those memories, along with a burst of anger; Shawn without thinking slammed the flat of his foot into the metal wall.

It was a hard and raw memory and every time it came up it angered him, for years it was all he could think about, after a while he found he had to stop thinking about it or it would have consumed him. A small part of him still wanted Paul's father dead for what he did, and that part of him still wanted to take a steel bar and split Paul's father's head open just as he had done to his own son so many years ago.

It had also been one of the reasons he had finally left Lunar city.

 _'And you believe that Amy has gone through the same kind of abuse?'_ Ghost asked looking over at the cryo pod, trying to take Shawn's mind off those darkening and angry thoughts.

"I don't know, I really don't, but according to that medical android a lot of those injuries happened when she was very young, I'm guessing when she was around seven many eight years old. It just brought up a lot of things I hadn't thought about for a long time, including what happened to my best friend."

 _'I'm sorry for what happened, and that this has brought up such unwanted memories.'_ Shadow said.

"It's alright, it happened a long time ago, and nothing is going to change that. Besides we have to concentrate on the here and now, like you said we can't afford to become distracted, we just need to focus on the living and those that we can rescue and help." Shawn stated, "It was just weird how after his death that so many things just seemed to change, nothing seemed quite right after."

 _'No Shawn, it is not alright, you lost a lifelong friend, someone that was part of your human hive and from what you've told us his death was from a meaningless act of violence, an act that not only took his life but ruined the lives of others, there is nothing alright with that,'_ Shadow said, it was the first time he or any of them had felt that much anger come from their human, fear, deep sorrow, even irritation but that flash of hot anger was a first, and none of them liked it, even if it was fully understandable .

Shawn just nodded ever so slightly at what Shadow had told him, he was right though, nothing about what had happened to Paul was alright. Even if it was so many years ago and Paul had been laid to rest since then, it had been the first deep emotional wound in what had become a long series of deep emotional wounds. And despite no matter how many years it had been, it was a hurt that never seemed to truly go away. And not just Paul but so many other friends that he had been forced to say farewell to, so many that he had watched die while somehow he managed to survive and live on. He wondered how long that luck and good fortune would last.

"I know, and you're correct, it's not alright what happened, but it did. Paul's been dead a long time now and nothing will change or fix what happened no matter how much I wish otherwise." Straightening up, Shawn started to walk toward the exit giving Shadow a couple of pats on the arm as he walked passed him, "I'm going to let James know what is going on with Amy." Stopping at the doorway, Shawn turned to look back at Shadow, "Look I know you're all concerned, but I'm fine. It's an ache that I've carried for a long time and it won't ever go away, and I don't think that I would want it to. You have to understand Paul was my best friend, and if I lost that pain I'm afraid that I might forget all the times we shared as kids. Though it's kind of funny now that I've started thinking back on it, I had forgotten so many little things as the years went by. But now I'm remembering everything that had happened when we were growing up, almost with a crystal clear clarity."

Several vivid memories flashed by of Shawn as a small boy with another boy playing in a lit park inside one of the massive transparent geodesic protective domes that held the deadly airless vacuum at bay. Beyond the safety of the transparent plexi-steel walls, a grey, jagged moonscape, backlit by the endless pinpoints of light, and off in the distance, a single blue and white pearl hung in the black starlit tapestry of space.

It was the first time any of the Xenos had seen any of Shawn's memories as a small child; there was a beautiful and innocent happiness to him then as if all was right with the universe and none of the hard and ugly misery existed.

Smiling at that resurfaced memory that had been buried deep in his mind for most of his life, now unearthed for all to see and share. He wondered just how much he could recall, and if he truly wanted to start digging up the past, sure there were pleasant, wonderful memories, filled with warmth and happiness, but also memories that were best left in the past. It was something he would have to deeply think on. "I'll meet back up with you all in the sleeping room here in a bit, maybe we can pick back up if any of us are feeling like it." He said, leaving the medical area and headed down to the brig to let James know what he had found out about Amy, leaving the three very concerned Xenos in the medical bay.


	28. Beginning Of The End

Chapter 27: Beginning Of The End

Heavy, tense silence hung in Commander Snyder's operations office. A guest, one that was neither wanted nor welcomed but was needed, stood several feet away from the commander's desk. Flanking the unwelcomed person was a pair of combat androids that were now outfitted with full combat gear and heavy weapons. Snyder's eyes were locked with a pair of cold, dead eyes, neither person blinked in a willful and determined stare down.

"Sit," Snyder hissed coldly at the individual that was standing in front of him. It was by no means a request and he wanted to make sure that the person across from him understood that, "Now!"

The individual made no motion to do as the commander had ordered. Simply choosing to stand, his eyes still locked with the commander's own.

Snyder nodded, giving the two androids a silent but understood order. Each one reached up and placed a hand on the person's shoulders and with a firm grip, effortlessly forced him down into a steel chair. A flash of hot rage exploded in the man's eyes; for just a few seconds his face became a contorted and twisted mix of hate and disdain.

 _How dare this insignificant, worthless piece of garbage treat him so,_ the man's thought rushed through his mind. This was an act that would not be tolerated, he would make this worm, this petty shell of a man pay with his life. No one dared to treat him like this, not those obtuse so-called colleagues of his or those worthless underlings at his command. And certainly, not this dimwitted puppet who was under the mistaken impression that he was the one in control.

Snyder stood up, his eyes still locked on the man that was now sitting down, "This is how things are going to be from now on Mason so I'm only going to tell you this once, so I suggest you listen to what I have to say very carefully."

 _INTOLERABLE!_ The voice screamed in Mason's mind.

Mason's body tensed up as he was now being dressed down by this filth, only to feel the pressure of the two androids grip tighten around his shoulders.

"You don't like that do you, Mason?" Snyder said, his voice sly, even mockingly. "Don't like having someone like myself talk down to you like this. Do you?"

 _HOW DARE YOU!_ The voice seethed within Mason's head. The doctor's pulps began to constrict into small pinpoints as his fists tightly clenched up.

"No, you don't. Well, that is a real shame, isn't it?" Snider's voice was still all too calm, almost sweetly so, he knew that Mason was on the verge of one of his tirades. Just like the one that had sent Elizabeth Brooks into the ICU which even now she still remained. And while she was no longer considered critical, she had made very little progress when it came to healing.

"It is a shame that the investors and various boards of trustees spared no expense in healing you up, a waste of valuable resources and time in my opinion. However, I must say the surgeons did a miraculous job fixing you up after your little beating. One that I personally believe was well deserved. Pity that Mister Anderson didn't hit you harder and a few more times, it would have saved up a lot of trouble." Snyder continued, taking an almost perverse pleasure at seeing Doctor Mason teetering on a rage-induced fit and not being able to do anything about it.

 _YOU ARE NOTHING, NOTHING; I WILL SEE YOU TORN APART!_ Mason's mind was so close to going into a red induced rage, but yet he knew there was nothing he could do, and that made it all the worse.

Walking around to the front of his desk, his hand went to his holster, flipping the top, he pulled out his Glock pistol, and in just a few quick moves, ejected the magazine and the chambered round. "You see, as I was saying," he started leaning up against the desk, looking down on Mason, who was almost frothing at the mouth. "This is how things are going to be, you will have guards monitoring you at all times, at work, at home, what you eat, watch, read, if you are taking a shit I will have a guard right there scrutinizing your bowel movements."

 _I WILL DESTROY YOU, YOU ARE NOTHING...NOTHING!_

Mason's mind kept reeling; his body shook and trembled, the words kept wailing in his mind, even though he had said nothing since being dragged into the commander's office. He wanted to tear into something, someone, hear their screams, watch something writhe around in pain. He was in control, him, no one else, no one else mattered, and nothing else mattered. Every word Snyder kept flapping on about, only made him more and more fevered with rage and the absolute need to rip into something.

"You will no longer have your way with any of the Xenomorphs, neither you nor your fucked up staff will do anything to harm them for your own sick amusement. And that goes for harming the staff as well. If I have my way, the last person on this station you will have caused harm to is Doctor Brooks." Snyder's tone went from calm, almost soothing to hard and heated, he had enough of Mason abusing the staff and aliens. As much as he hated that someone had almost died, it did give him a legitimate reason to finally clamp down on Mason and keep him under guard.

At hearing that Mason lunged at Commander Snyder his, or at least tried to, eyes that of a man that knew only anger, rage, and fury. He only managed to get an inch or two off the seat as the android guards keep a tight grip on him and forced him back down. Snyder twirled his gun, his hand gripping the barrel and in a swift motion, he swung up and then down.

There was the brief dull sound of metal hitting skin and bone. A fresh gash opened up just above Mason's right eye. Dark blood tricked down his shirt, onto his paints and finally onto the floor, a few drops at a time until a small pool formed.

Snyder leaned down until he was face to face with Mason. Now only an inch or two away, at most, "If I have to beat you like a rabid fucking dog, then I will do so, over and over until you do as I and director Collins instruct you to. I have no time and even less patience for you and your shit."

Mason's breathing became labors, heavy, he needed to hurt something, someone, now, right now. The absolute hunger was consuming him to do so, to hear something... someone screaming in pain, or to beat something until it submitted, yes, submitted to him, his superiority, nothing else mattered, no one else mattered, only him, no one else. They were all empty shells to do with as he pleased, all of them.

 _THEY ARE NOTHING, HURT THEM, KILL THEM ALL, RIP THEM APART!_

Groaning, Mason clenched his teeth together, not even feeling the newly opened wound as it bled.

Snyder looked carefully at Mason, observing the doctor's reactions. Everyone knew that Mason had problems, but this, this was at a whole new level. "Must be infuriating, not being able to hurt anyone now, knowing that all that power you had is now gone. Personally, I find it rather pathetic. For all your genius, all your intellect, you're little more than a psychopath that can't even control his own emotions, not that you seem to have much beyond anger and hate."

Lunging again, Mason was once again forced back into the chair, the grip from the androids clamping down even tighter than before. Snyder never even flinched, his eyes boring right into Mason, whatever control Mason might have had before, it was now eroding away quickly. "Pitiful," Snyder sneered, walking back around to his desk and sitting down.

"I strongly suggest you find an alternative way to elevate your...frustrations," Snyder flat-out told him. "Or I will make sure to file in my report that you are no longer fit for this position, and I doubt that even the various boards and investors will want to see a madman heading up their projects." Pushing a data pad at the doctor, Snyder leaned back in his chair, seeing if the doctor's fit would pass. After a minute or two, Mason seemed to be slightly calmer, though the man was still wild-eyed.

"There have been a few developments since your hospitalization, not that I expect you to care. But as it is protocol to let the head staff know and since and you are in no small part responsible for this development, I'll give you the footnotes. First, that massive Praetorian is loose."

Mason's face stiffened slightly, the news while didn't fully rattle the man. There was almost what Snyder caught as a twinge of fear in the doctor's eyes, but only for a split second.

"Either it escaped from a faulty containment unit, or Ryan Anderson helped release it. The unit's control box was fried so we can't retrieve any data. But if it was my guess, I would say that Ryan helped it escape."

While Mason's face was still stiff, a scowl of anger flowed across his face at hearing Ryan's full name. "Where is that animal, where is that animal that dared to hurt me?" His voice full of venom as the words slowly came out.

Almost in a jokingly, and not caring manner, Snyder just shrugged at the question. "Don't know," he said, "figure that, one, either the Praetorian carried him off and killed him or Ryan went willingly with the Xeno deep into the station's guts. We haven't come across a body yet, so he's still considered alive but missing."

Leaning forward, crossing his arms and placing them crisscross on his desk, "Funny thing is this," Snyder's voice turned hard again, "That Praetorian, the creatures that are supposed to be these merciless killers and that are supposed to attack on sight. It's only killed one person on this station so far, no one else had gone missing, or even seen it since it escaped. And the one person that it did kill, a Doctor Steffen, it did it in a very human display or revenge. You do remember Doctor Steffen, of course, you do, seems the man had a twisted fetish of secretly sexually abusing a particular drone that escaped. One that you and he seemed to enjoy hurting quite often in fact."

That small twinge of fear crept into him for another brief moment which flashed in Mason's eyes and then was gone. It was accompanied by a slight pinprick of icy cold that ran through his core, and just like the fear, it too was gone. He had known about Steffen's fixation, not that he cared what the man did with the Xenos. But with a Praetorian now loose on the station, that was a threat not only to his own personal research but also his life. As if having Snyder's mindless guards and androids hovering above him wasn't a distraction enough this more than compounded the problem.

Although it happened so quickly, Commander Snyder did not miss that glint of fear that he saw in Mason's eyes. Those normally cold and dead eyes, for the fire time ever, he saw something other than a cold deadness or heated rage. For the first time he saw fear, perhaps that fear could be used to his advantage, a leash that he could use to keep Mason in check, that and the ever-present guards that would be keeping an eye on him.

"I suggest you actually take the time to read the report in all its gory detail on what happened to Doctor Steffen. And remember this very well, if you do anything to cross me or piss me off any more than what you already have you will either find yourself wandering the halls without any protection. Patrols may be stretched thin and I might have to draw recourses to help them out, you know how it goes." Snyder reached under his desk and pulled out a plastic box, yanking the top off, he turned it over, emptying the contents out.

Snyder picked up a small, black metal disk that out of the small pile of several dozen. It was no bigger than a man's thumbnail that had a sliver of metal protruding out of the top. "And while I can't prove it, and I don't have anyone in custody, I'm pretty sure that these are yours." Snyder flicked the small disk toward Mason, who just looked blankly down at it with disinterest. "If I should by some odd coincidence happen to come across more of these in the areas we have swept. I will find who is responsible and that person or persons, as well as yourself, may find themselves in an unfortunate accident. Airlock, loose Xeno, all sorts of nasty and painful ways to go, suggest you keep that in mind...doctor."

Grabbing a rag from the top of his desk he threw it at Mason, who just glanced at it as it landed on his leg. "Get yourself cleaned up, and get the fuck out of my office and report to your area and do some actual work if that is what you do." He barked, wanting to get Mason out of his office as soon as possible.

Mason only glared at Snyder for a few moments then picked up both the rag as well as the data tablet. Obeying another unspoken command they two androids let go of Mason. On his release, the doctor stood up and walked out, both combat synthetics in tow.

"And remember, I will be watching you," Snyder said as Mason walked away, the office door closing.

Leaning back and letting out a deep sigh, Snyder wondered if word would get back to any of the investors or if Director Collins would intercept anything going out on unofficial channels. Threatening Mason like he had was a huge risk, too many of the investors he was their golden goose and one that needed to be kept safe and sound. He hadn't heard back yet about Ryan's attack on Mason, maybe Collins had managed to keep it quiet or had given the investors an alternate account of what had happened.

He would not have been surprised in the least if one of the investor's private warships with a security detachment showed up and demanded for Ryan to be turned over. While he was still pissed at the kid for doing something so mind-numbingly stupid as releasing a Praetorian Xenomorph lose onto the station. He was also in the not so pleasant position of having to consider Ryan a possible threat, which could lead to him having to be either killed or at the very least subdued. Either way, the kid's career was over and his life was possibly on a very short leash.

Snyder was still secretly wishing that Ryan and that damned Praetorian might make it onto a ship and sneak away without anyone knowing until it was too late. After what he had witnessed beforehand, he knew that a Praetorian, especially one built as stout and big as the one that was out, would be a nightmare to bring down. It would be nothing less than a total and complete bloodbath, especially if they were as smart as he was now suspecting they were.

Closing his eyes, now that Mason was dealt with, or at least for the time being, Snyder gave himself the luxury of a few minutes of quiet and rest. His few minutes were more fleeting than he thought as Lieutenant Blare's voice came in through the intercom. "Sir we're ready."

Reaching over and pushing a button on a small console mounted on his desk, a small light flashed on. "Understood, I'll be there shortly," Snyder said, getting up. It was time to see just how intelligent these creatures really were.

xxxxx

"Alright Miss Farish, the tests came out negative, I would say that you are in the clear." Doctor Harper informed the all too nervous maintenance worker. She had been a wreck since coming back to the doctor's office to get her test results. While she had been silent most of the time, he figured that she had all but convinced herself that she had contracted some weird alien diseases though Steffen. Thankfully that had not been the case as far as he could tell.

At the news, her body practically went limp as the tension drained out of her at Harper's news. "Are you sure, you didn't' detect anything at all on the tests?" She asked, still not completely convinced.

"Ma'am, I was able to get enough info from the Xeno labs on their DNA that I was able to perform several cross-references, nothing out of the ordinary came up. No unknown foreign bodies, bacteria, or weird alien cells. Even Steffen's blood work came out clean, so as I said, it looks like you are in the clear. Now on the off chance that anything out of the ordinary should suddenly come up, let me as soon as it happens." Doctor Harper firmly stated. "DO NOT put it off, or wait to see if it passes, come back and let me know. I don't care how minor you might think it might be, contact me, let me know and get back to the medical area as soon as you can."

Janet just nodded in full agreement, getting up out of the chair. She was still nervous as a part of her was wounding if maybe something small had been missed in the tests. A part of her mind tried to rationalize what doctor Harper had told her. That she was clear, for as long as Steffen had been abusing that drone Xeno, surely he would have contracted something by now and it would have shown up already. She told herself that it was just shock and nerves, that's was all, nothing more. "Don't worry, I will," she finally replied to him, "Do you think it will be alright to return to work?" She asked, wounding if she would need to take some medical leave after this.

Harper looked down at his datapad and started typing. "I'm going to recommend that you take a few days off just in case something unforeseen does develop. It'll also give you a chance to clear your head. You've been an absolute nervous wreck since this all started, not that I can blame you." Harper turned the datapad toward Janet, "just need your thumbprint and you will be cleared to go."

Somewhat reluctantly, Janet pressed her thumb on the data pad sensor giving Doctor Harper her authorization. While she did want to get out of the medical area, she didn't really want to go back to the pod, where the Xeno was loose. Even if the whole pod was on lockdown, or partial lockdown as it were, and guards and combat androids were everywhere she didn't feel particularly safe going back. She would be stuck in her quarters and not be able to go anywhere. Not that she really ventured out that much when off duty. But being stuck in her living area for several days straight and not being able to leave due to the lockdown would cause her to go stir-crazy.

"You're good to go now, the guards will escort you back to your quarters. And remember if anything comes up, contact me and get back here immediately." Harper told her, walking Janet over to the door, opening it up for her, he then motioned to a guard who came over to him.

"Yes, sir." She mumbled softly, not looking forward to the trip back. Her stomach knotting up at just the thought of running into that creature.

Turning and walking in front of Janet, the guard motioned for her to follow, "I'll get you back to your quarters, just stay with me and once we get into the pod don't make too much noise."

"Don't worry, I'll be as quiet as a mouse," Commented Janet, following the guard out of the medical area.

Neither one said a word once they made it back into pod three, passing by a heavy combat squad guarding one of several main entrances from the pod and hub. She counted four of the heavy combat androids, decked out deadly looking heavy ordnance. Each of the heavy units wore armor thick enough to stop all but the heaviest of ground weapons. There was a mix of around a dozen normal combat androids and human guards; each one was also decked out with heavy armor and weapons.

As they made their way deeper into the pod going down several levels toward the living quarters. Janet noticed that the patrols and stationed guards had not thinned out as she had first thought they might. Snyder must have pulled more men and androids from the main hub as well as other pods in the hunt for the Xeno. She wondered how long the alien could keep hidden with as many patrols and guards as the commander had going, probably not long.

At seeing large numbers of armed guards and androids with the massive amount of firepower at their disposal, Janet started to feel a bit safer, but only just a little. If that alien did show up, she had no doubt that it would stand very little chance of survival. Rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand, she and her escort continued down the hallway.

Overhead and wall mounted lights flickered for a few seconds throughout the whole hallway, rapidly strobing then returning to normal. Janet's escort stopped, holding his hand up giving her a silent signal to stop as well. Slowly lifting his pulse rifle he cautiously checked back behind the two of them, then swinging the rifle forward in the direction they had been going. An icy chill shot down Janet's spine, her heart sped up as did her breathing, the nervousness from earlier now turned into fear. Normally something as mundane as the lights flickering, she would never have given a second thought to it. However considering the situation, anything off, no matter how insignificant seemed like a beacon for disaster. Maybe it was nothing more than a simple electrical hiccup, that kind of thing happened on this station semi-frequently. The lights hadn't gone out, only flickered for a few seconds, nothing more than that. Why then were the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end then, and every instinct screaming at her to run.

"Central, this is Woods, we've had a power fluctuation at my location," the guard whispered into his coms, "can you confirm?" His eyes darted around, as his head paned back and forth, he too seemed to feel something was off...wrong.

" _Woods, this is central, confirmed, we registered it as well. We've been unable to locate the source, it affected several decks in your area, please move with caution, other units have been alerted._ " The female voice over his headset spoke up.

"Roger that, Woods out," nodding at Janet, the two started to move again, slowly and quietly. A low hum vibrated throughout the hallway, the lights once again flickered, strobed, and then nothing.

Darkens, total and complete engulfed both of them.

Janet's breathing became rapid, her heart beat faster and faster in her chest, so fast and so loud it was pounding in her ears and was all she could hear. She felt as she was falling back for a few moments, then the realization hit her, not falling, floating.

The reddish glow of the emergency lights slowly illuminated the hallway. An almost blood red haze seemed to fill the whole area. " _Primary power offline, decks fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen_." A synthetic computer voice spoke up through the emergency speaker system. _"Affected areas are now zero-G, all personnel in affected areas are advised to preceded with caution and seek shelter."_

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Janet muttered to herself, her hands tightly clenching into fists. Both she and her escort found themselves starting to float inches above the steel plated floor.

Extending his hand out, Woods slid it along the wall until he found small finger holds and pulled himself over next to the bulkhead. "You have Zero-G training?" He quickly asked Janet, who was starting to slowly float away from him.

"Yea," She replied back, "just basic training though, didn't cover anything fancy."

Woods turned to look back at her, "it'll come back, just need to get a handhold or see if you can pivot and kick off the wall, floor or ceiling."

Twisting her body and kicking off, the momentum sent her drifting into the wall opposite of Woods. Grabbing onto a pipe, she turned to look back at the guard who nodded at her, then down the red-lit hallway. "Just like riding a bike." She said.

"Central this is Woods, we've lost gravity and main power, I repeat we have lost gravity and main power at my location, confirm please." Woods grip tightened on the rifle grip and his finger brushed up against the trigger. If something was about to happen the last thing we wanted was to be taken completely by surprise. So far, however, everything was silent, including the coms, a reply from central should have come in right away, but so far nothing.

"I repeat, central this is Woods, come in." Still nothing, dead silence, not even static.

Janet gently pushed off and slowly drifted towards Woods, "Coms are down I take it?" She asked, getting only a nod from him as a response. "If the main power leads in this area are out, then the internal com relays and transmitters are down as well along with everything else. And with all the structure I doubt your personal coms unit is going to get through to the main hub." Janet grabbed a pipe and pulling herself up against the wall, hanging in the air only a few feet from Woods.

"Well, that's just fucking great, so you're telling me that we can't even get or receive messages from central even with the main power in this area out?" He asked starting to feel more than a bit blind and even somewhat helpless now.

Looking back and forth down the hallway to see if anything was coming their way, she turned back to Woods seeing everything was clear. "Yea, I'm afraid so, the transmitters are all hardwired directly into the power relays and whatever idiot that designed the things didn't have the foresight to include power cell backups for emergencies, like this one."

Woods could only shake his head in disbelief, off all the times to find out this info and it had to be when he was on a level that had no power. To top it off a rogue Xeno was on the loose, quite possibly close by for all any of them knew. And he had no way to communicate back and forth with command. He made a promise to himself that he would lodge a formal complaint with the Commander about what he had just find out. The last thing any of them needed was to be both deaf and blind to what was going on around them.

Adjusting the setting on his coms unit, Woods figured that if he couldn't get a hold of central than maybe he could contact someone close by. Maybe someone would have an idea of what just happened. "This is Woods, can anyone hear me."

A few seconds later a static-filled female voice buzzed over his receiver, " _Woods, this is Kramer, I hear you, what's your status?_ "

"On deck fifteen, escorting one of the maintenance workers back to her quarters, any idea what's going on?"

 _"Negative, we're trying to relay any info to central commanded but the main coms are out. No one has any idea what just happened, we think that the Xeno may have torn up something. Commander Snyder was trying to bait the damn thing into a trap and capture it."_ Kramer informed him, her voice kept fading in and out as the static was making it harder to hear. _"Guessing something went sideways."_

"Understood," Woods said, having to raise his voice over the static for Kramer to hear. "I'll finish up here and join you shortly." A heavily garbled "roger that," came back over the earpiece, the static was getting worse and worse by the second. "Jerking his head toward the hallway, Woods motioned for Janet to follow, "Come on, let's get you back to your quarters and fast, I don't like what's happening." He said, gently pushing off the wall and slowly started to float down the hallway. Janet followed his lead; pushed off as well, drifting only a few meters behind him.

Woods kept his pulse rifle close to him and at the ready, the barrel pointed down the hall. In the few years that he had been stationed at Eclipse base, he had never once needed to use it, ever. The closest he had ever come to using it was when the Xenos broke out months ago, and while he had been assigned to another pod at the time, the base was placed on full alert. And all security personnel throughout the whole base were heavily armed and ready for a fight. Not that it had done much good, the Xenos had either avoided the secrecy personal and when they did engage, the aliens had torn through the security forces with ease.

Moving down the hall, both Woods and Janet were hit with a harsh metallic burning smell that permeated the air, slightly stinging their eyes. At first, Janet thought that it might be an electrical fire, it might explain the power going out like it did. She had seen her fair share of electrical fires before however the smell for this was completely wrong. This had a more acidic smell to it as if metal was being burned through or...melted.

Not even getting a chance to stop or say anything, a deafening bang of something heavy or massive hitting meal echoed out. Just a couple of meters in front of Woods, a slab of bulkhead flew out embedding itself into the opposite side of the hallway wall. Janet and Woods grabbed the wall and stopped as quickly as they could. Janet's eyes shifted over to the section of the bulkhead, the bolts and rivets that normally held the section of wall in place were melting, and small amounts of a yellow liquid were quickly eating through the hardened plexi-steel.

"BACK, BACK, BACK," Woods screamed, raw terror taut in his voice, he stood where he was at aiming his pulse rifle toward the opening. Following Wood's orders, Janet started to back away, there was no denying it, each of them knew what slammed into the now dislodged section of the bulkhead, and what was on the other side. There was only one creature whose fluids could eat away at reinforced plexi-steels like that, and it was the very creature that was being hunted right now.

A Xenomorph.

The massive black form burst out of the now new opening of the wall, swift and graceful, its large form almost swimming in the zero-g atmosphere. The eyeless domed, crested head quickly snapped to view the two floating human's in the now zero-g hallway. Turning to face the two humans, it let out a low sounding hiss.

Both Woods and Janet could only stand or rather float in place completely frozen in fear. Janet had never seen an actual Xeno before. In fact, the closest to ever seeing one was in her briefing on the various different kinds of species that were on board the station. And while there were many species that were housed on the station, as well as deadly bio experiments that were being developed. The only time that she had seen one was either on pictures or vids, never had she seen one in person, until now.

Woods himself had seen the Xenos in person, though only when he had guard duty outside the labs. Even at that distance, they scared the hell out of him, their ebony, bony serpentine bodies, the very lack of eyes, but the way the creatures seemed to almost looking right through anyone they came across. And now the biggest of them was just a few meters away from him.

Whether out of fear, desperation or just an automatic reflex action, Woods squeezed down on the trigger of the pulse rifle. A rapid, loud burst flashed from the muzzle of the weapon, hot rounds flew through the air, ricocheting off the floor and wall, not one ever hitting their intended target. Right then Woods cursed his own stupidity as he found himself tumbling through the air from the rifle's recoil.

With a quick snap of its body, the Praetorian shot towards Woods. Faster than he had thought possible for something so large, Woods found himself being pinned to the wall; none too gently either. The Xeno had his right forearm pressed up against Wood's neck; the thin lips began to peel back in an aggressive posture, warm drool floating in mid-air. Only inches away from Woods' face, the jaws opened up as wide as possible revealing the full sets of steel color teeth and the deadly inner toothed tough.

Closing his eyes, Woods prepared for his last few moments, he hoped that Janet would have enough sense to make a break for it and save herself. He prayed his death would be quick, as it would not be clean.

A loud bone, crunching crack, so loud in fact that the sound reverberated though Woods' head. At first, he wondered if the Xeno had killed him, he didn't feel any pain; there was still the pressure on his neck. After a few seconds, Woods dared to open his eyes. He found himself looking right into the eyeless dome; he could have sworn that the creature was glaring at him. Even though it didn't have eyes, at least none that he could see, thought the dome, however, he could make out the vague human skull like features beneath. It was a feature that gave the alien an even more frightening appearance than before.

He never made a sound after that as he still had Woods pinned to the wall. Slowly the Praetorian eased his grip on the smaller human, his massive hand reaching over and yanking the pulse rifle out of the guard's grip. With a quick flick, the Xeno sent the rifle flying down the hallway, bouncing several times off the wall until it drifted out of sight. Gently pushing off, he kept its gaze locked on Woods for another few moments, then turning he looked right at Janet. At seeing her almost totally petrified his posture relaxed some. He remembered all too well what Steffen had done to her, and now she was face to face with the one that had taken that miserable human's life.

The last thing he wanted was to cause her any more distress than what she had gone through, after a few moments he let out another low hiss. With almost an effortless kick, it glided down the hallway away from the two of them. It was time to leave as he had more pressing matters to attend to, such as punishing another of the late Doctor Steffen's crew. As he floated down the hallway he took a second to look at the still unconscious human that he still had a grip on with his left hand, everything had happened so fast he doubted either of the two wayward humans noticed the human scientist in tow.

xxxxx

Doctor Jeff Turner had never been a man of great courage, in fact, most of the time he was a ball of nervous tension that always seemed to be on the verge of exploding. A man in his early fifties, with a balding head, most of what was left of his short black hair was around his sides and back. A rather plan face that most would forget about in a short order, the only feature that stood out was his slight crinkled nose. It looked to have been broken several times in the past, though it was something that he always denied that ever happened and that he was just born with it that way. Rather short, only about five and a half feet tall, he did have a stomach that his colleges swore got bigger and bigger each year.

While a fairly brilliant mind in his own right, he was in so many ways socially inept, which had made him an easy target for the late Doctor Stephen. He had been content keeping to himself, diligently working at any task Doctor Ford Mason had assigned to him. The last thing he had ever wanted to do was draw attention to himself in any way, shape or form.

Doctor Steffen had come by at the end of Turner's shift one day and told him that he had something special that he wanted him to experience. Something that would alleviate his stress levels and make him feel better. Turner had agreed, somewhat reluctantly, but then again he had no desire to cause waves, so he went with Steffen.

Jeff Turner had been sickened to his stomach to see what Steffen and a few others were doing to one of the drones. To see a few of the staff taking turns have intercourse with a Xeno was something that had almost sent him into shock. Even though the creature was bound and could not move, he still could not believe that they were taking such a risk. He was about to turn and leave, but something inside stopped him from doing so. He could only describe it as a mental switch suddenly flipping in his mind.

For his entire life, he had been alone, always putting his studies and research ahead of his own personal desires. Never once knowing the warmth of someone else's touch, sure there were the synthetic pleasure bots that he could either buy or rent. However, he always felt that there was something lacking in being pleasured by a machine. And he had never had any desire to try one either, somehow to him, it seemed...perverse.

Right there, just at seeing what was going on, an inner war within had started. The intellect within was telling him that it was wrong, evil, twisted and that it needed to be reported. Unfortunately, the more base and primal part of his being had seen something that it wanted, desired, and desperately needed. To have been denied all this time, no, no longer would it be denied the pleaser of another, even if it wasn't human, it would do. To feel that tightness, that warmth, to finally feel a climax, a release, the primitive part of him wanted this.

He could only remember being in a half-trance as he removed his clothes as most of the others had done. His rational mind screaming at him that this was wrong, telling him not to do this, that he would regret this for the rest of his life. Those thoughts, those warnings had been swept away under the strong cloud of lust and desire. After all, it was only an animal, nothing more, what could it hurt, other than the people here, no one else would ever know.

And so with that first quick thrust, he found the pleasure that he had denied himself for so long. His base desires revealed in the carnal feelings that were overcoming him, the wetness, the warmth, the slick tightness. He couldn't remember how long he had gone before that first release, seconds, minutes, it didn't matter, all that mattered was that he had sated those long repressed needs. He never heard the enraged hisses or shrieks come from the drone as he was so wrapped up in what he was experiencing.

If he had known back then, months ago what was going to happen, he wondered if he would have walked away from it all. Would he have had the strength to do that, and not participate in Steffen's sick Xeno sex circle? He and the others from Steffens secret, little group had been rounded up and detained in a small conference room, each one wondering what was going on. It was only when Commander Snyder walked in and within minutes laid the smack down on all of them, not only telling them what had happened to Steffen but showing them the aftermath.

The pucker factor right then and there had shot to an all-time high, each one of them were stunned, horrified and trying to think about how to justify or lay blame at the late Steffen's feet. Snyder, however, was not having any of it, he didn't care, and as far as he was concerned they were all guilty and that was it, end of story. Their group would be disbanded and each one would be shipped off the station, to be disciplined by either Director Collins or whatever board of trustees might have jurisdiction over the Xeno project.

But first, each one of them was going to help to solve the problem at hand, and that was capturing the lose Praetorian.

Doctor Jeff Turner shuffled along the empty hallway, quietly mumbling to himself, the earpiece he wore was uncomfortable and his stomach was twisted in knots. Even though guards were shadowing him from a distance they might as well have been kilometers away. "I want to state that this is bullshit," He whispered into the mic, "you can't do this to any of us, you're putting our lives in danger for this stunt."

Commander Snyder voice came back over the earpiece right away, the man's tone was cold, even harsh by normal standards. _"I don't care, maybe you and the others can consider this as part of your punishment for your fucked up actions. As far as I'm concerned you all brought this on yourselves, I figure that even if that Xeno is in hiding, it's not going to pass up an opportunity to make a grab for anyone in Steffen's former group. You all should have had the good sense to keep it in tucked in your pants, now get your ass moving."_ The Commander growled at him.

Increasing his pace, doctor Turner made his way down the hallway, the only comfort that he could take was that he wasn't the only one from Steffens group doing this. The Commander had taken the whole group and split them up throughout the pod to be used as bait. Guards and androids with heavy ordnance were close by to each one of them; hopefully, there were enough of them to be able to subdue the massive Xeno. While he didn't hear or see anything out of the ordinary he could swear that something was watching him. _Maybe it's just nerves_ , he told himself, not believing a word of it. At the very start of this whole messed up ordeal with Steffen, a part of him kept saying that it was going to come back and bite him, and now it had. Steffen was dead, killed in a horrific way, and none too quickly from what he had been told. For all he knew he was next, if only he had the strength to walk away to tell Steffen to shove it at the beginning. But his primal urges had taken over, and for what, to literally get a piece of alien ass, and many times too.

He had hated himself after that first night. So many times wishing that he could go back and undo what had been done. He had known that it was wrong, immoral, and just stupid, but in the end, he had gone back over and over. Gone back to experience more, to have more, and after a while, it seemed like not only himself but all of them couldn't get enough. It was a craving they all seemed to need, maybe it was just the stress of the work they were doing. One of the few things that seemed to help relieve said stress, the pressure that they were all under, the horrible things to they all knew was going on, but no one talked about. To him, the work while important was an ever-increasing weight, a burden that he had to carry and right until Steffen came along that night, no relief in sight.

However, that had all ended when five of the Xenos had gotten out and gone on a deadly and bloody rampage. Whatever cravings they all had for the drone Xeno quickly evaporated after what had happened. Turner was surprised that Steffen had not picked out another Xeno for their sick little group. Maybe the man had been waiting, biding his time until everything settled down. Not that it mattered anymore, Steffen was dead and none of them were going to be using the aliens for their own personal pleasure ever again. A part of him was glad that it was over, that it was all out in the open, he knew that he would have a black mark hanging over him for the rest of his life. But maybe, just maybe, if he could get through this alive, he could start over.

As he continued walking down the hall, so wrapped up was he in his own personal thoughts, that he never ever heard the light scrapping just above him. Metal debris mixed with foam ceiling tiles and shatter ceiling lights fell around him. The deafening sound of metal striking metal, glass shattering, sparks flying. Jerking back away, automatically flailing his arms around trying to clear the dust away, not even sure what happened, his eyes fell on the now massive black form that was crouched on the floor just a short distance away.

Ever so slowly it stood up, the eyeless dome locked onto his form, thick, warm drool started to drip from the parting lips. Jeff Turner could almost swear that it was deliberately displaying itself, showing off, letting him know that it had found him and escape was not a possibility. For every move that it made was slow, tense, and purposive. Taking a step toward him, the deadly segmented tail slammed into the metal plating, the impact echoing down the hallway.

The scientist flinched, his mind screamed at him, telling him to turn, to run, to flee as fast as he could to get out of there, to go and not look back. Telling him that the guards who had been shadowing him were close by and that they could save him somehow. As the Praetorian took another step, Jeff Turner found that as much as he wanted to run, to scream to do something other than stand still, frozen stiff with fear, it was, in fact, all he could do. None of his muscles would do as he wanted, he could barely feel his body, just the tight grip of terror that was suffocating him.

The alien now right on top of him, looked down, lips peeled back in full aggression. Its maw opening up as wide as it could, a deep-toned threatening hiss came out from what seemed like an abyss, reverberated throughout his body.

Somehow Jeff found his voice, found some small bit of willpower to loosen up the blanket of terror that had engulfed him. He screamed, as loud as he could, he couldn't say any words as nothing would come out, but he finally was able to scream. Snyder's voice boomed over the earpiece demanding to know what was happening, what was going on, telling him to report. The last thing that the scientist saw was the oversized hands reaching out to him, then tightly gripping his head. He could barely hear Snyder screaming at him through the earpiece, telling him that the guards were on their way.

Then nothing, blissful darkness enveloped him.

xxxxx

Since his escape and with Ryan's help the large Praetorian had been able to evade the patrols that were searching for the two of them. It hadn't helped that after he had killed Steffen, after the body was found, the patrols had increased both in frequency and how many guards were in each group. Keeping hidden was becoming harder and harder, the two had a few close calls, but had managed to stay out of sight.

During one of his outings, he saw one of the techs that had been in Steffen's group. His first instinct had been to break through the wall, grab the human and rend him. Something had been off, the human was slowly walking around, almost aimlessly. He had caught the sounds of other humans close by, as he slowly made his way to investigate only to find out that it was a large group of armed guards and androids that were following the tech, keeping just out of sight.

Staying still and silent, he continued to observe them as they passed by, in a few minutes they were down the hall and out of sight. Making the decision not to attack, he continued to advance through the levels. He came across a few others from Steffen's group, each one, at first appeared to be alone, an easy target. Only they weren't alone, just out of sight each once was being followed by a large armed group.

It was easy to see that it was a trap, a tempting one at that. The human leader must have been getting desperate to try capture or kill him if he was using the humans from Steffen's group to try and lure him out. Even though it was a trap, it was also an opportunity he did not want to pass up.

He thought about the ones that he had come across, there was one of the human scientists that might make a good target to take. The one he was thinking about had been further ahead of the group of armed guards, if he could grab him and disappear before the group had time to react it might work. It would have to be quick, once the scientist alerted the guards the group would be within firing range in moments.

As the Praetorian made his way back to his intended target, he spotted the small human, still shuffling along at a slow pace. His escorts out of sight, maybe they had fallen behind more than they realized. Positioning himself above his target, he could hear the human was talking to someone. The man was complaining about something, not liking what was going on. The Xeno smiled to himself, _too bad little one._

Moving along, his tail blade scrapped along the shaft, cursing his own clumsiness at the noise. Thankfully from what he could tell the human hadn't noticed, getting in front of his prey by a few meters, he rose up and slammed himself down. The ceiling bottom collapsed under the force, sending the ceiling tiles, metal and broken light raining down. He fell through, landing on the floor, crouching down in front of the much smaller human.

The scientist waved his hand and arms, frantically trying to clear away the dust that was stirred up. The human froze as soon as he saw him, the Praetorian had half expected the scientist to scream and run alerting the guards. But nothing, he could smell and even feel the raw terror that embraced the scientist. Fear kept the human frozen, and quiet.

Slowly rising up, he decided to make a show of it, he had a few moments after all. Gradually coming up to his full height he ever so leisurely took a step toward the doomed human. Then another one, his lips peeling back in an aggressive display. His brothers shared memories flooded back, while this human had not been anywhere as close to being as cruel as Steffen and Mason were, he had violated his brother regardless.

And that was unacceptable.

Towering over the human, his lips peeled back fully, opening his jaws as wide as they could go, he let out a menacing hiss of disgust. He still had no idea how he was going to punish this piece of filth, but it would be something that would make the human regret violating his brother.

At that moment, the human let out a high pitched scream. While it didn't hurt, it was more annoying than anything else. He hadn't expected a male of the species to have such a high pitched scream. Regardless he knew right there that the guards had been alerted, it was time to go.

Grabbing the human by the head with both of his hands, he squeezed, not enough to kill, but hopefully enough to render the human unconscious. A few second later, the human stopped screaming and his body went limp. Looking over the now placid scientist for a moment, he saw the all too familiar earpiece and the communication device around the shirt collar; plucking the small devices and tossing them off to the side. No sense taking someone if they could communicate with those he himself wanted to remain hidden away from. There was something else along the placket front of the human's shirt, a small black round button that had a dim red light that was flashing ever so slightly. Even though he didn't know what it was, it did look oddly out of place. He had never seen any of the other humans wear anything like it, pulling the small black disk from the shirt he tossed it to the ground.

At hearing the rush of multiple footfalls getting louder and closer, the Xeno slung the human unceremoniously over his shoulder and with a powerful leap disappeared back into the guts of the station.

Arriving too little and too late, the armed group took in the mess that had been left behind. One of the androids scanned the area, it spotted the discarded coms and earpiece, it also saw the black metal disk that had been removed from the scientist. Picking up the devices it handed them to one of the guards who quickly took stock of them. Without saying a word the group turned around, it was time to let Commander Snyder know what had happened.

Weaving through the ducts and maintenance shaft with his human cargo in tow, the Praetorian figured that an alert had been sounded. He would need a distraction, and a large one at that to keep the human's and their mechanical warriors busy. Slowing down he started to look around, in the labs he and many others had observed the human's and their technology. While none of them truly understood how the more complex devices and machines worked. They all knew that everything the humans used required one very important thing.

Power.

Without it, none of their devices and machines worked. While he had been with Ryan he had started to learn more and more about the inner workings of the station. And what the pipes, conduits as they were called and the blinking metal boxed did, or at the very least he had a better idea. He wouldn't need to attack them directly to hurt them, just cut off what they needed most. And watch the panic in sue

Finding what he was looking for, several large metal boxes that had large conduit going in and smaller conduit snaking out. This was going to be a first for him, tilting his head back some; opening his maw, his inner tongue came out slightly. Jerking forward some, a thick stream of yellow liquid sprayed out coating the metal boxes. Instantly the metal boxes started to dissolve and smoke, loud popping, sparks and fire erupted, in seconds they were little more than smoking slag.

The normal lighting flickered then went out, quickly to be replaced by the red emergency lighting. Something interesting also happened, something he had not expected, he started to float. A muffled voice spoke, one that he could not make out; it seemed to be coming outside, maybe in the hallways. As pleasant as he found the sudden weightlessness, he needed to get back to his hiding area and quickly before his "guest" woke up.

Making his way up another level, he came to the large inner wall plates separating the maintenance area from the hallways. Looking over the plate it was held in place by numerous large bolts. There wasn't time to be delicate in this case, and right now cutting through the hallway was would be quicker than going through the maze of shafts and tunnels.

Spraying down the bolts one by one, instantly the metal started to melt into metallic gunk. Setting down the scientist, he floated back until he came into contact with a pillar. His body tensed up almost coiling like a spring becoming taught. With a single burst, he sprung forward, the mass of his body colliding with the metal plate, the few remaining guards on the plate sheared off, snapping as the massive slab of metal flew across the hall embedding itself into the far wall.

Satisfied with his work, he grabbed the scientist by the scurf of his shirt and went through the newly formed hole, he found himself in one of the larger main hallways. The whole area was bathed in red light, there was also something else, two humans who were staring right at him. One of them he recognized right away, it was the human female that Steffen had hurt. She was with a single male guard, perhaps the guard was taking her someplace. He could feel the fear radiating off each one, he let out a low sounding hiss, a way to let them know he met them no harm.

He was about to turn and leave the two alone when the all too familiar and hated sound of a pulse rifle being fired roaring to life. A few of the rounds struck the floor and walls, bouncing harmlessly away, leaving the guard spinning helplessly in the weightless environment.

Infuriated that this stupid human and tried to attack him, with scientist still in hand, he darted toward the human warrior pinning him to the wall. He had been more than willing to leave the two alone, instead, the guard had decided to go and challenge him. Fear reeked off the guard now, opening his maw wide, he saw that the human warrior had closed his eyes, thinking that he was now going to die and had accepted his fate. With a loud bone-crunching crack, he snapped his jaws closed. A warning, the first and only one this human warrior would get.

Keeping the human pined to the wall, reaching over he grabbed the pulse rifle from the human's hand and sent it flying down the hallway. Closely observing the human, he wondered if the shots had been an accident instead of a deliberate attack. The human hadn't taken aim at him, as the bullets hit only the walls and floor. Backing off slowly, letting the human know that he would not kill him, at least not right now. He saw that the human female from Steffen's quarters was terrified beyond normal sense now.

Letting out a low sounding hiss, it was something to let her know that he had no intention to harm her, even if she couldn't understand him the gesture was there. With that he turned, kicking off and floated down the hallway, glancing back down at the scientist he still had in hand. He still didn't know what he was going to do with the human, for a second he had toyed with the idea of doing to the scientist what they had done to his brother. Maybe bind him down and violate him, let him know what it would feel like. The problem was that his first thrust would more than likely rip the man apart and kill him right on the spot.

No, he wasn't going to lower himself to what Steffen had done. Or make it that quick.

Out of sight of the two humans, the Praetorian looked around and found one of the access hatches. Opening it up, he shot inside, closing the hatch he once again found himself in the maze of maintenance tunnels. Mentally retracing his path he figured that he was only about six or seven levels away from his and Ryan's current hiding spot. If he was both quiet and swift he could make it back undetected. It would give him some time to think about what he was going to do with the human scientist. His decision had been on the spur of the moment and not very well thought out. In fact, he knew that it had been a stupid and unwise action on his part. Still, a large part of him wanted justice for what that group had done to his brother. If however, justice could not be served then he would settle for a dose of vengeance.

Making his way back up to his hiding area, his mind started to race as what to do. He doubted Ryan would be happy about this.

xxxxx

Hiding out with the Xenomorph Praetorian for several days had been an interesting adventure, to say the least. At least that what Ryan Anderson had been telling himself as he stood under a stream of warm water that sprayed out from a valve that was attached one of the clean hot water intake pipes. Scrubbing himself down with a piece of cloth, he tried to wash off the grime that had built up since freeing and going into hiding with the big guy.

The hot water offered some much-needed relief and helped him relax a little. While it wasn't a full blown shower, something he would have killed for right about now, it did serve its purpose. Lying out to dry on a nearby warm pipe was his shirt, pants and some of his undergarments. Rinsed and somewhat clean, the warmth of the pipe would hopefully have them dry soon. He was just glad that he had the good sense to pack some extra clothing before going on this fool's adventure.

So far clean drinking water was not an issue and his food stocks, as limited as they might be, were still in good order. He figured that if it became necessary the two of them could break into one of the food storage areas and take what they needed.

As Ryan continued to wash himself down, he heard the heavy metal door open and then close shut. Heavy footfalls crept closer and closer, a sound that he had come to unmistakably recognize belonging to the large Xenomorph. Turning around to see what his companion was doing he froze at what he saw.

Stopping in the middle of the maintenance the Praetorian dropped a white-clothed lump down on the steel floor. Ryan could only stare in utter disbelief at what he was seeing; he blinked a few times just in case his mind was playing tricks on him. To his dismay, it wasn't. The Praetorian had, in fact, brought one of the lab scientists to their hiding area.

Stepping out from under the warm water Ryan quickly shut off the valve, grabbed a small towel and started to dry himself off. Of all the things to have to happen, this would have been the last thing on his list. While he recognized the scientist but he couldn't place the name, he had seen the man in the labs, and he remembered speaking to him in passing a few times. Usually a technical question or two, but that was it.

Finally, after what seemed like several long minutes, Ryan just looked right up at the Xeno and shrugged, not ever sure of what to say. His mouth opened and closed several times trying to form words, but nothing came out as his brain was still trying to grasp on what was going on. At last words did come out, though not quite what he wanted to say.

"What in the everlasting fuck," he blurted out, "what...what...what the fuck, why?" Ryan could only stand there looking down at the unconscious scientist wondering what was going through the Xeno's mind. Maybe he didn't want to know, a scary thought did cross his mind, however, what if...what if the Praetorian had brought the scientist back as food. While the Xeno hadn't eaten for a while, Ryan knew for a fact they could live weeks if not months without food. At this point, he was really hoping that scenario was not going to play out.

He just pressed his fingers against his temples and rubbed them in complete frustration. While communication was rudimentary at best, he was hoping that in some way he could get an answer, at least an answer that didn't involve seeing someone torn to small bloody chunks and consumed, "Why?" Ryan asked after calming himself down enough to speak, "why did you bring him here and please tell me it's not to eat him."

Looking back down at the human scientist, the Praetorian could only do his version of a scoff, which sounded to Ryan's like a short and sharp growling hiss. While punching a hole through the little man's brain had been tempting, eating one of them had not crossed his mind. And this was the barrier that he was trying to get past; truly communicating with Ryan, hand signals, vocalization, twenty questions was fine for very basic stuff. This, however, this was going to take a bit more creativity on his part.

The Xeno took a step back and slowly started to pace back and forth, his tail lazily dragging being him and he started thinking. He took notice as Ryan went over to one of his bags and retrieved a set of clothing and started to get dressed. While he had never seen a human without their clothing on until now, he had to admit that Ryan did have a fairly well-built body, at least for a human. Somewhat well-defined muscle tone, with a slight layer of soft fat around his midsection and upper chest.

It was little wonder that Ryan had inflicted so much damage on Mason when he had attacked that soulless piece of human garbage. A memory that still gave him much pleasure to revisit, or at least as much as he could remember, as at the time he had been in a rage-induced frenzy to get out of that damn containment pod and help Elizabeth.

While Ryan was getting dressed, the Xeno heard the scientist moaned slightly, seconds later the man's eyes began to ever so slowly open up.

Good.

A plan started to formulate in the Praetorian's mind. There was no way he could directly communicate to Ryan, or show him what had been done to his brother by these humans. Perhaps, however, if he intimidated the scientist just enough, he would openly confess what he had done. At least then Ryan would understand what needed to be done and why.

Crouching down, he leaned over until he was on all fours, placing a hand on either side of the scientist's head. Lowering himself until he was just a foot away from the man's face, his lips peeled back slightly.

Ryan's mind was racing from what the Pretorian had done, trying to figure it out. Why in god's name had he brought that scientist here? The Xeno didn't seem to do anything without a reason, or at least that was what he had surmised so far. Throwing on a pair of pants and shirt, he was so lost in thought about the situation he nearly had a heart attack when a blood-curdling scream rang out through the room. If only half the station heard that, they might be lucky.

Whirling around, Ryan saw the Praetorian hunkered right over the scientist. The thin lips now fully peeled back exposing the deadly metallic colored teeth. Drool warm and thick, almost cascading out from the Xeno's close maw, coating the scientist's face, neck, and upper chest area. Much of the drool was running off his face and pooling on the floor around his head. A low drawn out rumbling sound came from the Xenomoph, it wasn't the normal hiss that Ryan had become so familiar with, but more of a growl.

Ryan completely froze in place; there was nothing he could do to save the scientist if the Praetorian wanted to kill the man. All he could do is stand there helplessly and watch, his stomach started to turn and knot up, bile then crept into his mouth, leaving a foul acidic taste. He had put his own life on the line to save this Xeno, mainly because Elizabeth had first come to believe in the Xenos and after a while so had he. Both began to see that they were far more than the mindless killing machines that everyone had made them out to be.

He started to wonder right then if maybe he and Elizabeth had been wrong.

Vivid memories from his drone brother flashed through the Praetorian's mind, every scent, touch, violation, word of humiliation and mockery rang in his mind. The laughing, that was the worse, seeing the memories, experiencing them, the loud laughing that mocked and made fun of his brother's pain. At that point, he would have liked to have done nothing better than to rip this piece of human filth apart. It was a pity that he couldn't make the scientist relive what his brother was forced to endure at their hands.

However, that was not the plan; the man was raw with terror now, just what he needed. Ever so slowly the Xeno rose up, towering over the quivering scientist. He turned over to observe Ryan, who too smelled of fear, though the fear that Ryan gave off was of one who was about to witness an act that would haunt him. Fortunately, there would be no act of violence, nothing that would mentally and emotionally scar the young human for years to come. He just needed to put on a good show to convince the scientist his life was in danger. Fear was an excellent weapon if used properly and in proper doses.

Stepping back several paces, the Xeno gave the scientist a small bit of breathing room. It was to let Ryan know that the scientist would not be torn apart. At least not just yet.

Looking over at the Xeno and then slowly back to the scientist, Ryan's mind while still reeling from what he had just seen. He wondered just what the hell was going on, the Xeno hadn't killed the man, just scared the piss out of him, literally. There seemed to be something going on between the two, something personal, he just didn't know what it was. And while the alien had backed off, it was still razor focused in on the man; Ryan could have sworn it was glaring right at the scientist.

Taking a few steps forward, Ryan was still trying to remember the man's name, but he just couldn't. This was going to be awkward on a whole new level in so many ways. "You alright," Ryan asked sheepishly, feeling like an idiot right after. Of course, the guy wasn't' alright, he had been abducted by a Xeno, dragged through the maintenance shafts and dropped off in the guts of the station, no one would be alright after that. Especially after waking up to a full set of steel colored teeth looming right over you. _Fucking great Ryan, why don't you just ask him how his day has been going as well, sure he would love to tell you that._ Ryan berated himself mentally for asking such a stupid question.

The scientist didn't even seem to notice that Ryan had said something to him, all he did was just stare right at the Xeno. His eyes, wide with fear, almost totally dilated, his gaze never once moved off the massive alien.

"Hey," Ryan said, snapping his fingers a couple of times toward the man's face. That got a reaction right on the spot, the man's head snapped right toward Ryan. "You with me?" Ryan asked, "you alright?" And there it was again, anyone could see that he wasn't alright, the poor sod was scared beyond belief, and who could blame him. Waking up like he did, Ryan was actually surprised that the guy hadn't had a heart attack on the spot.

"...I...I...I don't...," Turner stammered, unable to find words, "I...ummm," he knew that this wasn't a dream, his mind kept flashing back to the last few seconds before he blacked out. Those massive clawed hands gripping his head, and the next thing he knew was waking up to those god-awful steel teeth.

Looking over at the Praetorian who was still staring at him, he then slowly looked back at Ryan, his mind finally clicked into place as he seemed to come back to his senses, at least in part. "You're supposed to be dead." Turner blurted out, not quite believing that Ryan was not only alive but quite well. "Why hasn't it killed you yet?"

Ryan was going to answer that but realized that there was no answer that he could tell the man that wouldn't make him come off as a total lunatic. _Well let me see, I just befriended a Xenomorph Praetorian and helped free him. Wanted to get him off the station to safety but he wanted to stay behind to help his kind oh and also to help Elizabeth Brooks who Mason tried to fucking kill._ Yea, real convincing story there, who the hell in their right mind would believe that?

"Probably because I didn't torture them," Ryan flat said, keeping his answer short and to the point. He noticed just how much the scientist had cringed at what he had just said. The Xeno gave what sounded like to Ryan an approving hiss at that answer. "Who are you, I remember talking to you briefly a few times but I can't place your name."

Turner coughed some, trying to clear his throat, "Jeff Turner." He answered, "You're Ryan Anderson, correct?" He asked, still trying to focus his mind. Normally he would have never given the tech a second glance and had all but forgotten the young man's name. Except that Ryan's name and even face had been going all over the station after the Xeno had busted out of the containment pod.

Nodding, "Yea, guess things got a bit crazy huh."

Turner just looked right at Ryan with a deadpan expression plastered on his face. "Crazy...crazy," Turner pointed a finger right at the Xeno, "That fucking thing killed Doctor Steffen, just went up and murdered him without any reason."

Right at those words, the Xeno's whole body went ridged with barely controlled rage. Yes, he had killed Steffen, that however as far as he was concerned was not murder it was justice, vengeance, a reckoning that had finally come. He let out a deafening hiss directed right at Turner, his tail slamming several times onto the metal floor letting the human worm know of his displeasure at his choice of words.

Even Ryan was caught off guard by the aggressive display; he swore that he could actually feel the anger radiating off the Xeno. After a few seconds, he glanced at the Xeno and then back at Turner, "What do you mean he killed doctor Steffen?" Ryan asked, not sure if he actually wanted to know or not as a cold chill shot down his spine.

"Broke into his quarters, strung him up like a piece of meat and vertically impaled him with its tail blade, went right through his ass and into his guts. Turner wiped his forehead, the humidity was stifling in the small mechanical room; he couldn't see how Ryan was tolerating it at all.

Ryan's mind was stumbling with this new bit of info that Turner had just unloaded on him. Sure the Xenos had killed before, but that was to escape and in self-defense. Why would the big guy go after Steffen, and kill him in that way? Ryan got up and walked up to the Xeno, he might as well ask and find out for sure.

Turner's eyes widened even more if it was even possible, and with total disbelief at what he was seeing, the fact that Ryan was actually walking toward the black, skeletal alien horror. Anyone in their right mind and with a single speck of self-perseveration would have been running the opposite direction as fast as they could. But no there he was calm and collected as if it were just a person, walking right up to it.

"Please tell me that he is full of shit," Ryan pleaded; Turner's eyes hadn't lied when he told Ryan what had happened to Steffen. Plus, there was that god awful gut feeling that was in the pit of his stomach gnawing away at him when he knew the truth but didn't want to hear it. It was telling him that Turner wasn't full of shit. "Is he telling the truth, did you kill doctor Steffen?"

Right then the Praetorian wished that there was some way to break the news in a better and easier way. If only he could show Ryan what Steffen and his group had done to his brother, but there wasn't and that's the way it was. He nodded his head once in affirmation, letting Ryan know that Turner was correct in that one single fact.

After what seemed like more than a few all too tense moments, Ryan asked the only question that he could think of. "Why...why the hell would you do that? It's no wonder the searches have become more intense. What the fuck were you thinking, I mean we could have stayed hidden or gotten away, we're going to be burned down when the search parties find us. Why, why did you go and kill someone when you didn't have to?" Ryan was a step or two from going into a state of full-blown panic about what he had just found out. "Can you in any way explain why you had to go and kill him, can you...no you can't...fuck."

When the whole idea of freeing the Xenos had just been an idea it was fine, something to talk about and nothing more than that. Of course in the back of his mind Ryan had not taken it that seriously, it was an idea and talk nothing more than that. But after what had happened to Elizabeth, well that was when it got serious. No more talking about it, he started really planning, it was time to put his money where his mouth was and to do what was right. It had taken every ounce of mental strength for him to pull the trigger on that combat android and to take that first terrifying step. From that point on he kept expecting to get blown apart, to feel a bullet go into his back and out his front, or to turn a corner and see a squad of armed guards about to open fire. So far that had not happened, however as small their chances had been before to get away, those chances were now dead.

The Praetorian was able to understand Ryan's frustration, he sympathized with the young human; however, it had been something that was necessary, something that needed to be done.

Lowering himself down, until he was more or less head level, he placed his massive hands on Ryan's shoulders and drew him in some. A low sounding rumble, something that Ryan or any human would have associated with a large cat's purr, seemed to come from the Xeno's chest. The sound resonated through Ryan's body and right away he started to calm down.

Jeff Turner could only lie there, staring at the odd encounter with a mix of disbelief and complete confusion. His mind kept screaming at him that what he was seeing wasn't possible, Xenomorphs didn't act like this. Not toward each other and never toward others outside of their own race, and yet, he was seeing it with his own eyes. The Praetorian was offering what looked like comfort to Ryan, trying to calm him.

It was a trick of the mind, either that or he was still unconscious, yes, that must be it, unconscious and dreaming. That was the only rational, logical explanation that made any sense. At least that was what he told himself over and over as he watched the two.

Ryan found that his panic attack and frustration was starting to ease up some. Mentally he felt a bit fatigued but his thinking was becoming clearer. "Thanks," he said, taking a deep breath holding it for a few seconds and slowly exhaled. "But I still need to know, why did you kill Steffen, what prompted it, surely he wasn't a threat to you or anyone. Can you at least help me on that somehow?" Ryan said, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Standing up straight, the Praetorian pointed right at Jeff Turner, his lips peeling back just a bit at the animosity he had toward the man.

Ryan looked over at Jeff, who was still lying prone on the ground, starring at the two. He glanced back up at the Xeno, "He knows why you killed doctor Steffen, is that what you are trying to tell me?" Ryan asked, wondering what the hell he was now in the middle of.

Resigning himself to find out, Ryan walked back over to Turner and sat down a bit away from the man. Getting himself involved in the middle of an interspecies feud was not exactly what he had in mind when he had woken up earlier. Now it seemed like he had little choice in the matter. "So what happened, what do you know that has him so pissed off at you?" Ryan asked, not entirely convinced that he was going to get an answer from the man.

"I don't know," Tuner blurted out before he could think clearly about what he was going to say, it was just a reflex answer that just kind of popped out.

It was, however, an answer that was far from acceptable for the Praetorian, who took a step toward Turner and let out a chilling hiss at the man. The Xeno's heavy and deadly bladed tail slammed into the floor several times again, a warning to the man not to lie anymore.

Turner cringed at the looming giant, nightmare before him who seemed all too ready to rip into him. Even at the horrible situation that he found himself in, a part of him would have found the whole interaction between Ryan and the Xeno fascinating. Or at least he would have if he was in a safety room observing the two from afar behind layers of think protective glass and metal. Not huddled up pissing his pants in fear.

"Well obviously you know something, or did something to anger him, I mean why the hell did he bring you here? It wasn't to kill you, he could have done that before coming back, so what it is?" Asked Ryan again, his stomach was feeling heavy as anxiety started to creep back into his stomach.

"I don't know anyt..." Turner was cut short by a cold and angry hiss, taking another couple of strides forward the Praetorian was towering over him now, lips peeled fully back, raising a hand it looked posed ready to take his head clean off now. "Don't...please!" Turner cried out, covering his face with hands in a feeble attempt to protect himself. "It was Steffen alright; he dragged us into his sick, fucked up fantasies!" Turner screamed out.

Slowly the Xeno lowered his hand, there was a small sense of satisfaction that Turner was about to confess to what had happened. Backing off and taking a few steps back, he never took his gaze off the human.

A part of Ryan didn't want to know, he hadn't asked for this, sure he wanted to help the Xenos, but this, he was getting the impression that things were about to get very fucked up and perhaps very personal in a bad way.

"It was all Steffens idea; he had gotten several of the other doctors and techs in this group. I honestly don't know how long it had been going on for, but one day he came to me and invited me down. Told me it would be great stress relief. Christ, you know how it is working under Mason, most of us kept wondering when he would lose it and kill one of us. Between that and the constant deadlines for all our research information...well, Steffen gave us a temporarily way out, even if it was just a few hours." Turner said, the man was now completely deflated, it seemed, almost resigned to whatever would come after.

"He invited me down to an isolated spot where he had a drone, specimen zero-one fully bound. They were fucking it, ok, raping it, sodomizing it, beating it, doing whatever they could to get to feeling better. Christ, we all hated the damn things you know, the way they looked at us, right through us, never submitting to us the way they were suppose to. Their horrible, frightening things that shouldn't even exist in the world, nature sure didn't make them that's for sure." Turner's voice trailed off slightly as he was lost in thought, "I didn't want to you know, not at first anyway." He said, "The whole idea was sick and twisted, but I had never had been with anyone before, never knew what it was like to be with anyone. And that part of me wanted it and I let it take what it wanted and if felt good, physically it was better than anything I had ever felt before and I wanted more, all of us did."

Turner continued in graphic detail what they had done to the drone, the countless number of times the small but still increasing number of people that would participate. Ryan finally had had enough and told him to shut up. He was more than happy to end the perverted confession that had been forced upon him.

Ryan just paced back and forth across the room, he didn't know what to think or even say. He never suspected that something like this was going on, if he had known...hell he didn't know what he would have done if he had found out. "You know, it's no fucking wonder he killed doctor Steffen the way he did." Ryan blurted out, almost seething with rage at what he had just found out, "can you even imagine what that drone had to go through? As if it wasn't bad enough that Mason was always torturing him, now you're telling me that a group of scientists and lab tech were basically having their way with him." Ryan wanted to verbally rip into him, tell him just how much of a piece of garbage he was, and that whatever happened to him, he deserved every bit of it.

One thing he did know, neither he nor the Xeno could stay in their hiding spot any longer. Turner had seen the room and would be able to give a description of it, sure it might take the guards a while to find it, but it would narrow the search down to a few select areas. "We can't stay here any longer," Ryan whispered to the Xeno, we have to leave and find someplace else. The pods locked down but even with the shutters and security doors in place maybe we could find a way to one of the other pods or maybe the main hub."

Nodding once, the Praetorian was in full agreement; he did regret now bringing the scientist to their hiding spot. As now they would both have to make their way throughout the station and find a new area. It was, however, something that both of them knew would happen sooner or later, it was never a matter of if, it was simply a matter of when.

Glancing back over at Jeff Turner for a second, Ryan looked back up at the Xeno, "I don't care what you do with him anymore, just make it quick." He said, walking over to his bags and stuffing what few belongings he had back inside them and slinging the bags over his shoulders. "I'll wait for you outside in the hallway."

Turner looked more than a bit alarmed as Ryan walked around him and headed for the door. "WHAT, wait, where are you going?" He asked, panic filling his voice as he caught the sight of the Xeno coming toward him. "What are you doing, you can't leave me here with that thing," he screamed.

Stopping at the door, Ryan grabbed the handle and pulled, not even bothering to look at the panicked man. "I leaving you to your fate, the fact is this, you brought this on yourself and you have no one else to blame. You could have walked away, but you didn't, you violated someone in one of the worse possible ways, doesn't matter if that someone wasn't human. So, your fate is in the big guy's hands, not sure what he is going to do to you and to be quite honest I don't want to know. But I'm betting that it's neither going to be pleasant or gentle." With those last words, he walked out into the hallway shutting the door behind him, leaving Turner alone with the Xeno.

Jeff Turner's face went pale as the massive alien picked him up by his head...again, its large hands clamping down on either side and pinning him to the wall. In a very short time, doctor Turner had the opportunity to experience several things that he had never witnessed in the labs with the Xenos. Now he was now seeing another, a toothy smile, almost sadistic in nature, crept across the Xenos' face. It was the first time he had ever seen a Xeno smile; needless to say the steel-toothed smile didn't fill him with hope of any kind. Closing his eyes once again he prayed whatever was going to happen would be quick.

xxxxx

"And you're telling me that it let you go, just like that, after pinning you to the wall and tossing your rifle away?" Commander Snyder asked, eyeing the guard who was rubbing his throat.

"Yes, sir that is correct." Woods replied back, "it didn't' seem to have any interest in us at all, in fact, if I hadn't accidentally pulled the trigger it might have left us alone. Had it point blank range and I couldn't even hit it."

Snyder looked down, a few small metallic and plastic pieces jingled around in his cupped hand. "Be grateful that you didn't hit it this time, you only would have pissed it off even more. Besides, I doubt that your weapon would have done anything to kill it, even if you had unloaded a full magazine at that range." Looking back up at Woods, Commander Snyder just nodded some, "you're alive, be thankful for that."

"Yes, sir I am, believe me, I am. Don't want to experience anything like that ever again." Woods told the Commander.

"One last thing, you didn't happen to see one of the lab scientists with the Xeno?" Snyder asked, wondering what had become of doctor Tuner, was the man still alive or was he dead just like Steffen.

Woods only shook his head, "I'm sorry Commander, everything happened so fast, I don't remember seeing anyone."

"Alight, you're dismissed, go and file a report on what happened. Then report back here for further duty." Snyder said, giving Woods a half-hearted salute. Returning the salute, Woods turned and walked out the command area.

"Ms. Farish, I'm afraid that your quarters are going to be off limits until we get the power restored, in fact, we're transferring everyone in the affected area to temporary shelters in the main hub," Snyder told the maintenance worker who had been standing at attention next to Woods as he relayed what had happened.

"Yes sir, I understand, thankfully I don't have much in my quarters, and nothing that would need attention." She said, trying not to sound disheartened by what she had just witnessed and the fact that she couldn't return to her quarters. Ever since leaving doctor Harpers office all she had wanted to do was take a long shower and lie down. At least the shelters were somewhat comfortable, even if the showers were public. "Commander, a lot of what happened is kind of a hazy, but I think I remember seeing something white in one of the Xenos' hands, The way it was positioned it was hard to see anything."

"Thank you, Ms. Farish. Why don't you sign in at the shelter, get some rest and something to eat. And if you remember anything else, please let us know." Snyder told her, with a nod of her head she turned and left the room to make her way to the shelters, get a hot shower and get something to eat.

Heading out of the office soon after, Snyder headed to the operations area, meeting up with Lieutenant Blare along the way, the Commander handed him the objects that he had been carrying around. "Well, that confirms it, that big sonofabitch knew what to get rid of, earpiece, coms unit, also removed the homing beacon on his shirt."

Lieutenant Blare looked at the objects that Snyder had handed him, "I was hoping that you would have been wrong about this, so we really aren't dealing with some dumb animal are we?"

"No we're not," Snyder said slowly shaking his head, "I'm not sure just how smart they are but regardless this makes things a lot more complicated and dangerous."

"How could the science division miss this, if the Xenos are that smart, how could the scientists not have noticed?" Blare asked.

"My guess is Mason, he either didn't care enough to tell us or even he himself doesn't know. But regardless right now it doesn't matter; when that loose Xeno is either captured or killed we'll get some answers." Snyder looked over at a young woman who was approaching the two of them with a datapad in her hand.

"Sir, we've got a signal," She said, offering him the pad, "It's weak, upper levels but it's consistent, hasn't moved in a while now."

Snyder took the pad and looked at it, a cutout map of the station was on screen with a small red blip that was around what looked to be a sub-maintenance room. "Thank you, Sergeant," Snyder said, zooming in on the location.

"Just on the off chance I was right, I had Turner and the others injected with small homing beacons. Figured that the alien would go after them the first chance it got." Snyder told Blare.

Blare head turned slightly, as he suddenly realized what the Commander had just done. "You wanted one of them to be captured by the alien didn't you, is that why you held the guards so far back?"

Snyder looked up at Blare, "Yes, I wanted to see just how smart those things really were and I got an answer. It knew what to get rid of when it grabbed turner and how and when to strike. The fact is we can't spend the days, weeks or even months trying to hunt this thing down. So I let it grab one of the scientists and take it back to its hiding area. And now we know where it is, and how to hit it, according to this there's only one way in and one way out."

"And if Doctor Turner is dead sir, what then, won't that death be on you?"

"Yes, it will be, and it's something I'll have to live with, but consider this, there are well over a thousand lives onboard this station. Over a thousand lives that I have to be responsible for, and if Doctor Turner is dead then that's on me and I'll accept the consequences, but if we can catch or kill that Xeno, then it's a price that I'll accept. Don't forget, Turner is part of Steffen's group, it's not like I'm throwing an innocent to the wolves." Snyder said, looking back down at the pad, the signal, while week was still staying in one spot.

Closing the pad, Snyder looked up at the command staff, taking everything in. They were good people in his eyes, worked hard, and rarely griped, at least not on duty. They were a staff that he was proud to serve with. And now things were going to get messy, He knew that a lot of good men and women would die in this fight, but it was something that each one of them had signed on for and they all knew the risks, himself included.

"Lieutenant lets ready a heavy assault force and finish this mess," Snyder said, truly wishing that it hadn't come to this.


	29. A Step To Far

CHAPTER 28: A Step Too Far

xxxxx

As before, perhaps a dozen times now at least from what he could remember, Ryan stood on a grassy embankment overlooking a large crystal clear lake. Around the edge of the lake stood massive trees that were hundreds of feet tall if not taller. From his vantage point, the tips almost seemed to reach up into the sky, being born on earth he had seen plenty of trees, just never ones this tall. He didn't even know what kind they were; they were nothing that looked even remotely like the trees back on earth.

Perhaps it was a selection of memories from the hive collective that she had decided to show him. A place that might still exist, or for all anyone knew it had ceased to exist long ago and was little more than rock and dust now. Or maybe it was a combination of memories from both the female Xeno and Ryan's own. Some of the landscape seemed to have familiar aspects to it while others, while not what he would call completely alien was something he did not recognize as being from earth.

Regardless, however, it was a sanctuary, and as temporary as it might be, it was something that he always welcomed to be in.

A gentle breeze blew across the lake forming ripples in the water's surface that fanned out. Even though he knew it was a construct, a fabrication, everything seemed so real, the way the ripples in the water moved, the swaying of the trees, the sweet smell of grass. His senses told him that it was real, even if his mind did not, despite that he wanted to stay and not go back to that horrid, nightmare of a station.

The only few good things that had happened to him while being stationed on Eclipse station was meeting Elizabeth, and forming a bond of sorts with the young female Xeno warrior and the large Praetorian. Everything else that had happened he wished that he could forget about. Dealing with Mason, most of the lab personal, and just the weight of all the secret experiments that were going on within the station.

Glancing over at the glossy, midnight skeletal figure of the female Xenomorph that was standing next to him. He reached over with his right hand, his fingertips touching the moist and slick flesh of the alien. As if on cue, her fingers curled up, grabbing his hand and holding onto it tightly. Somehow he could sense that she was afraid to let go, neither one knew how many more times they would get visit each other like this.

Part of him wanted to take her someplace safe and keep her from harm. He had to laugh at himself for that, she was a Xenomorph warrior, built for combat, and he was thinking about how to keep her safe. If she got out, even at her size, he had no doubt that she could rip through a squad of guards with little difficulty.

He hadn't said a word since she arrived back in the mental dream construct with him; it wasn't that he didn't have anything to say to her. He simply didn't want to waste what little time they might have left with frivolous talk. Ryan felt it was better to just enjoy each other's company for as long as they could. He and the Praetorian had found what they hoped to be a safe hideout, at least for a while. What had become of Doctor Turner he didn't know, and to be honest with himself he didn't want to. Was the man still alive, dead, to him, it no longer mattered.

Ryan still couldn't believe what had happened, that Doctor Steffen and a number of the staff had reduced themselves to such barbaric acts. Part of him wondered if it was this place or maybe the person's involved had always been like that and they just had a chance to act out their repressed and perverted desires. This station seemed to somehow at times bring out the worse in people. Ryan had never considered himself a violent person, yet he had nearly beat doctor Mason to death with his bare hands. Sure there was a justifiable reason, but looking back at what he did, it almost seemed like someone else was in the drives seat for just those few moments.

The warrior's arm wrapped around his waist drawing him in close to her. Perhaps she had picked up on his thoughts and felt that he was in distress of sorts. Ryan simply dismissed his troubled thoughts as best as he could, placing his own arm around her backside, his fingers gently massaging the base of her lower dorsal tubes.

She let out a welcomed hiss at the pleasant touch as Ryan rubbed and scratched along the sensitive spots at the base of her dorsal tubes. Her chest rumbled ever so slightly as he continued his meticulous ministration across her lower back side. If she had been allowed to stay like this until the end of time that would have been fine with her. She had no desire to return to the harsh reality of the labs and the fact that Doctor Mason had returned only compounded that fact even more.

The moment that Mason had walked back into the labs under guard, whatever small hope that had been rekindled since his hospitalization had been extinguished in that single moment. She had thought about showing Ryan but decided against it. Whatever little time she might have with him, even within the mental construct, was time that she did not want to have ruined by having him worry. And there was the not so little fact that she was sure that if Ryan found out, her Praetorian brother would find out soon after. And if he came back to the labs to kill Mason, she knew that he risked the very real possibility of being killed or captured. And if he was either killed or captured, then Ryan was soon to follow, and that was something she would not risk.

Sensing that Ryan's body would be asleep for several hours, provided nothing interrupted his normal sleep cycle. An idea came to her mind, the two had spent more than enough time viewing their little sanctuary, building on it, now was time to enjoy it some and interact with it. Taking a step forward she tugged at his hand letting him know that she wanted to go and nodded at the large body of water not more than a few dozen meters in front of them.

While he couldn't hear the mental language of her race, he did pick up on what she wanted. Smiling, he whole heartily agreed with her. It had been a long time since he had gone swimming and mental construct or not, having some fun it just what they both needed. Taking off at a full sprint, and tossing his clothes off at the water's edge the two dove into the warm, clear water.

Holding onto the back of one of her dorsal tubes, the pair went underneath the water's surface, skimming across the lake bed. Neither one knew how long they had; in the back of Ryan's mind, he figured that he would be caught sooner or later and the big Xeno would be killed, if not on the spot, then later on. Perhaps, in a way for himself at least, this was his way of trying to come to terms with everything that he had gotten involved in. And spending as much time with the small warrior gave him the strength to at least go on until the end and not give up.

At least, for now, he knew that she was safe in the labs, for how long he didn't know. And that scared him, so much so that he had almost gone back to see about freeing her. He still had Mason's security card and the short range transmitter. It was a long shot at best, though he had no way to get into the labs undetected and no way to free her without anyone seeing it.

If it was fate's plan that the two of them spend however much time left like this, then he would take whatever he could get. He had rolled the dice, now he just needed to see how everything played out in the end and what would become of this deadly little game that he had gotten himself into.

Rolling over, she reached out and brought him into a firm yet gentle embrace. Her legs wrapped around his, while her tail coiling around his waist and legs, her chin resting on his shoulder blade. Taken completely by surprise by such an act of intimacy he found himself returning her embrace, his arms tightening around her in as he returned her affection.

Both of them hung suspended in the warm lake waters of the mentally contracted word for as long as they were able, neither one wanting to part ways from other.

xxxxx

Slowly, silently and moving with extreme caution, the tightly formed group of men, women and combat androids equipped with an arsenal of deadly high powered weapons crept through the dark and claustrophobic maintenance tunnels. Only the red and white wall mounted guide lights gave off any illumination, each shadow that moved sent a jolt of fear throughout the group. Everyone was fully aware that every shadow that moved could possibly be their quarry ready to leap out and strike. All eyes were alert for anything that might look out of place, darting back and forth, each person focused in on areas that could be potential ambush spots.

 _"Squad one, be aware you're thirty meters out, signal is still weak but stationary,"_ A female operators voice came in over the coms. _"You have a right corner coming up in the next thirteen meters; then it's a straight shot to the sub-maintenance room, be careful."_

Taking point was Lieutenant Kenny Ramsey, a young man who had been, depending on who was asked, either lucky or skilled enough to be assigned his own squad on Eclipse station. While only in his late twenties, he was one of only a hand full of actual guard personnel that had any real combat experience. A former marine that had gone through two combat tours, which mostly entailed helping clean up the outer and mid rim areas of pirates, slavers, smugglers, and hostile rogue colonies.

He had seen more bloodshed than he cared for, but ultimately it had been for the greater good of the colonies. At least that was what he had been told and had told himself. He had seen a great deal of combat, anywhere from small battle group engagements in space to slogging through muck-filled swamps to attack fortified pirate fortresses. It had given him an appreciation for the training he had received, that and heavy firepower, epically when that firepower came from the business end of a Granite class heavy tank equipped with a one-hundred and fifty-five-millimeter long barreled gauss cannon.

As with most of the marines and officers that would serve off planet, or patrol in the deep outer rim sectors, he had been briefed on the Xenomorph species. Information that he had been ordered, along with everyone else, to keep to themselves and not share with anyone, information that while was considered sensitive, was necessary to have should they encounter the deadly species. While in the marines he had never encountered a Xenomorph, if fact it wasn't until his tour was up and he had been offered the opportunity to serve in this secret organization that he had seen his first live Xenomorph in person.

Like with most of the guards and personal, the things creeped him out to no end, in fact, they terrified him in a way that nothing else ever had. Sure there were worst things on the station. Horrific manmade monsters that were far more dangerous than the Xenos, as well as bio-weapons that were in development for whatever nefarious secret reasons that were beyond him. But there was something about the Xenos, something that disturbed not only him but so many others. A common complaint he had heard was the way they seemed to look right through everyone as if somehow they could see right into that person's being, their very soul as it were.

And right now, he and his squad were about to face off with one. If it had been a drone or even a warrior, he might have felt their chances were good. But the fact was it was a full-blown Praetorian, even with the numbers and firepower in their favor, he wasn't sure how much of a chance they truly had. "Confirmed, command," he whispered into the headset, keeping his voice as quiet as possible as not to alert the alien if it was still in the area. "Still nothing on the trackers or the I.R. so far, we are proceeding with extreme caution." Still keeping his rifle level, he continued on, the rest of his squad quietly following behind keeping their weapons at the ready, aiming at spots that might provide a hiding area for the deadly Xeno.

Rounding the corner, Ramsey caught a glimpse of something moving up ahead, he couldn't tell if it was the alien or just a trick of light and shadows bouncing off the walls and pipes. "Possible contact ahead." He whispered into his mic, alerting the group. "Anything on the trackers?" He asked one of the guards who was trailing right behind him with a tracker and a flamethrower.

"Negative sir, the signal is clear." The guard replied back, looking down the hallway and then back to the tracker.

Silently, Ramsey gave the guard who was carrying the flamethrower a signal. Without having to say a word, he stepped past the Lieutenant, aimed the barrel toward the hallway, and with a loud roar, hot liquid flame erupted out of the nozzle. In just a moment the hallway was filled with the burning napalm, coating the floor and walls. Anything in the direct path or even close by would get a nasty surprise. He figured that if the alien was close by, hiding in the hallway area somewhere, the noise and heat alone would be enough to draw it out.

But nothing.

As moments painfully ticked by, the napalm eventually died out, leaving only the scorched smell of metal and fuel hanging heavily in the air. The hallway remained silent, no hissing, no screeching, no surprise attacks came from dark areas. Simi-satisfied that they were safe, at least until the door to the sub-maintenance room was opened, Lieutenant Ramsey and his squat pressed forward for the last few dozen meters until they were in front of the massive metal door.

"Command, this is Lieutenant Ramsey, we are at the door to the sub-maintenance room, no contact so far, proceeding inside." Over the years as a marine Ramsey had developed a heightened danger sense, it had served him and those around him well. Keeping both him and his teammates alive, even in some of the heaviest and most atrocious firefights of his career. And that danger sense, while it was present, wasn't telling him to run, at least not yet.

Tightly gripping the door handle, he turned his head and nodded to one of the other guards who reached into a satchel that she had slung around her torso. Bringing out a pair of grapefruit size black orbs she took one in each hand and kneeled right next to where the Lieutenant was standing at.

With a loud metallic, screeching, groan the heavy metal door, was slowly pulled opened up a few inches. With just enough space, the female guard rolled the black orbs into the room, one after another. As soon as the orbs rolled into the room, Ramsey pushed the door firmly closed.

Bringing out a data tablet, the female guard ran her hands over a set of virtual controls that were set just below a split screen display. "Alright, let's see what we can see in there." She said. The two displays lit up, showing the inside of the dark maintenance room. "Damn, it's so dark I can barely see shit in their sir."

"Do what you can, just let me know if it's clear or not," Ramsey said, looming over the guard's shoulder to watch what was on the display screen.

"Yes, sir," she replied back, the view on both the monitors showed the room starting to move as the probes started to rise and search throughout the room. One of the probes went high while the other stayed lower to the ground. "Sir, you do understand that these probes are visual and audio only, no scanners on them."

"Understood," was his only reply as he watched intently for any signs of the alien, so far nothing was showing up. It was only as the probe slowly moved toward the top through the nest of pipes and conduits in the room that any evidence of it ever being there started to appear on the display. What looked like large, slick black bones, some of them being half the size of a man, were affixed to the walls, ceiling, and pipes. Attached to the bones, just above the main pipes, looked like a large square piece of thick tan fabric that was stretched out for several meters.

The female guard cocked her head sideways, not sure what she was seeing, glancing up at Lieutenant Ramsey, she gave him a shrug. "Sir, I have no idea what it is I'm even looking at."

Ramsey looked at the image for a few moments as he scratched the back of his neck, "that almost looks like a hammock." He muttered as the guard was having the probe pan over the tan substance.

"You think it might have been sleeping in there?" She asked, turning her attention to the other probe that was going around the lower and mid part of the room.

"That might make sense if it brought Doctor Turner back here," Ramsey said, "Any sign of him in there?"

The guard shook her head, frustrated by the lack of visibility that was on the monitor display, "Honestly sir, I can't tell, there's not enough light to see in the lower area or the room, and these probes aren't exactly designed to work in the dark that well. However I'm not picking up anything and so far nothing's attacked the probes, at least not yet."

Ramsey looked back to his squad; each one was keeping an eye on all the dark spots that the alien might be hiding. Surely if it was going to attack or make itself known it would have done so by know. Unless it was watching them, spying on and learning about them, hell, it's what he would have done if he was in the alien's position. "All right, get ready, we're going in." He finally said, he would go first, that was the way he had always done it, lead by example, always the first one in and the last one out. "Lights on full, weapons ready, and remember we'll be in tight quarters so if you have to open fire, be careful, watch your surrounds and your target, and just in case anyone has forgotten and wants to be a hero, this thing bleeds acid that will eat through metal in seconds." There was a flurry of nods that everyone understood exactly what he was saying. _Don't be stupid and get yourself and everyone else killed._

Pulling on the handle, the door slowly creaked open; revealing only the slight glow from a few small wall mounted red and white lights. Leveling his weapons, Ramsey carefully entered the room, his shoulder and gun light illuminating the area some. The only sound came from water droplets falling from a pipe valve on one of the intake pipes, hitting a small puddle that had formed on the metal floor. Slowly panning his pulse rifle around, he looked up, if an attack was going to happen, it would happen from either above or behind.

A few more of his men entered the dark room, each one spacing themselves out and scanning the area for the alien or the missing doctor.

"Remember, don't crowd up, and watch your targets, water isn't the only thing in those pipes," Ramsey said, pointing to several coolant pipes that hung a few meters above them. "Rupture one of those and you've got seconds to get the hell out of here and seal the room." He said, moving deeper into the room.

"Roger that sir," One of the guards said, heading toward a darkened area of the room that had several large pipes vertical pipes and conduits running the length of the wall. Panning his light along the wall, he froze in on the spot, something was there, wet, dark and organic. "Shit...SIR!" He shouted, louder than he had wanted to, mentally berating himself right then and there for such a clumsy act.

"Lieutenant Ramsey just glared at the man for his stupidity, despite the fact that something had startled him, he should have known better than to simply scream out like that. If the alien was in this room with them and had not been aware of their presence before, it was sure to be aware of them now.

Ramsey and the others waited for what seemed to them like hours, their weapons at the ready, waiting for a vicious attack to come.

One that thankfully never did.

"Don't ever fucking do that again," Ramsey sneered under his breath at the man, more training would be in order after this if they survived.

The guard only nodded, "Sorry, sir, but...look." He said, shining his light on the pipes and conduits. There was something nestled within.

At first, Ramsey thought for sure that it was the alien, what else it could be hiding away like that. As he looked, he saw that it wasn't the alien, a sickening mound of tan and black resin covered the area, but in the center of the mass, was something pale and flabby. It took a few seconds to register in Ramsey's mind what it was, and then it hit him. The two of them were looking at Doctor Turner.

Approaching the doctor, Ramsey had expected to find little more than a bloody corpse, torn to shreds and nothing more than that. The doctor looked intact from what he could see, though he did notice something that was off, red marks were all over the doctor's body. While his legs, arms, hands, and part of his head were secreted to the wall with large amounts of resin, securing him firmly in place. And as it had been with doctor Steffen, Turner had been gagged as well to prevent the man from screaming.

Ramsey and the other guard could see why too now. It wasn't just red marks as he had first thought, it was writing. Crude as it may have been, it was still legible, it was just a single word, but it had been carved right into the man's flesh all over his body. Right then a very cold chill ran right down Ramsey's spine as he saw what the word said.

 _Violator._

It wasn't just that the word had been carved in as he had first thought, there was hardly any blood. As he looked closer at the wounds, the words looked more to have been burned in somehow.

"Sir, what the fuck is this," The guard whispered, turning to look at Ramsey.

Ramsey remained silent for a while looking over Turner, "As if I know," he finally answered, reaching out he pressed his index and middle fingers against the doctor's throat trying to find a pulse. At this point, he wasn't sure if the man was still alive or not.

Tuners eyes flashed wide open as soon as Ramsey touched him. He tried to scream and move but was both silenced and restrained by the alien resin. Only muffled cries came through the organic gag as his chest and stomach heaved from him trying to breathe deeply.

"Shit, help me get him down," Ramsey said, pulling at the resin trying to peel it off but with little effect. "Doctor, you need to calm down, we're getting you out of here." Turner was desperately wiggling around, trying to pull himself free, his eyes were little more than wild pinpoints as he struggled and cried.

"Central, this is Lieutenant Ramsey, we've found Doctor Turner, he's alive but we need medical on standby when we get him out." He grunted into the mic as he pulled on the unmoving resin.

 _"Lieutenant Ramsey, central here, we read you and will have medical personnel ready for you. What is his condition?"_ The female operator asked.

"Alive, but severely traumatized," Ramsey answered, "no sign of the Xeno either, looks like it strung him up and left him to be found."

 _"Understood, I'll pass the info onto Commander Snyder."_

More guards were called in to help get Doctor Turner out of the Resin, some taking up a defensive position in case of an attack. In the end, it would take over twenty minutes to peel him out and even longer to calm him down before he was able to be moved out of the area.

xxxxx

Hunkering down in the bed of stretched out resin cloth that had been attached to the ceiling and pipes in a small room. The Praetorian looked over at Ryan who was sleeping soundly curled up next to him. Even though he did not have a direct link to Ryan's mind, he could feel that the human tech was communicating with his small warrior sister.

He hated to leave the large sub-maintenance room that had been their temporary home since being released, but it was necessary. It would be impossible to go back now; while there were still plenty of other hiding spots in the pod. Both he and Ryan knew that sooner or later their luck would run out and they would be found. It had been reckless; even stupid to bring the human doctor back, something he now regretted doing. He should have found a small room, far away and left the foul human there. However, the price as far as he was concerned had been worth it.

Another message had been sent, one that would not be forgotten anytime soon, at least as soon as the human's lost doctor was found.

As soon as Ryan had left the sub-maintenance room, the Praetorian had turned its full attention to Doctor Turner. First, he had removed the doctors clothing, as the man was relieved of his garments, he started to cry and plead. Screaming that he was sorry, apologizing for his actions, why was it that humans were only sorry when they were caught and punished? At that point, it was just a matter of gagging the man and securing his to a wall.

As he had towered over the terrified human, thinking about what to do, it finally came to him. Extending his tongue out just past his teeth, he let a few droplets of acid flow onto his claw tip. As soon as the doctor saw what he was intent on doing, he started to scream or at least tried to, as his mouth was full of resin, all he could do was let out pitiful muffled cries.

While he didn't truly understand the human written language, he had been fortunate enough to pick up a few words whose meaning he did understand. It had mostly been in thanks to his sister learning from Ryan in the mental link and then passing that knowledge on to the rest of the Xenos in the pens. And he knew just enough to pass on a message to those in Steffens group.

There were a couple of words that kept ringing in his mind over and over, as he debated on how to proceed with the doctor. He wasn't going to kill the human, not like he had done with Doctor Steffen, no, that would have been far too easy. This one he wanted to keep alive, to make sure that he would remember what he had done to his brother for the rest of his life.

Deciding finally on what word to use, he started to slowly and carefully carve or rather burn the single word deep into Turner's flesh. At first, he started with the man's forehead, the razor sharp claw tip easily cutting through the human's soft, pink flesh. Turner tried to scream and wiggle around, tears flowed down his eyes, as pitiful, muffled sobs wracked his body. The acid burned and cauterizing the wounds, stopping the flow of blood. With Turner's forehead done, the Xeno applied more acid to his claw tips and continued repeatedly carve into the doctor's chest, arms and legs. Much to the Praetorian's surprise, Turner had not passed out, at least not until his chest started getting carved into, only then did he finally go unconscious from the pain.

While it was just a single word that was repeatedly edged into the man's flesh, he hoped that it would strike fear into anyone from Steffen's team, those that had abused his brother over and over. For a few moments, he had seriously considered removing the man's privates from his body or at the very least rendering them unusable. He had decided against it, while Turner had violated his brother, it was more out of a desperate physical need for release than a desire to inflict pain. Not that it mattered, he had been involved and a willing participant and that was all that mattered.

He hadn't taken much pleasure from this action, not like he had with Steffen, but there was, however, a great deal of satisfaction in this act. Yes, the man would live and quite possibly for a long time, though the alien doubted that Turner would ever be the same again after this. If the human truly did regret his decision, then perhaps he would learn from this experience and accept his punishment. If not, well...fate and the universe could be a harsh and unforgiving teacher.

And that had been that, he had left Turner to his fate, to be found or not, what happened beyond that, he honestly did not care. Both he and Ryan had managed to slip quietly away; evading the patrols, and had been lucky enough to find a small junction room they could hide out in for a while. Until they could figure out what to do next, laying down to rest, he curled up around the small human tech. An odd mix of protective instinct and even affectionate friendship came up to the surface. He would protect Ryan for as long as he could, he did own the tiny human that much at least.

Deep down he had his doubts that Ryan would actually go through with whatever plan he had to release him. He wanted to believe, wanted to have hope that the human would keep his word and help him escape. Part of him did, however, hold a great deal of doubt, doubt that he had kept to himself and forced down. He had honestly been surprised that the little human tech had followed through and kept his word. And in doing so, had placed himself in mortal danger.

Trying to relax, he attempted to reach out to Elizabeth again, the link, as weak as it was with her, was still there. As before he kept encountering a wall of black nothingness, a void that he could not pass through to reach her. Whatever physical damage Mason had done to her brain in his attack had been severely traumatic. He had no doubt that the potent life jelly that he had stored within himself could heal her, but as of now, there was nothing he could do. If only he had managed to escape out of the pod while he was back in the pens. He could have saved her, helped her and ripped Mason to pieces.

His claws twitched slightly at the very thought of that horrible little man thing, if he ever had the chance to kill that piece of filth, he would not hesitate to do so, even if it meant sacrificing himself. That...thing had caused his kind so much pain and suffering, and for what, there was never an answer, never a reason. None of them understood what the scientist wanted, and no one beyond Ryan and Elizabeth had ever tried to communicate with them.

Maybe if those accursed human scientists had just tried to communicate with them at the beginning, perhaps the situation now would have been very different. If the humans had questions or wanted to find out about something, perhaps those questions could have been answered without all the pain and suffering. Nothing made sense as to what they were doing to his kin, abuse, pain, suffering, that was all there seemed to be. Perhaps that was all they wanted, to see how much his race could endure, how long it would be before one of them would break and go insane.

That thought filled him with enough rage that he wanted to make his way back down to the pens and give the scientists a massive dose of their own treatments as well as free his brothers and sisters. Cutting the power to the level that had the pens that held his brothers and sisters had crossed his mind more than a few times. An act that would be so easy to do; it would throw the area into dark and chaos. He could see the false white energy that ran throughout the conduits, it would be simple to backtrack, find the right conduits and destroy them, drop in and then lay waste to all that stood in his way.

It was an act, from what Ryan had told him, that could be problematic at best, deadly and catastrophic at worse. If a large containment breach for any of the specimens happened that could not be dealt with, the pod would be sealed and then jettisoned away from the main hub, with personal still onboard if the situation was desperate enough. Three main options could happen with a jettisoned pod thereafter, one it either it could be used as a life pod for those left onboard. Second, personal from the main hub would wait until all onboard the pod had expired. Teams would then be sent in to evaluate the situation and try to reconnect the pod if it was possible. Or finally, the commander of the station would simply order the destruction of the pod with the attack ships that were stationed.

He growled slightly in frustration, taking out the human and android warriors would be easy enough. It was the glaring fact that no matter what he did, he would be putting not only his kin in danger but also those humans who had done nothing to earn his ire and vengeance. The human leader, Snyder, had all their lives at the tips of his fingers and there was nothing he could do about it.

Perhaps there was a way for him to get into what Ryan called the main hub. Or maybe a way to sabotage the pod's jettison systems. There was so much about the way human technology worked that he didn't understand. Bits and pieces of it, sure, most if not all of it required power, and usually, lots of buttons or switches were involved. Something that humans seemed to have an odd fascination with, but beyond that, he didn't know anything about the intricacies of the technology itself.

Another problem that continued to rear its ugly head was that despite that he could understand the human language with little difficulty, Ryan, however, had no real way to understand him. Rudimentary communication was still being worked out, and that was tentative at best. He wasn't even sure if a full bond or hive link could be worked out with the human, and while there was a slight link between himself and Elizabeth as well as Ryan and his sister, he did not know if it could go beyond that.

Most often or not it would be Ryan asking a slew of questions before he even got close to the subject at hand. Or he would be trying to use hand jesters at Ryan to try and communicate something to the young human tech. Every minute that went by, he wished more and more that he could properly communicate with Ryan and even Elizabeth.

Especially now.

But for the meantime, both would have to push on and keep working through their language barrier.

He needed to let go of the anger and rage that was still so feverishly built up, to clear his mind and focus what was on hand. His actions as justified as he felt they might have been had put him and his human friend in mortal danger. It was not what he had intended, but the temptation had been far too great, finally a chance at retribution, to balance out the scales. For all those that had inflicted so much harm and pain onto not only him, but his brothers and sisters, for them to feel what it was like to be helpless, powerless, and at the mercy of someone else for a change.

Finding himself emotionally drained suddenly, his guard dropped just enough to allow himself to start to relax and rest and within a few minutes he began to drift off into a light sleep. If someone were to enter the small room, he would be awake before the door was fully opened. The one advantage and only warning they had was that the doors made a lot of noise when being opened. If they were both lucky enough they would be able to keep hidden until the two of them figured out a plan.

xxxxx

"Well, that's more than a bit disturbing." Commander Snyder commented, looking over the report and photographs that were taken of Doctor Turner. "And he was still alive when you found him?"

"Yes, sir, he was restrained, secreted to the wall with resin, stripped of his clothing, and well, you can see what it did to him. The wounds weren't life threating, at least according to the medical staff that arrived on scene. He's in surgery right now, however, from what info I was given by the doctors they're not sure if it's possible to fully repair the damage that was done to him as some of the acid ate into the bone itself." Lieutenant Ramsey said, his arms crossed slightly behind his back as he stood at full attention.

Snyder looked at the photos on his datapad again, a small part of him wanted to feel sorry that Turner had been forced to endure this kind of torture. Having his flesh carved and burned into, the experience must have been excruciating. However, considering what the man had been involved in, in truth it was hard to feel any pity for him at all. Considering what the Xeno could have done to the man, Turner had gotten off lightly.

"Violator," Snyder spoke the word quietly to himself as he focused in on the red welting word that had been repeatedly carved into the doctor's flesh. Whatever lingering doubts that he had about the lack of the Xeno's intelligence had been erased away right there. "Were you able to get any information from Turner before medics took him away?"

"Negative, sir, at least nothing that was actually coherent, all he did was cry and scream from the time we woke him up. He was thrashing about so much that the medics had to sedate him, so they could transport him away." Ramsey answered back, his poster unmoving.

Throwing the pad down on his table, Snyder looked back at the Lieutenant who was still standing at full attention. It was a habit that had been drilled into since day one at boot camp. "At ease Lieutenant," Snyder said, "and you found no sign or evidence of tech Anderson anywhere?"

Relaxing slightly, Ramsey's posture went slack somewhat, his hands still positioned behind his back. "No remains, if that is what you are asking, sir. The only thing we found were some wrappers pieces that may have belonged to protein bars. Currently, a forensic team is analyzing them to try and lift any DNA or prints off to confirm whether it was in Mister Anderson's possession. There is also another team that is going over the sub-maintenance room inch by inch to see what they can find."

"Teams reported that they swept that room twice since the Xeno broke out, how the hell could they have missed those two?" Asked Snyder, more of himself than of the Lieutenant.

"Considering the layout of the room, its height and the massive amount of pipes and conduits that run through that area, it would have been easy for anyone to miss it. The nest or whatever the hell it was is at the very top of the room, and the only way we found its hiding spot was with the use of probes. Truthfully, sir, if it hadn't brought Doctor Turner to the room that it was hiding in, it could have stayed out of sight indefinitely." Ramsey said, although he hadn't said anything and he wasn't going to unless asked directly, he did think that the search teams did a sloppy job right from the beginning. They should have been using probes and search drones right at the very start. Even setting up remote motion control cameras and detectors throughout the maze of tunnels that would alert command the second anything went off.

Nodding in agreement, Commander Snyder gave Lieutenant Ramsey a sharp salute, "Thank you, Lieutenant, have your squad resume the search."

Ramsey was at full attention returning the salute, deep down he wanted to be back out with his men in the search, not submitting a verbal report to the base commander. Being in the thick of things was about all he had ever really known, and being assigned to this station had dulled his combat reflexes and training. The simple fact was that no amount of training in simulator courses could ever replace actual field combat no matter how elaborate the simulator was.

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir," he said, turning around sharply he quickly exited the room to return with his squad in its mission.

Walking back to his office desk and sitting down, Snyder picked up the data tablet and started looking at the pictures again. Tapping a few buttons brought up some of the video feed from the shoulder-mounted cameras. It was all the guards could do to restrain Doctor Turner as he screamed and cried out. Ramsey was right; Doctor Turner was hardly coherent, he wondered if the man's mind had snapped from the experience.

One thing that he was certain about; word about this would spread like wildfire throughout the whole station. Snyder continued to look at the videos and pictures, studying and scrutinizing them. It had killed Steffen, so why not Turner, Steffen's death had been a message to all parties involved, that was certain. This too had been a message as well, though a different one entirely. Maybe it wanted to keep Turner alive throughout all this, maybe it wanted the doctor to remember what he had done. Perhaps the writing was its way to make sure that the doctor would never forget, not like the man would ever forget this experience, even if he wanted to.

Closing the data tablet and sliding it across the desk, Snyder closed his eyes and groaned in sheer frustration of what was happening. _Gods why couldn't they just be the dumbass animals like they were supposed to be,_ he thought to himself, that's what they had all been informed they were. Savage, violent, natural born killers, that had basic animal intelligence at best, and only the queen Xenomorphs were supposed to have any kind of heightened intelligence whatsoever. And certain investors wanted them for gods only knew what.

The Weyland-Yutani Corporation had been working on Xenomorphs for centuries, mostly in the black, secret projects that only a select few knew about. From the past intelligence that director Collins had shared with him, a lot of those projects had blown up in the company's face, and the end result was a scorched-earth response to cover up all evidence. But even with devastating setbacks, the company had still aggressively and blindly pressed forward trying to tame and use the Xenos for its own purposes. And always with the same bloody and costly results, countless lives lost, and property destroyed.

And now here they were playing with a species that had not only resisted but defied the Weyland-Yutani Corporation at every turn costing the company untold billions over the years, perhaps more. There had been rare cases of non-hostile human and Xeno interaction that had been recorded, and as station commander, he had been required to watch those videos. However, it had always be assumed that the Xenos in question were some sort of reject from the main hives and that somehow a connection had been formed with the humans in the videos.

As to what became of those humans, no one knew. For all anyone knew, the Xenos could have killed their human counterparts shortly after. Something however in the back of Snyder's mind told him otherwise, and on top of that history seemed to be repeating itself on the station. Ryan, Elizabeth, the Praetorian and the small warrior, all four of them seemed to have developed a connection of some sort. The investors and various boards of trustees had all been in such a rush to catch up with W-Y and get on even footing that they were willing to make the same arrogant mistakes and decisions and to hell with the cost or consequences.

A couple of questions kept tugging at his mind, one was what was the nature of the aliens, most evidence that he had seen pointed that they were hostile beyond reason and willing to kill on sight. What then made the ones onboard the station and the ones in the videos so different from the other Xenos? A different sub-species perhaps, a mutation of some sort, he wasn't a scientist by any means, but that didn't stop him from asking questions, at least to himself.

The other question that sat with him was where had the eggs come from. He had gotten limited intel that it was some system past the safety zone, deep in the outer unexplored reaches and Captain Reed was under strict orders of silence as were the crew of the Saratoga not to divulge that info to anyone, which included even base personal.

Opening his eyes slightly he looked at the pad, the images of Turner's body flashed in his mind, the writing, the message that it had left behind, that and what it had done to Steffen. He asked himself a question, one that he was scared to ask, what if it just wasn't just intelligent; what if it was also sentient, what if all the Xenos onboard were? That would explain a lot, the acts of vengeance, why it was only going after certain people instead of slaughtering everyone in sight. Why the warrior hadn't ripped Ryan apart back in the pens when the pod that held it had been opened, and why the Praetorian had tried to free itself when Mason had attacked Doctor Brooks.

It was a very dangerous thought and one that if was correct, and word somehow got out that the Xenos were possibly an intelligent, even sentient species. The repercussions and blowback that they could potentially face, if they were ever found out, could be catastrophic. There were a slew of laws and protectorate acts in place by some of the other races to ensure that intelligent and sentient races were not subjected to experimental acts. Earth and the colonial government, of course, had their own interpretation of such laws and regulations that covered human lives and if needed the laws that could be used to their advantage when it was convenient. Especially when dealing with non-human species that did not fall into the intelligent or sentient category.

Things were getting more and more complicated by the day, he was starting to miss the days when the ONLY complication he had to deal with was Mason's irate behavior every now and then. Something told him those days were now long gone.

Slowly getting up from the chair, he headed out the door and back to the operations area, he would keep his thoughts to himself for the time being. After all, it was just a theory, nothing more than that, wild speculation at best, one that did hold water at least in his mind, however, he wasn't the one to make those kinds of decisions. At the moment his job and duty were to maintain the security, safety, and operations of Eclipse station and its personnel, and right now he had a Xeno that was on the loose and needed to be either contained or terminated.

He really wished that Ryan and that alien had jumped station, gotten onboard a ship and quietly left, it would have made everything so much easier. Instead, he had made the decision to linger around and stay, maybe the alien had forced him to, or perhaps it was of his own volition, either way, there was little to nothing he could do to protect the young tech. In reality, once doctor Steffen had been killed, any chance that Ryan might have had and getting through this intact was nil, and now with what had happened to doctor Turner. Even if Ryan did surrender willingly, Snyder doubted that there was much that could be done to protect the young tech from retribution.

He didn't enjoy what was to come, he was going to have to find a way to trap both the Xeno and Ryan, even kill both of them if it came down to it. It wasn't what he had signed up for, but the safety of the station and the lives onboard were his responsibility and that was final. He could try and ask for forgiveness later on if it was necessary and come to terms with his actions. This was something that no school, academy, or training regiment ever taught, making the hard and difficult choices. Loose one or a few to protect the many, it was simple, cold hard numbers when you broke it down. And while it didn't make the decision any easier, there was at least a logical rationalization behind it.

Search, push, isolate, trap, then terminate, it was the only way.


	30. The Scent of Home

CHAPTER 29: The Scent of Home

xxxxx

Deep within the dark and airless void, a brief pinpoint flash of bright light flared for just a few seconds and then blinked out as if nothing had been there. An FTL exit point had formed just for a few seconds, long enough to let a black silhouette slip out of the transit tunnel, its midnight form pressed into the black nothingness causing it to blend in, almost rendering the vessel invisible to the naked eye. As the ship coasted forward from its inertia of the exit point, it cloak was broken briefly as maneuvering thrusters fired realigning the ship's trajectory. Only after had the ship's course had been corrected did the massive engines erupt to life. Bright blue plumes of thrust gushed out of the metal vents, giving the only indication that anything was there pushing the massive pitch-black vessel forward.

" **JUMP COMPLETE** ," the compute monotone voice announced over the CIC speaker system, indicating that the ship had finally arrived at its long-awaited destination.

Not saying a word at the computer's announcement, Shawn glanced up at the sensor readout, as luck would have it nothing was showing up in the local area of at least several hundred thousand kilometers. He figured that jumping outside of Eclipse's sensor range and patrol areas wound minimize their chances of making contact with a lone patrol ship or resupply vesicle.

Adjusting the ship's course, he activated the primary engines for several seconds, the sudden g-force pressing him into his chair slightly. Even with the artificial gravity throughout the ship, the inertia from firing the main engines at a full or even partial burn would result in a natural g-force that would override the ships artificial gravity generators. Even an extremely sharp turn would more often than not have the crew listing to the side somewhat.

Killing the engines and allowing the ship to coast to its destination, Shawn leaned back in the chair. After this time and they were so close to finally reaching their objective, and now it was all he could do and try to convince himself not to turn tail and run away. Even with all the previous talk, planning and training the harsh reality of it all had just now decided to cold-cock him right in the face. It was just nerves nothing more, anxiety that was trying to claw its way up, at least that was what Shawn kept telling himself, even if he knew it was a lie. He could only guess at what kind of danger the four of them were going to face, and the not so glaring fact was this, he knew he was way in over his head.

And he was still going through with it regardless.

Looking over at one of the monitor one the terminal he was at, it showed a digital icon of the Saratoga, heading right toward a large station. That was their first target, it wasn't Eclipse station, but one of the two resupply depot that was close to the station. From the Intel he was able to get from the ship's database, the supply depots were fully automated and unmanned. They were primarily used to supply the Eclipse station with emergency provisions should the need arise. But just as important, it also allowed ships that were stationed there as well as freighters and transports that were coming to and from the station a place to refuel, rearm and replenish without adding undue stress to the stations personal already busy workload.

He had already made out a long list of supplies that he would need, food, water, medical supplies, fuel rods, weapons, ammo, additional ship ordnance, and that was just a few items at the top of his list. If this crazy plan succeeded and they were able to get even half of the Xenos off of the station alive, then they would need to go someplace far, far away, and no doubt for a long time.

That in itself was a problem, at least for him, he had family that he hadn't even been able to contact yet to let them know he was alive. In fact, he wasn't even sure when he would be able to send them a message to let them know he was alight. To top it off, Shawn didn't even know how to start on such a message, hey _mom and dad; I just wanted to let you know I'm doing alright and am alive and well. Oh and just to keep you up on current events I was picked up by a secret stealth ship and am going to breach a secret science station out in the middle of nowhere and rescue a bunch of aliens. So you know I'm doing fine, no worries here._ Yea, that would go over well.

For the time being, he couldn't risk their safety. Any message he wanted to get out to them would have to wait. The only problem was that he wasn't sure if he would make it back or not. In fact, there wasn't any guarantee that any of them would make it back alive. The last thing he wanted was for his family was to be left wondering what happened to their son. Never to have closure of any kind, to have that constant state of simply not knowing what happened. It was perhaps one of the worse things a family could be forced to endure.

 _'While your worries are justified, they serve you no purpose right now other than to distract you.'_ Shadow's warm mental voice flowed through his mind, easing his tension almost immediately. Swiveling around in the chair, Shawn looked over at his Praetorian mate. Slowly getting up off the cold, metal floor, Shadow started to walk toward him. It only took a few strides before the large Xeno was standing in front of his human. _'We will succeed, we will make it back, and we will find a place that shall become a home.'_

Shawn wanted to believe in Shadow's optimism,wanted to believe so much that they would make it onboard Eclipse station. Free the captive Xenos and make a hasty retreat back onto the Saratoga, leaving Eclipse station a smoldering wreck in their wake. However, he knew all too well that the best-laid plans could easily fall apart at any time, "Are my worries so easily readable?" Shawn asked, trying to smile some, even if it was a little, it now somehow felt forced, fake. He knew all too well that any of the Xenos could see right through him, and that they could easily read his feelings and thoughts.

The hive mind and link were still very new to him, as much as he savored the constant mental warmth and reassurance that came from it. Shawn, however, did on occasion miss the quiet silence of his own human mind. Within the Xeno hive mind, there was always some form of activity going on. Communication, waves of feelings and emotions, even dreams or sometimes nightmares that would leak into each other's minds. Even old hive memories would occasionally come flowing out. The activity was always constant, even if it was nothing more than an odd and distorted background hum.

Shawn had been working to try and block it out, something that he had found was far harder to do. Thankfully Ghost had assisted him to gain some focus when it came to blocking out the unwanted background noise. If there was that much noise with just the three Xenos, then what was it going to be like when the rest of them came onboard?

There was also the complex social dynamics, Xenomorphs were social pack creatures with a highly structured hive organization. Although Shadow had reassure him time after time that all would be fine, he honestly didn't know how he was going to fit into it all, or if the others would accept him. It was fine when it was just the four of them, everything was nice and intimate, he felt comfortable and relaxed, even oddly at home now. But with the possibility of eleven more of them coming on board looming on the horizon, he wondered how much things would change once they rescued the other Xenomorphs.

That would be if they all made it back.

Squatting down in front of Shawn until he was eye level with his human, Shadow raised his hands and cupped Shawn's head. With his usual gentle touch, he brought Shawn's head forward and touched his forehead with his own. _'Only to the three of us,'_ Shadow jokingly commented trying to lighten Shawn's mood. _'But it is easy to pick up on your worries and fears, no matter how much you try to bury and hide them.'_

Reaching up and grabbing Shadow's hands, Shawn squeezed trying to gain whatever courage he could from the Xeno. "The reality of what we are about to do just hit me like a ten-ton weight, and I am scared shitless right now. I keep thinking of my family living back on the moon, should I tell them, and if I do, what do I tell them? What will happen when we get on board and what will we do if everything by some miracle goes according to plan?" All he wanted to do now was hold on to Shadow for dear life and not ever let go. More and more excuses not to go rampantly started running through his mind. Each one seemed more and more compelling than the last and each one made him feel more like a cowardly piece of filth. Despite that, there was still the overwhelming urge to run far away.

There suddenly didn't seem like there was enough time left for them.

 _'You are afraid that we will not make it back, to be honest, we are all afraid. None of us want to step foot back onto that station, we all know what is there waiting for us. I know that you have had thoughts of running away, I cannot and will not fault you for that. We too are guilty of having those very same thoughts, wanting to find a reason to turn and flee and never come back. However, we cannot turn our backs on our hive mates and leave them to suffer. 'As we have said to you before, we must do this. You are under no obligation to go any further than you want to. Should you decide that you cannot go any further than this, we would understand and know that we would never hold it against you.'_

All Shawn could do was smile at that, even now, just a few steps away from their objective, and Shadow was still telling him that he could turn and walk away from it. As much as his fears might have wanted him to turn tail and run away, it was something he would not do, if he did he would never be able to live with or forgive himself. He had made a promise that he would be with them until the end and despite his feelings, he would stand with them. "Sorry, but you're not getting rid of me that easy. I seem to remember telling you from the start that I would be with you the whole time, until the end, whatever that end might be. And I goddamn well meant it, if you think that even for a second that I'm going to let some jittery nerves change my mind, after everything we've all been through and shared than let me remind you this, I won't run away and I won't turn my back on you." Shawn told him flat out.

 _'You'll never truly know just what this means to us, what you have committed yourself to.'_ Shadow said, with a mix of relief as well as dread that their human would be there with them. If anything happened to their small, brave human, he doubted that he would ever be able to forgive himself. As bad as it had been to lose his brother back during the escape, if they lost Shawn, it would be a wound that would never truly heal for any of them. He had given so much of himself and had asked for almost nothing, and now he was willing putting his own life on the line for them again. _NO_ , Shadow vowed to himself, he would allow nothing to harm their human, if it came down to it, he would make sure that at least Shawn escaped no matter what the cost was. He did have a family that he could return to and hopefully remain anonymous from this madness.

"You do know you won't be able to protect me all the time," Shawn said, picking up on Shadow's thoughts on the matter at hand, "after we board, anything can happen, and we all know it. And as much as I hate to say this, it would be foolish to think that we can rescue all of them. Deep down we know that not everyone is going to make it and that applies to the four of us as well."

For a while Shadow said nothing, his hands still gripped around Shawn's head. He realized what Shawn had just told him was correct. It was something he had thought about too, many times, in fact, he was just too scared to admit that more of his kin might soon die. There was that chance, a very good chance that not all of this hive mates, his brothers and sisters would make it out alive. Not all of them would know freedom or walk under the open sky of a planet or be part of an actual living hive. Some would possibly perish in the escape, or perhaps would be wounded in the attempt and die later on. There were already so few of his kin remaining if any more died it would be devastating to them all. But it had to be done and the choice of his kin being free or imprisoned for the rest of their lives, when it came down to it, for him, there was no choice in the matter.

Shadow's grip loosened, his hands dropping away, planning them firmly on the floor as he sat there crouched, his gaze cased downwards. _'I know.'_ He whispered, _'we all know. We felt our brother's death when we escaped from the labs. It is something that can never be forgotten, feeling the connection break, feeling his life fade away until there was nothing left, his voice becoming silent. A part of ourselves diminished when we lost him. The hive mind and link, as much as it is our strength, it is also our weakness.'_ Shadow looked back up at Shawn his expression was somber and pained by the bitter memory. 'When one of our kind is killed or dies, those of us that are in proximity will feel their death. _When it happened, I did not know what to feel or how to react, all of us went numb; at that point we simply acted without thinking, wanting to get as far away as we could. I still wonder what it would be like if all five of us had managed to escape.'_

In the short time since Shawn had been rescued and brought on board, he had seen many facets of the Xeno's personalities. Ranging from caring, frustrated, concerned, enraged and even scared, but right until then never defeated. It would have been a kinder act for someone to rip his heart out right there than see and feel how dejected Shadow was at this memory. Although none of the three Xenos had never gone into any detail about what had happened with the death of their brother, he could see that the pain of it was still very raw. Even with their best attempts to maintain a brave face and go on.

Shawn gently stroked Shadow's crest, running his fingers over bits of old flaking chitin that peeled away. The dull black material coming off easily enough, revealing the soft and shiny new chitin underneath that would harden up in a few hours. While he couldn't be entirely sure it did seem to him that Shadow had gained more than a few inches in height within the last couple of weeks. A couple of things that he was certain of was that Shadow's chest and torso had filled out, becoming more defined. Not only that but his head crest had filled out too becoming slightly larger. The ornate ridges and outer curves were far more pronounced than before, even becoming sharper in some places.

Shadow had already been a physically imposing presence when Shawn first met him. Now he found the Praetorian was becoming truly magnificent. Perhaps it was partly due to the training that they had all endured for the last few weeks. Or perhaps it had something more to do with the fact that he now had those he felt he needed to protect. And that was one of the main duties of the Praetorian's guards, to protect the hive and protect the queen. Maybe in some way his instinctual drive to fulfill his duties as a protector of the hive had been filled.

There were times when Shawn could not believe that he had been lucky enough to become a part of their hive. To become mated to all three of them, he kept wondering to himself when he was going to wake up and find that this had been some lucid dream. Would he wake up and find himself still strapped into the cockpit seat back on the Ember-Rose, adrift in space.

He knew that wasn't the case, but sometimes he still had to wonder.

"I'm sorry," Shawn whispered softly to Shadow, trying to offering the Praetorian some kind of comfort. Other than that he honestly didn't know what to say. While he knew all too well what it was like to lose someone close, as he'd lost more friends than he wanted to count over the years. But the concept of actually feel someone die like what Shadow had just described, that was something that was truly beyond his understanding. Personally, he prayed that it was something that he would never have to experience.

 _'You have nothing to be sorry for my love it is simply the way our race is. But I do appreciate and thank you for the sentiment.'_ Shadow told him as he began to affectingly nuzzle the side of his human's face leaving a large trail of saliva on Shawn's cheek. ' _So, now that we have arrived, how does it look?'_ He asked, subtly trying to change the subject.

Shawn looked at the primary sensor screen, for now, it showed nothing was close to them in the general vicinity. The closest contact to them was a large blip on the mid-range band of the sensor screen, a blip that they were heading right toward. Several large clusters of contacts were much farther out, Eclipse base and ships in the general vicinity he guessed, but nothing that looked to be heading straight toward them. "Well, we came outside of Eclipse's close and mid-range sensor net, so they shouldn't have detected the energy emissions from the FLT jump. And right now nothing is showing up on the close-range sensors, so I would say we are clear, at least for now. Anyway, we're about a million kilometers away from the supply depot, and with us costing on reduced power I doubt anything will pick us up."

 _'How long will it be until we arrive at this supply depot?'_ Shadow asked, his fingers slowly running down Shawn's back repeatedly in an affectionate petting motion. His mind was starting to fill with worry and anxiety for what all four of them would soon be facing. To come back to this place, to think that they would once again set foot on board the very place that they had wanted to leave so badly. However it would be different this time, they would not be some helpless specimens bared behind a clear cage unable to do act. Shadow wondered how his brothers and sisters were holding up, where they still alive and intact, or had Mason finally broken them disposed of them. He, Ghost and Alese wanted to see their kin again. While it hadn't occurred to any of them, at least until now, the thought shot right through Shadow's mind, only adding to his anxiety, what if they were the only one's life alive? What if Mason had finally pushed them past their breaking point like he had almost done with Ghost and had simply disposed of them?

What if they were all dead and there was no one left to rescue?

He kept those thoughts to himself and buried them deep down. It was nothing more than fear, anxiety; specters of the past trying to cloud his mind. He needed to be focused and clear-headed, not worrying about the what if's.

"At least a few hours I think,' Shawn told him, enjoying the back rubs. While being in physical contact made it far too easy to pick up that Shadow was worrying. And while rightfully so, it was causing the Xeno undue stress. He started thinking about what he could do to help relieve that stress and soon. 'I didn't go to a full burn on the engines, but I did push them enough to get some decent speed going. So we have a little while until we arrive." It was ironic that not just a few minutes ago if that, he had been the one trying to hide or bury his fears, and now he could pick up that Shadow was doing the same thing.

 _'And you are sure there is stuff at this depot that we will need?'_

While it wasn't that they needed the supplies that the depot held, it would be nice to have fully stocked stores, plus some excess in reserve. "We're pretty well stocked up, but not at full capacity. And to be perfectly honest, I would rather have too much when it comes to supplies than not enough. Also, the more we can get our hands on, the less they will have to throw at us if or when they decide to come after us. Besides, we do need more maintenance androids to keep this ship going, as well as spare parts, heavy ordnance, supplies, food, weapons, ammo and whatever else we can grab while we have a chance." If they could get everything transferred on board without running into any problems, they would have enough supplies to last for years to come.

He just was hoping that their luck would hold this time and a patrol ship wouldn't pass by, notice and engage them.

Mulling over what Shawn had told him, logically it did make sense, take away from the enemy and use for yourself. It would, even if it was just a little, improve their chances if they were pursued and forced into a battle. _'You make a valid point, let us take what we can so our enemies cannot use it against us.'_

"When it comes to their resources, I'm guessing it'll be less than a drop in the bucket of what they have, but at least we'll be better prepared," Shawn told him as he closed his eyes and continued to enjoy Shadow rubbing and stroking his back. "You know, since we still have a few hours before we get to the depot, if it would help some, we could just cuddle on the floor for a while."

 _'Yes, I would like that very much,'_ he replied back releasing his human, backing away a few meters, then sat down on the floor crossing his legs.

Sliding out of the chair and into Shadow's lap, Shawn found himself being embraced and held tightly. The segmented bladed tail coiling around and draping right into his lap, _'Mine,'_ Shadow purred, resting his chin on the top of Shawn's head as a deep rumbling sound began to reverberate from within his chest. In his time being head as a specimen in Eclipse's station's science labs, he had come to despise, even hate most of the humans that worked in the labs. In all that could have happened to him within the universe, falling so completely in love with one of the so-called enemy would never have once crossed his mind. But then Shawn had been unlike any human that any of them had ever come across, one who was flawed, damaged even alone. In that first day, he had found more in common with that small, damaged human than any of the scientists in the lab. And despite that fear, he had agreed to help them.

As he was often finding out life was both odd and complicated at times.

Pressing his back up against Shadow's chest so he could enjoy the deep chest rumblings, Shawn closed his eyes and started to relax. Both the sound and vibrations permeated right into him, quickly sending him sinking into a blissful halfway trance. Occasionally he would glance over at the large sensor monitor to check and see if anything had cropped up. Not that he needed to, as he had set the proximity sensors to give a warning and alert him if anything came within ten thousand kilometers of the Saratoga. The last thing any of them needed was to be taken by surprise by something unexpected again. Since he had been picked up, unexpected and unpleasant surprises seemed to be a semi-constant event for all of them.

Shawn let out a deep sigh of contentment as waves of mental warmth washed over him, enveloping his whole being. Whatever fears, anxiety and concerns the two might have shared, were at least for the moment kept at bay. It was such a simple thing, the warm embrace from a lover to help make all the bad things in the universe just a bit more bearable and help clear the mind of doubt and confusion. To know that you weren't truly alone and that there would be someone there for you.

In this Shawn did count how truly fortunate he was to have not only Shadow with him but also Ghost and Alese. He just prayed and hoped to whatever powers might be out there that their time together would continue to be long-lived and not cut short in the next few days.

At that thought, Shadow's embrace tightened just a little bit more.

xxxxx

The next few hours were spent silently waiting as the Saratoga continued its slow cruise through the empty void of space towards its first destination. The supply depot at first was nothing more than a dot on the main monitors. But as they gradually got closer that dot started to become bigger and take form. Shawn had seen his fair share of supply depots since he had purchased the Ember-Rose. Most of them were able to accommodate small to midsized ships, be it transports, freighters or even military craft. Usually, it was a dedicated section of the station and little more than that. However, this was a behemoth in both size and scope, designed to service all ships, from small shuttles to what he assumed were battleship class vessels, or larger. While the station was massive in size, its physical structure was little more than a large rectangle in design, with multiple docking clamps, service arms and docking bays on each side. Large antenna arrays protruded from both the top and bottom of the station, along with several large satellite-dish arrays.

Just looking at the monstrosity that was starting to loom in front of them as they approached gave Shawn pause and caused his stomach to turn. He didn't detect any docked ships, and nothing was approaching, at least nothing that was being picked up on sensors. But given their luck, there might be an entire fleet of stealth warships waiting, and none of them would never know until it was too late. He just hoped that the Intel from the Saratoga's database was correct and that it was fully automated; only service, maintenance, and heavy lifter androids should be onboard.

It was something that they would find out shortly.

As the Saratoga slowly crept toward the depot, Shawn kept looking over at the sensor readout. Part of him kept expecting to be jumped any second even though nothing but the depot was showing up within the close range sensor band. It couldn't be this easy, could it, he kept asking himself, there was no way they were just going to be able to walk right in and take what they wanted. Aligning the ship with the large docking clamp, he let out a silent prayer for everything to go right, if anything was going to happen now would be the time.

Accessing the terminal, he sent the remote handshake request, with the ship's old access codes requesting permission to dock and resupply. All he could do now is wait and see what would happen. If the passcodes didn't take, he had no idea what would happen, for all he knew nothing might happen or the clamps could come down and lock the ship in place.

"Shit, I hate this," he muttered to himself. The not knowing part was the worse; not knowing what would or wouldn't happen in the next few minutes. Worse case scenarios kept running through his mind, being locked down, attacked and boarded, or perhaps just having the ship blown up on the spot.

Shadow placed a hand on his shoulder giving him a reassuring squeeze. _'Whatever happens, we will face it together.'_ He was nervous as well, they all were, but they all needed to be clear headed and focused. They were only a few steps away from being to rescue there brothers and sisters, once they had what they needed they would be on their way. If luck was indeed on their side this time, in just a day or two, such a short time, he almost couldn't believe it, and then they would be on their way to a new home, wherever that might be.

Reaching up, Shawn grabbed Shadow's hand and squeezed it, "I know, I just hate the waiting and not knowing what's going to happen next. I have no idea if the old access codes are still valid or not, and if they aren't, what will happen." Knots upon knots kept forming in his stomach, so much so he wanted to vomit. Taking in slow, deep breaths, Shawn tried to calm his nerves, telling himself that it was going to be alright; that this was going to work.

Right then an answer came as the monotone computer voice spoke up. **"HANDSHAKE CONFIRMED, ACCESS CODES GRANTED. PREPARE FOR DOCKING PROCEDURES."**

Most, not all, but most of the tension drained out of his body right here on the spot at hearing those words. It looked like this crazy plan might work, after this, they would be one step closer to freeing Shadow's race from the labs. Allowing the computer to take over guide the Saratoga into the docking area, several massive clamps slowly moved into position, attaching to the dorsal and ventral sections of the ship, firmly securing it into place.

 **"DOCKING PROCEDURES COMPLETED, SHIP SECURE,** **INITIALIZING UMBILICAL CONNECTIONS, STANDBY."**

Watching one of the monitors on the terminal, he could see a pair of large docking tubes extend from the station, in a few moments both of the tubes had formed a hard dock with a pair of large airlocks. Most likely used for supply or personal transfer from ships to the station.

" **UMBILICAL CONNECTIONS CONFIRMED, PRESSURIZATION COMPLETE, POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE DETECTED."**

Eclipse station was now less than five hundred thousand kilometers away from them, only a couple of hours at most if they coasted again. Just a short hop away given everything they had been through and the distance they had traveled. As soon as the supplies were transferred over and secured, they would be on their way. Their final objective would be Eclipse base; if everything went according to plan, they would be in, free the Xenos, and be out within a few hours. No heroics, no grandstanding, just get in and out and that would be it.

Connecting to the supply depot's mainframe interface, Shawn began to search through the menus and sub-menus eventually finding the requisition interface. The list of supplies that showed up was overwhelming, hundreds upon hundreds of pages of various parts, equipment, ammo, consumables and so on. The depot must have had parts for every human ship in existence. Slumping back into the chair, he glared at the terminal as if it had suddenly become his own worst enemy. Going through every item and selecting what he needed and how much was going to add on a lot of hours.

Covering his face with his hands, Shawn leaned back in the chair and groaned in utter frustration. He had so stupidly thought that this would be easy, dock and send the request over and that would be that. But no, this organization had to make it difficult, even what would normally be an easy task, would now become painstakingly numb. "Fuck," he spat, stamping his foot onto the hard metal floor several times, causing Shadow to look over at him in concern, "this is going to take forever."

 _'What is wrong?'_ Shadow asked, _'are we not able to get the supplies that you need.'_

"No, It's not that, I have to go through a very long list and select everything manually then how much we want," Shawn answered. "I honestly thought that this would be easy, guess that's what I get for making assumptions. This little task alone is going to add, hell I don't know how many hours it's going to add."

 _'Then maybe we should only get what we need and leave immediately,_ ' Shadow suggested.

"Even then it's going to take a while," Shawn replied, leaning forward, his fingers tapping on the keyboard keys. Slowly he began the daunting task of going through what looked like the never-ending supply list. "Guess the sooner I stop complaining and start on this the sooner we can get what we need and get going."

Shadow cocked his head slightly looking at the monitor, all he could see was the same false white energy from the screen. He honestly was curious about what humans saw on the screens and hoped that one day he could see what they did. _'Do you wish for me to keep you company while you do this, I do not wish to distract you in your task.'_

Turning his head, Shawn smiled a little, "I would like that very much, and you are hardly a distraction," He said, going back to scrolling through the list and picking out choice items.

Over the next few hours, Shawn diligently kept scrolling through the massive list, checking, double checking and even triple checking what they would need. Alese and Ghost had communicated with Shadow though their mental like to see how things were going. Shadow explained what was happening and that it would add to the time they would need to be docked with the supply base.

As the hours slowly ticked by, boredom finally kicked in for Shadow. Sitting down next to Shawn he crossed his arms over his chest as his tail coiled around his feet. Dozing off for what could have been minutes or even hours, he was startled awake by a loud metal bang. His head shot up, lips slightly peeled back, looking around to see what the noise was.

"DONE!" Shawn yelled, looking over at Shadow who was now staring right back at him wondering for a moment what had happened. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to wake you up." He said sheepishly.

Letting out a toothy yawn, showing the white insides of this mouth, Shadow moved his massive head side to side a few times popping his neck. _'You were able to get everything you needed I take it?'_ He asked, looking at his human.

"Yep, and not just what was on the list either, I found a bunch of extra things that might come in handy. So we'll be stocked up for many years to come, food, supplies, equipment, fuel, weapons, ammo, ship ordnance and so on. Even the ship's waste tanks are getting emptied as well as having the water tanks replenished to maximum capacity. We're also getting several dozen large emergency water tanks stored on board. Plus enough maintenance androids to keep the ship working properly, as well as some more standard combat androids and some of the heavy models too and that's just the top of the list." Shawn told them, getting up out of the chair to stretch, all that time bent over had caused a kink in the base of his neck along with some very sore shoulders. "Bad news is that it's going to take about thirty-six hours for the station's worker and loader droids to get everything on board and stored, as well as getting the water tanks filled up."

 _'Can we afford to stay here that long, will we not be vulnerable to an attack,'_ Shadow asked getting up. Wondering if they would draw attention somehow now that they had docked. They were partially at the enemy's doorstep and now they were just sitting there...waiting.

"If we want to get everything loaded up we're going to have to. I've been keeping an eye on the sensor grid and so far it's all clear. And I haven't detected any outgoing transmissions from the depot to Eclipse base either, so that's a positive. Regardless, however, I've got the sensors set up to give a warning if any ship gets within ten thousand kilometers of us. If that happens at least we'll have a heads up should someone show up."

 _'And if a ship should be sent out to investigate, what then?'_ Asked Shadow, concerned about the extended stay.

Looking at the sensor screen, it showed minor amounts of activity around Eclipse base, but nothing that was heading toward them. Hopefully, it would stay that way. "Well, if that happens we cut and run with whatever we have. We'll hide and observe for a few days, and if nothing happens then we head to Eclipse base, and we rescue those that are still onboard. We'll take stock of what we have and make due."

"Besides," Shawn said, wrapping his arms around Shadow's hips his fingers lightly and playfully caressing across the base of the Xeno's tail, eliciting a rumble of pleasure from the alien. "Think of this, if we're able to pull this off and we find a planet we can call home. Your brothers and sisters can build their hive, you, me, Ghost and Alese, we can finally walk under real sky, though a real forest. Find a spot to call our own, just the four of us; even make love every day, as often as we all want for as long as we want. And with a bit of luck on our side, not have a care in the world anymore; just live a nice, quiet life with no one to bother us."

 _'Keep doing that,'_ Shadow teasingly hissed, crisscrossing his arms across Shawn's back, _'and I may very well take you right now._ " He slyly told his smaller human mate, at the moment or most any other moment for that matter, he would have had no qualms about mating with him on the spot, even if it was only for a few short minutes.

Picking up on Shadow's growing arousal, Shawn decided to err on the side of caution and stop teasing the Praetorian before he did find himself on the floor with Shadow on top of him. "Alright, alright there big boy, I'll stop. Besides I've got to get down to the cargo transfer area and see how long it'll take before the supplies get brought over."

 _'Tease,'_ was Shadow's only reply as gave a playful swat on Shawn's rear, getting a suspired yelp from his human.

"Okay, I deserved that." He said, chuckling some, it was nice to be able to laugh some, even with the monumental task looming before them.

Cuffing in agreement, Shadow let go of Shawn as they both needed to head down to the cargo area. It was just another step to take to free his brothers and sisters. The anxiety while present was far more tolerable now; all he needed was something to focus on for a while longer. It might be interesting to see how the humans went about transferring large amounts of cargo and supplies onboard.

"Might want to have Ghost and Alese meet us down there, this place is supposed to be fully automated and unmanned. But just in case there is a skeleton crew on board, we'll need to know." He hoped that was not the case, the last thing he wanted to do was unnecessarily have anyone harmed. Maybe they could be quickly incapacitated if it came down to it if there was anyone actually on board.

 _'If there are any humans on board we should be able to detect them fairly easily, they tend to leave a strong scent that is easy to follow.'_ Shadow told him, it was right then that he realized what he had said, and the context it was in. The fact was that he no longer considered Shawn a human, not anymore and not for some time. In his view, he saw Shawn nothing less than a fellow Xeno, regardless if he had a human body and smelled human…mostly.

Shadow had started to detect some subtle changes in Shawn's scent over the last couple of weeks. At first, he thought that it might just be because that Shawn had just been in physical contact with them so much and simply brushed it off. But he was starting to be convinced it was more than that as the scent had gradually gotten stronger. And while it was nothing that Shawn himself would have noticed, at least not yet, it, however, was something that Shadow had noticed as well as Ghost and Alese.

Was there some kind of physical change that was happening within Shawn's body? None of the Xenos had any idea what possible changes could affect a human when consuming either the life or royal jelly. And Shawn had ingested large amounts of the life jelly, both in order to stabilize the link and when he had been shot in order for him to heal. When they were finished with Eclipse station, it was something he would need to discuss with Shawn and make him aware of. But for now, none of them needed any more distractions.

"If they're just workers and pose no threat…" Shawn was about to advice Shadow not to harm them if it could be helped, but the Praetorian was already ahead of him in regards to that.

 _'…We will neither harm nor kill them,'_ Shadow reassured him, _'none of us have any desire to hurt those that pose no threat to us.'_

Shawn nodded as they left CIC, hoping that the station was indeed uninhabited. Both of them made their way down to one of the cargo transfer areas to meet up with Ghost and Alese. He kept thinking of what kind of planet they would find. Earth type planets, while they did exist were a rare find. A large percentage of the planets that had been settled had to be terraformed, which despite the advanced technology still took decades.

Upon turning around a corner Shawn almost ran into one of the loader bots carrying several large crates. Food items from what he could tell, more than likely heading to one of the larger cold storage freezers. The bot itself was little more than a four-wheel low to the ground metal truck equipped with a small but powerful engine and several long mechanical arms complete with sensors and cameras for navigating. It was in no way fancy, hi-tech or even impressive, but it was practical for the work it did. The unit whizzed past the two, followed by several more carrying the same kind of crates.

 _'I was expecting something…different.'_ Shadow said, not entirely sure what to make of the odd-looking contraptions. In truth, he had been thinking of something like the large combat androids back on the station and on the Saratoga.

"A lot of stations and ships use something similar, they are cheap, easy to build and maintain, but do what they were designed to do and do it very well." He told Shadow looking down the corner to see if more of the bots were headed their way, seeing nothing coming at them, the two continued to head for the transfer area. "I'm actually a little surprised they were able to start the transfer so quickly."

 _'I would assume they know where they are going?'_ Shadow asked, hearing the same low hum coming toward them. I seconds another couple of the bots went flying by them caring more food crates, one almost hitting Shadow's tail.

Shawn looked back as the bots disappeared around the corner. "I would assume so," He said, that was something that he hadn't considered, but perhaps each item had its own designated and assigned storage area. Well, it was too late now, the transfer had already begun, all he or any of them could do was wait until it was done.

Entering the transfer area, he caught sight of Alese and Ghost, the two were staying out of the way of the traffic. Dozens of cargo bots ranging from the small truck transfer units that had zipped past them in the hallway to large heavy loaders, some carrying massive metal cargo containers other carrying what he thought might be high-yield anti-capital ship torpedoes.

Depending on the cargo, each of the bots when off in their own direction, a few left through the main doors, others taking large heavy-duty cargo lifts that went to different areas of the ship.

Nudging Shadow in the ribs with his elbow, Shawn nodded toward the large bot that was carrying a pair of the deadly torpedoes in its massive clamps, "So, is that more of what you hand in mind?" He playful asked.

Looking over at the bot that Shawn had nodded to, the Xeno smiled just a bit, _'Perhaps.'_

 _'This is not what I was expecting.'_ Ghost said as he and Alese walked to the two. _'However, these, androids or whatever they are, seem to be very efficient."_

"Yea," Shawn agreed, "I thought it would take about an hour to get things rolling. I take it you two only just got here?"

 _'A few minutes before you and Shadow walked in.' Alese told him, 'so far we have only see the machines, no humans have show up yet. Shadow informed us that you were worried about possible humans being on the station.'_

"One of several worries actually, but yes, at the moment that is one of the more pressing concerns," Shawn told her, looking over at the ship to station docking umbilical. It was wide enough that a pair of APCs could have driven side by side through the tunnel with ample room to spare. And right now there were two of these large docking tubes attached unloading cargo onboard. He could only see a hint of light at the other end of the tunnel, not even enough to make out anything. "Guess we should check things out." Shawn had only taken a step forward when Shadow grabbed his shoulder stopping him.

 _'No',_ Shadow commanded, _'you are going to stay here, we will go, scout the area out and let you know if we find any humans on board.'_ Shadow's demeanor along with his firm and an unyielding voice told Shawn right there that there was no way he was going to be allowed to board the station.

"You're kidding, I need to go over there with you, what if something happens and you need my help." He protested, hoping to change Shadow's mind. "I should be over there with you, not just hanging back."

Crossing his arms, Shadow gave Shawn the Xeno equivalent of a stern glare, he was not going to take the chance of their human being harmed and that was all there was too it. _'We will not risk you getting injured again by some random and unexpected accident. If something happens, we will call you or one of us will come back and get you, but right now, you are not going on board that station. At least until we have scouted it out and seen what is on board. There could be traps or even android warriors guarding the area.'_

Walking up Ghost placed a hand on Shawn's other shoulder, _'once we are on board it should only take an hour or two to determine if there are any humans on board and that it is safe. Remember you are the only right now who can operate this ship, we cannot.'_

"Alright, fine," Shawn said, a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be able to go and explore with them. But it was sound, logical thinking on their part and the prospect of getting severely injured or even shot again really wasn't all that appealing. "Just, please be careful when you're over there." He said, rubbing the front of Ghost's dome.

Ruffling Shawn's hair some, Shadow started to walk toward the umbilical opening, Alese and Ghost following right behind him. _'We'll be careful, an hour or two, and if we don't find anything or anyone we'll be back.'_

Walking back to a wall, Shawn sat down and watched the three Xenos disappear down the tunnel and out of sight. "I'll be here, waiting." He said to himself, watching the cargo loading bots move throughout the room heading toward their areas to unload cargo.

The three Xenos quickly made their way down the tunnel into the supply depot, dodging and avoiding the oncoming bot traffic. Upon entering the depot, they found themselves in a vast open area with countless stacks of crates, neatly organized on gargantuan shelving units that seemed to run the full length of the area. Dim lighting coming from the floor, ceiling, and walls which barely illuminated the area, as more of the bots made their way toward the Saratoga.

Making their way out of the line of traffic, each one started to scale up the large shelving units. Reaching the top, they began to scan the area taking note of the layout of the room.

 _'I detect no humans,'_ Ghost said, scent tasting the air, _'only the scent of metal, and plastic. Nothing that would indicate that humans have been here.'_

 _'Perhaps we should separate to search more of the station. If there are humans here they may be further inside.'_ Alese said, watching a massive pair of clamps come down from the ceiling, retrieve one of the metal containers and place it down in front of a heavy loader who picked it up and headed toward the Saratoga.

 _'Agreed,'_ Shadow said, _'be cautious and mindful of your surrounds, even if we find that there are no humans here, this place is still dangerous.'_

With that all three separated, each one going their own way keeping to the walls and rafters. As far as any of them could see, the whole area was nothing more than a colossal storage room. Heavy duty lifts that ran up and down as more materials and supplies were brought to be transported onto the ship. But given the size of the station, according to Shawn, there had to be far more than this.

Searching the massive storage area each one found little more than supplies, equipment, spare parts various types of weapons with ammo. Finding a stairwell Ghost headed to the upper levels, his tongue coming out to scent taste the air, so far nothing that told him there was a crew on board. Perhaps it was completely automated and that so far they were the only living souls on currently on board.

As he continued up, he found more large cargo areas that seemed to span the length and width of the station. Loader bots and androids were moving around grabbing containers of equipment and weapons then moving them down to the lower area. _'I still have not detected any crew at the upper levels. This station may not have anyone on board as Shawn first indicated.'_

' _Neither myself nor Alese has found anyone either, only bots and androids. Where are you at?'_ Shadow asked.

 _'I am searching the upper levels, I've discovered nothing more than cargo areas. I will continue to explore a little more than I will come back down if I have discovered nothing.'_ Ghost told Shadow as he continued to head up the stairwell to further explore.

 _'Understood, we will do the same.'_ Shadow replied back.

Slowly Ghost continued up, at first only coming across a couple of more storage areas that were identical to the ones below. Looking over the spacious area filled with bulk containers and equipment, he found himself beginning to relax some. So far he had detected no one on board and neither Shadow nor Alese had contacted him letting him know that they had found a single crew member on board. It was when he went up a few more levels and through a doorway that he found himself standing inside a long dimly lit corridor.

Tasting the air, he caught the scent of humans, it was faint and very old, and perhaps someone had been there months ago if not longer getting cargo and needed to come this way. His body stiffened, there was something else, another scent mixed in. Something very old that brought out ancient hive memories, it called out to him, told him of home, of hive, of kin. Taking a step forward, then another, he found himself sprinting down the hallway drawn toward the familiar scent.

As he ran further down the corridor, his heart raced with excitement, his mind clouded over with an overwhelming instinct to reach the origin of the scent. Any and all rational thought was quickly squashed down and replaced with the pure biological drive of his race. Every step he took the scent became stronger and only served to reinforce his need to reach it. So focused was he on reaching his destination that he never saw the black-clad arm appear in front of him.

 _Home, hive, kin,_ those had been the only thing in his mind, it drove him onward, forward to wherever the scent was coming from. Blinding sharp pain racked the front of his dome as something hard, black and cold came from nowhere. His body tumbled back through the air impacting the metal wall, his body going limp as it fell to the floor.

Confusion overwhelmed and racked his mind now, he remembered entering a hallway and scent tasting the air. He had smelled something, something familiar, something that told him of home, then nothing. He didn't remember laying down at any point, why was his dome sore. Lifting his head he looked around, something off at a T-junction moved. It wasn't human, or organic, and it wasn't an android, at least nothing that he recognized as a normal android.

His instincts screamed danger at him, told him to flee or to fight, whatever it was, took another step closer to him, metal slamming down onto the metal flooring. It was a bot of some kind, or at least that was the only thing he could identify it with. Slightly taller than what he was, humanoid in build covered with thick black metal plates, two long protruding metal tube with holes running down the length, one attached to each arm. Its head was little more than a half oval with a large red glowing in the center. Right then Ghost cursed himself for his slowness, his brain still fogged over. It looked like one of the training bots back on the Saratoga, only far less clunky looking and a dozen times more deadly.

" **LIVING XENOMORPH ORGANISM IDENTIFIED, THREAT LEVEL DEADLY, INITIATING TERMINATION PROTOCOLS."** The bots deep robotic voice boomed out, in a single swift motion it raised its arm, loud repeated claps of thunder echoed throughout the hall, followed by bright flashes.

Deadly rounds tore through the air, ripping only into the metal wall and not the black chitin covered alien that they had been intended for. Down on all fours, Ghost hurled himself toward the deadly, black-clad metal bot that had sent a barrage of rounds at him. Covering the distance in a few seconds, Ghost slammed the full length of his dome into the torso of the bot with as much force as he could in the short distance between them. The momentum sent both combatants back into the wall, the bot now pinned to the metal bulkhead with the enraged Xenomorph drone ready to rip it to pieces.

The deafening roar of heavy weapons fire echoed throughout the hallway, Ghost felt something burn his shoulder, side, and thigh. Rearing his head back, screeching in rage, slamming his dome into the half oval head of the bot. A crack splintered on the casing of the bots bright, red-eye fracturing out.

Servos, gears, micro motors and artificial muscles strained to move under the raw, unyielding strength of the alien. Taking a step forward then another, the combat bot began to push back against Ghost; a high pitched hum grew louder and louder as it tried to overcome its target. The bot moved its arms, trying to obtain a direct shot to terminate the immediate threat, only to find the Xeno grabbing its wrists; trying to pin it back against the bulkhead.

Whipping his tail around, the lethal tail blade struck the side of the bot, leaving a large gash in the protective metal plate. Again and again, he continued to strike the side of the bot, hoping to score a fatal hit, only to find that the thick plates were absorbing the deadly blows. Straining, he tried to push the bot back up against the wall again, hoping to pin it and figure a way to destroy it or immobile it.

Pushing with all his strength, his lips peeled back as his mouth opened, the deadly, white-toothed tongue lashed out hitting the red eye, partly splintering the protective clear casing. A second quick strike shattered the case leaving the bot's glowing, red eye exposed. Tensing his tail, it rose up coiling over his shoulder ready to strike, the tail tip aimed right at the bot's vulnerable red eye, like a demonic scorpion ready to strike its prey. Lashing out over and over, the deadly tip repeatedly hitting its mark piercing the optical eye, a bright flash of red lit the eye up for a moment then went dark.

The bot went limp no longer giving struggle; after a few tense moments, Ghost relaxed, easing off of his vice tight grip.

A mistake.

Ghost only caught a glimpse of metallic black before being broadsided by the bot's arm sending him sprawling onto the metal floor. The deafening roar of heavy gunfire filled the hallway as the bot blindly sprayed the air trying to terminate its intended target.

Furry started to take hold, not once, but now twice had this soulless mechanical automaton sucker punched him. There was NOT going to be a third time. He watched the bot slowly spin in circles as it continued to fire its lethal guns. While he had blinded it, he had no doubt that it probably had another way to detect his presence. One crucial lesson he had learned early in his life was never to underestimate human machines, they always seemed to hold endless, nasty surprises. Though at the moment it was randomly firing in all directions, testing a quick theory, he hoped that it was one he was not going to regret, he moved his tail, slamming the blade into the wall.

The bot spun around firing at the sound, the rounds barely missing Ghost's tail as he yanked it out of the way. _Can't see but you can hear, interesting._ Ghost thought to himself, all he needed was a few seconds and an opening. The bot then ceased firing, standing its ground, the torso slowly moved back and forth as if it was trying to search for its target. The smell of scorched metal permeated the air as smoke streamed from the red-hot gun barrels.

Taking another few steps in a half circle, the bot lowered its guns slightly. It was all the opportunity that Ghost needed. His tail snaked out, wrapping around the bot's leg, with all the strength he could bring, he yanked. Losing its balance it toppled on its side, rounds ripped through the air as it opened fire again.

In an instant Ghost was back up, pouncing into the air as high as he could and coming down right on top the bot with all the force he could muster. Almost with a blind fury, he began to pull away at parts of the bot, hissing and screeching as loud as he could. This thing was in his way and that was something he was not going to tolerate. Sections of the thick protective armored plating, wiring and even the artificial muscles were ripped away and thoughtlessly discarded. Pulling out gobs of wiring, optical cables, more muscles and whatever he could get his claws on to tear out. The bot stuttered, shook as it was in its death throes, then nothing, the automaton was still.

Ghost held his position, he had been fooled once and blindsided twice, and he was not going give this thing another chance for another free shot. Reaching deep into the bots chest cavity, he grabbed what he could and pulled out more of the bots internal wiring, optical cables and even a few circuit boards. Satisfied that he had ended this abominations life, he stepped back, still wary that it could come back to life and try and gun him down.

Turning to make his way down the hall, he looked up only to see three red glowing eyes locked right on him.


	31. Kin

CHAPTER 30: Kin

xxxxx

Under normal and ideal conditions ships belonging to the origination would come and dock. Their cargo and supplies would be replenished and shortly after the vessels would then depart. Only a hand full of personal would ever venture to the upper levels, levels that were off limits except to those with the proper clearance. Supplies were not the only thing that the depots carried, highly dangerous, even unknown pieces of technology, biological samples and specimens, both living and dead that had been collected over the years for study that needed to be kept isolated and secret. A small force of highly modified defense bots guarded the area. All programmed to attack anyone that did not have the proper clearance or any of the biological specimens should one become active and break free of their constraints.

A silent alert for the defense bots had been triggered, a single unit had been sent to investigate an unknown intruder that was quickly approaching. That intruder had immediately been identified as a solo Xenomorph drone. Kill orders were issued, terminate without delay with extreme prejudice. The alien had been far quicker, stronger and more cunning then the combat bot had been prepared for. And to that end, it had been destroyed after a quick but brutal fight.

At the destruction of the solo attack bot, additional units had been brought online to finish the task that the solo bot had been unable to complete.

Three red glowing optical eyes now zeroed in on the lone Xenomorph drone, where it had come from was unknown and that information was irrelevant. Termination of the dangerous alien was all that mattered at the moment.

Slowly Ghost began to back up, cursing his luck, his heart now beating so loudly in his chest that he could hear it himself. He was still trying to figure out what had happened, he remembered entering the hallway detecting a familiar scent and then nothing. Had he, as Shawn referred to it as, somehow blacked out? Only the surprise attack by the combat bot had brought him out of his trace, at that point it had been a fight for survival.

Every step that Ghost took back, the three bots matched. He had half expected them to open fire by now; perhaps they were studying him, trying to find the most efficient way to kill him. Just as he was studying them, their armor was far too thick for his tail blade to penetrate, but their joints and metal plating could be ripped out easily enough. From what he had just experienced the two arm mounted pulse guns seemed to be their only weapons.

 _'...G..st,'_ he barely heard it, Shadow's voice, for some reason he could hardly hear his brother. His mind still felt like it was in some dense fog, the scent enticing him to go forward. That it was the only thing that mattered, _protect...tend...serve,_ his instincts screaming at him to do so.

" **TERMINATION PROTOCOLS INITIATED,"** the lead bot spoke up, right then all three of the armored bots raided their weapons pointing them at Ghost.

Diving to the ground, avoiding the lethal rounds that streaked by, ignoring the pain in his arm, side and flank. Ghost grabbed the disabled bot; yanking it in front of himself using it as a makeshift shield. Round after round pelting off of the bot's thick armor plating, most falling harmlessly to the floor, a few however found softer areas and penetrated, finding their chitin target.

While not lethal in any way, the hits were painfully annoying; Ghost began to creep away, the bots matching his step. His mind racing trying to figure out what to do, he didn't remember the layout of this hallway, was it a single continuing hallway or were there split off junctions that he could use as cover? Another round raked his side, acidic yellow blood dripped out from the shallow wound eating holes into the floor.

His instincts tore at him to either fight or flee, not to simply stand there waiting to be slaughtered like some hour old youngling that was too frightened to move. It wasn't enough that he had to be engaged with these lethal human-made automatons now he was also battling against his own instincts. Fear, uncertainty, even doubt started to grip him and take hold; telling him that he was not going to make it out alive. That he would die right here, and that his hive mates would only find a lifeless, bleeding corpse riddled with bullet holes. Was it to be after coming all this way, was he to be gunned down like some rabid animal? Not even being able to see his brothers and sisters one last time and set free.

The universe was truly becoming a very sick joke.

Not once did he hear the rapid, heavy footfalls quickly approaching from behind. It was only when Shadow's voice finally broke through the heavy, mental fog that had deafened him, did he fully come back to his senses. Shrieking a long-dead battle cry of his hive, the Praetorian's black form barreled past him plowing head first into the trio of attacking bots. Alese's smaller form shot past Ghost as she was right on his tail, diving headlong into the melee.

Immediately Ghost dropped his makeshift shield and jumped into the fray. _'Pin their arms down, blind them,'_ he shouted, tackling one of the bots sending it toppling to the floor. Ghost didn't even see Shadow rip one of the bot's arms clean off and toss it to the side. Pain still racked his body as the wounds continued to bleed, pain that now gave him focus and drive to tear the metal monstrosities apart. The bot continued its futile struggle under the attacking Xeno. Using his full weight to pin the bot's arms down on the floor, Ghost leaned back as far as he could, with a quick lunge slammed his dome down into the bots eye, shattering the protective case.

With the delicate optics now fully exposed Ghost did not hesitate to strike. His toothed tongue shot out, little more than a white, moist blur, followed by a small shower of sparks and shattering glass, the glowing red eye going dim. He knew from his past battle that it wasn't enough, it might now be blind but it was far from helpless. Glancing over he saw Shadow spray a thick stream of acid onto the bots half-domed head, as tough as the armor plating was at deflecting physical attacks, it did nothing against the Xenomorph's acid. The head of the bot disintegrated instantly into thick metallic slag, the acid continued eating through both it as well as the floor plating.

Hot rounds continued to ricochet off the walls and ceiling as the two bots aimlessly continued to fire their weapons, unable to get a clear shot on the attacking Xenos. The bot that Alese was engaged with met its demise quickly as Shadow jumped it from behind, ripping off the back plates and gorging out its innards, leaving nothing more than a jumble of wires, optical cables, artificial muscles and circuits dropping onto the floor.

Ghost's continued lashing out, his tongue repeatedly striking deep into the head of the bot. Each time gobs of wires and circuits were ripped out, finally dispatching the mechanical attacker. Not willing to take any chances he tore apart the chest plating and gutted the bot.

The last of the three attack bots falling under the Xeno's onslaught, Alese turned to see how Ghost was doing. Acidic blood slowly trickled out of his wounds; drop after drop that hit the floor dissolved a new hole in the metal plating. _'You're hurt,'_ she said, going over to his side to inspect his wounds. None of his injuries looked to be life-threatening and would certainly do nothing to hamper his fighting ability should they be attacked again.

Turing to look at his siblings, his stance eased slightly, _'it is nothing, minor scratches only,'_ he told her. While they hurt, the damage was superficial, a day at most and his injuries would be fully healed. He knew that there was little need to worry about a few minor scratches. That, however, would not stop his sister from treating any wounds he received.

 _'Minor or not, they still need to be tended to.'_ She said, producing a small amount of the life jelly on the tip of her finger and began to apply it to his wounds. In just seconds the life jelly stopped the bleeding as she thoroughly tended each of the bullet holes.

 _'Ghost, what happened, I couldn't communicate with you. I could sense you but it felt like there was this barrier I could not push past.'_ Shadow asked, looking around at the dispatched combat bots, _'and what are these things? Where did they come from?_ ' The Praetorian using his foot turned over one of the bots on its back so he could get a better look. He had expected human guards, or at the very least androids. But this was new, they looked a lot like the practice bots they had been using in the training room, only built for actual combat, not practice.

Looking down the hallway, Ghost nodded his head toward the area that he had been drawn to. _'Down that way, they came from that way. I entered this hall and detected the scent of humans that had been here, it was very faint and old…there was something else.'_ Ghost looked back at his Praetorian brother, _'Shadow, I think that others of our kind are here. I don't remember what happened or how I got to this area of the hallway. But just before that, I detected the scent of a hive, it's old, very old but it is here. I think it's our hive.'_ He stammered, nervous tension laced his voice, it wasn't possible, was it. He didn't detect any others of his kind and certainly not a queen but there was something there, something very old and subtle but there nonetheless.

Shadow and Alese stared at Ghost in stunned silence at what he had just told them. All of them had wondered where they came from, even back in the labs. But to hear it just so out of nowhere, neither one of them knew what to think. If it was true, this was a major piece to that question that might have just been dropped in their laps.

 _'Ghost, you are positive about this?'_ Shadow asked, still not certain he had heard Ghost correctly or not. While they all had hive memories that spanned back countless generations it told them nothing of where their home was or how the eggs they came from ended up on Eclipse station. Or what had happened to the hive they had come from.

Nodding an affirmative, _'Yes, I am positive,_ he told Shadow looking back down the hallway. He didn't' know how far the corridor went or what else was down there, but he needed...they all needed to find out.

Extending his tongue out, Shadow scent tasted the air, the scent of human was still there, but as Ghost had told him it was old, perhaps months maybe years old. But just underneath was the ancient scent of a Xeno hive which overtook him. His body went slack as the old pheromones coursed their way to his brain. S _erve...protect...tend...guard._ Those thoughts...no not thoughts, they were commands, filled his being, it was the only thing that mattered, nothing else. To serve the good of the hive, to protect the hive, to protect and guard the queen, that was the only thing that mattered, everything else was inconsequential.

It was necessary to go to the source, to find the hive and protect it, to guard against all who would try and cause harm and crush them without mercy, kill all who were a threat or use them as hosts for the good of the hive.

He took several steps forward solely guided by his instincts to reach the source of the scent, not even hearing Ghost or Alese calling out trying to stop him. There was something that flashed through his mind for a moment then faded to nothingness. It was something important, something that he had pledged himself to...no not something, someone; it was not the hive queen, but someone that to him was equally as important if not more so.

His mind painfully ached at the disloyal thoughts that still ran through and continued to fog over in an agonizing haze. There was no one as important as the queen, the queen was all, the queen was the center of the hive; all revolve around her and no one else... _NO ONE_! If such a thing was otherwise declared by any member of the hive, regardless of stature, drone or Praetorian, they would be torn apart as an example to all, no exceptions.

Hissing and screeching in frustration, why couldn't he remember who it was, who was so important that he would be willing to forsake his loyalty and even his life to his hive, his queen. She who gave him the means to be born and gave him life, a life that was hers to command, or extinguish if she felt he was unworthy of that life.

 _Shadow...what do you think about Shadow as your name?_ A voice crept into his mind, it was familiar, warm, and welcoming, and it was a voice that he wanted to go to, to embrace and hold forever.

 _It seemed to suit you._ The voice said again. It was a name that he had proudly accepted and made his own, one that he would wear with honor for as long as he lived.

For a brief moment, he remembered who the voice belonged to, and then as fleeting as a wisp of smoke on a windy day it was gone. He tried to reach out, grab a hold of that voice and bring it back. His instincts enraged by his defiance tried to fight back to what he was feeling and bring him back into the fold. The queen was all and that was final, nothing else mattered, without a queen, there would be no hive.

 _I was searching the data core for any info on your race that I could find. And found a bunch of what is probably considered basic knowledge, first contact,_ _physiological anatomy_ _, hive social structure, how your race is conserved and born, as well as all the unfortunate disasters between both our races._ He remembered a sense of wonder; even sadness at those words. Was it the destiny of both of their races, Xenos, and humans to fight and kill each other? He didn't want to fight; he didn't want to kill, would it not just be simpler to walk away from it all. For each species to go their own separate ways, even if they weren't friends, was it necessary for them to be bitter and hateful enemies.

 _I'm not judging your race if that's what you're thinking. I found a bunch of records that shows we're not the first human and Xeno to form, well a friendship. Over the course of the last few centuries, there have been quite a few incidences of humans and Xenos forming a bond and or deep friendship with each other. I would think that it's extraordinary to find out that we're not the only ones._ Was it joy, maybe even relief that he felt hearing those words?

 _We're not the only ones._

That last bit of the phrase kept reverting inside his head. Over and over it repeated, chipping away at the barrier that had formed in his mind. He pushed back at the primal instincts, instincts that had kept his race alive for untold thousands of years. Instincts that had served their purpose well in the past, but were now an obstacle to overcome. The galaxy had changed so much since their creation, and their creators were long dead, turned to dust over the years. They needed to adapt, grow and become something more than what they were made for. There was more than pointless slaughter, more than blindly following a queen that wanted nothing more than total dominance and would wipe out all to achieve that objective. Or to fight a war that no longer was being waged.

A blistering stab of hot pain scorched his brain as his newly awaken base instincts called him a traitor to the hive, to the queen. The hive was all, the queen was all, and all would serve or die. There was nothing else. Stubborn and defiant, he no longer cared if he would be considered a traitor. He pushed back at the instincts trying to take hold, they were not in command, he was, and he would walk the path he chose to. Not one that had been predictated ages before he was even born.

In a spark of clarity, memories came flooding back into his mind, the mental fog that had overcome him started to dispersed and the base instincts that had awoken went dormant. He felt completely sick to his stomach, ashamed to even look at his hive mates now. Part of him had been all but ready to forsake everyone and everything. That overwhelming instinctual drive had been stronger than anything he had ever experienced before. And in those few fleeting moments of confusion, he had been ready to turn his back on everyone for the sake of a hive that might or might not still be alive. Even with him winning that raging battle of wills against his baser instincts, he felt as if he was a traitor, not to any queen or her hive, but to his own tiny hive.

He had sworn his life to Shawn, Ghost, and Alese, they were his hive, his family, his reason for living and continuing to go on in a universe that sometimes seemed to be all too consumed by madness. And for just those few fleeting moments he had been ready to walk away from them. He wondered to himself if he could even be trusted anymore, what if those long-dormant instincts awoke again, what if they compelled him to do something worse next time, not just try and have him walk away.

 _'...Ghost...Alese...I'm sorry.'_ He choked, trying to clear his head of the residue of the mental fog that still clung on. A part of him afraid that they had seen, felt everything that had happened, afraid that they might despise; even hate him.

' _RUN SHADOW, FUCKING RUN NOW!'_ Ghost's voice boomed in his mind.

Looking up, Shadow caught sight of more of the mechanical attack bots fast approaching them, he quickly counted at least eight, all tightly grouped together. And those were the ones that he could see, who knew how many more were right behind that group.

All three Xenos started galloping down the hallway as fast as they could, avoiding almost all the incoming fire. Shadow growled as a few rounds found their mark, just grazing his backside and one of his upper dorsal tubes. The sound of heavy, medical footfalls close behind as the pursuing bots struggled to keep up with the fleeing Xenos.

 _'We can't leave,'_ Ghost cried, _'we need to know what their guarding, there may be some of our kin trapped here.'_ They had come so far, it would be insane to leave now if there were more of their brothers and sisters trapped here. They needed to be found and freed.

 _'We're not going to leave, but we can't fight them head on like this, with that many they might very well cut us to pieces.'_ He replied back to Ghost thinking of what to do and how to fight their pursuers. _'There's a junction up ahead; we use that for cover, draw them in and get right in the middle so they can't effectively use their weapons on us.'_ Shadow was glad he had something to focus on now, the mental fog that had him in its grip had all but faded away now. He still could not believe what he had been ready to do, that scent had triggered something. Maybe some old instinct that was hardwired into them, even if there were other Xenomorphs on board he couldn't see that kind of instinct being triggered like that. Unless it was a queen that was on board, but it couldn't be that as none of them felt the presence of a queen, it had to be something else, he just didn't know what.

For now, he had the combat bots to deal with, at least he could vent his frustration and aggravation out on them. Getting to the junction, Ghost and Shadow veered off to the right corridor and Alese took the left. Within seconds both drones were on the ceiling waiting to pounce down on top of their metal enemies.

None of them had to wait for very long.

The sound of heavy, metallic footfalls loudly echoed throughout the hallway, only a few seconds now. Tensing his body up and posing ready to strike, his aggression at an all-time high, thick, hot drool pouring from his mouth as his lips peeled back. He would rip not only these things apart but a hundred more of them if that's what it took to find out what was being kept from them.

One, two, and then three of the bots came into his field of view. Just like a coiled spring ready to give under extreme tension, the Praetorian struck. A heavy spray of acid melted the head of the first bot as he plowed into the metal crowd. Grabbing the head of a second bot his tongue lashed out cleaving a hole right through the protective casing, though the optical eye and back through the bots head. Already he was feeling better at being able to vent his aggression out on something.

With the attack bots now solely focused on Shadow, Ghost, and Alese shot down from the ceiling each tackling one of the attack bots and pinning it to the ground. A frenzy of claws, teeth and tails blades lashed out trying to score a killing hit before the element of surprise was gone. If they could quickly cut the bots numbers in half that would at least give them a chance to win this fight. Each one knew how deadly the pulse rifles were, that a direct burst could grievously injure or even kill one of them.

Loud bursts of weapons fire reverberated throughout the hallway as the bots opened fire on their attackers, Shadow screeched in pain as rounds hit his thick chitin armor. While the rounds didn't fully penetrate, they did leave a painful, shallow wound that slowly bled acidic blood. Another spray of acid left the center torso of a bot exposed as the metal plating turned to metallic, yellowish goo. His massive tail blade curled around and shot forward burring deeply into the bots inside and with a quick yank, gutting the damaged bot sending it collapsing to the ground.

While Alese and Ghost had managed to pin the bots that they had pounced on to the ground, they were still struggling to get a kill shot. Each one had tried to head-butt the optical eye casing hoping to shatter and expose it and in turn get to the computer brain that would shut it down. The bots had adapted and learned the Xenos attack move. Now they started shifting their torsos just enough so that neither Ghost nor Alese could get in a solid blow to shatter the protective casing.

The melee quickly deteriorated into a chaotic mess of chrome colored metal and wet, black chitin. The bots were in so close they were having a difficult time targeting the Xeno with their guns in such close quarters. That, however, didn't stop a few from taking aim and firing into the crowd regardless if they hit the other bots or not. More rounds whizzed by Ghost and Alese, several finding their marks on both of them.

Jumping back to avoid the weapons fire; hissing in pain, both Ghost and Alese were about to charge down the firing bots as more shots zipped past them. This time they were coming from behind. One of the bots that had hit Alese staggered back as it was now being pelted by weapons fire. Were they now firing on their own now? Sloppy and stupid machines. Confused by the new development, Ghost and Alese glanced back behind them, a human figure was struggling to hold a rifle, slouching up against the wall, his face red and dripping with sweat, gasping for air. Taking aim and without hesitation he fired again.

None of them were going to ask how Shawn had found their location or how he had known they were in trouble. Right now it didn't matter, he was here and now his life was in just as much jeopardy as theirs. Taking advantage of the opening Ghost and Alese decided to double team the bots now instead of taking them on one on one. Knocking one of the bots down, both Xenos jumped right on top of it, and instead of trying to go for the brain they decided they would go for the heart. Ripping the chest plate off in a swift motion, Ghost signaled for Alese to take the kill. Her tail speared right into the opening, a powerful jolt and a brief blue electrical flash and the bot shook for a few seconds and then went still.

Shawn had no idea what the hell had gone so horribly wrong or what had actually happened. It was supposed to be a recon, just them scouting the area so they could avoid trouble, not go jumping neck deep into it. Back in the loading area, dread and fear had gripped his chest sending icy chills throughout his whole body. He needed to go someplace but where that place was, he had no idea, all he knew was that he needed to go and that was all. There was also a weird sensation of disconnect from the hive link, well perhaps not a disconnect as he would have first thought. However it did feel like his link to the Xenos had suddenly, somehow weakened, as if one of them had been cut from it. He had tried to mentally call out to them but his answer was never returned. He hoped that it was just the fact that they were too far away and out of his limited range.

Panicking that the three had run into some unknown situation he had scampered into the supply depot. Finding several crates of high powered battle rifles, some accessories, and ammo he grabbed one of the rifles with several high capacity ammo drums and a few clips. Throwing the clips and drums into an ammo satchel he rushed as fast as he could. He had no idea how to find them, other than to follow the odd sensation. Running up flight after flight of stairs, he had kept pushing himself to go as fast as he could. His heart beating so fast and so hard in his chest he thought it might seize up and stop any second. Taking in deep breaths, greedily gasping for oxygen, he pushed himself harder than he had for a long time. Even when his legs burned, cramped and threatened to give out underneath he grabbed the handrail for support and continued to push himself onward.

As he had continued to climb he lost count on how many flights he had gone up, the sensation in the back of his mind growing stronger with each step he took. Soon he had heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire and the angry battle enraged screams of his Xenos. He didn't call out to them, afraid that he might distract them; any distraction even for a second might cost one of all them their lives. Something that he would never forgive himself for. Finding an open door leading into a hallway, all he had to do was follow the sound of gunfire and Xenomorph screeches.

It was an easy path to follow from that point on.

Panting as he made his way down the hallway, the sounds of fighting getting louder and fiercer. Coming around a corner, he almost collapsed to the ground as he came to a halt, leaning up against the wall he finally saw what they had been fighting against. Strewn out in front of him were mechanical parts and pieces ripped, torn or even melted away. At first, he thought it might have been guards or androids that Shadow and the others were fighting up against. Instead, it was some kind of security robot, one that was heavily armed and armored. Pulling the bolt back, arming the battle rifle, he quickly checked the safety to make sure it was off.

Shawn raised the rifle and took aim at the bot that had shot Alese. No way was he going to let that pass. He then realized that the weapon was a couple of feet longer than the shorter pulse rifle that he had grown accustomed to using. It was a detail that he hadn't really been paying attention to when he yanked it out of the storage crate it had been in. It might throw his aim off some, but he didn't have to think about it, he would have to simply deal with it and adapt to the new weapons weight and length. Adjusting his grip he looked right down the iron sites and forced himself to stead his breathing and calm down. Focus in on what needed to be done, nothing else mattered right now. His family was in jeopardy and he needed to help them, that was all that mattered.

The limited training he had done both with James as well as in the simulator started to creep back into his mind and body, something he was now eternally grateful for. Muscle memory as it were, the way the weapon was supposed to be held, the slow and steady breathing, taking aim of one's target and slowly squeezing the trigger. As he was discovering everything was all well and good in controlled conditions that weren't chaotic, where their lives weren't in danger, this was however not a controlled or safe area. And lives were in danger, his included.

Squeezing the trigger, there was a rapid series of loud, sharp, cracks that emitted from the rifle as well as a sizable, bright muzzle flash. The battle rifle was far louder than the pulse rifle was, almost visceral in nature as well as having a harder recoil. Short bursts erupted as Shawn aimed for the bots that were furthest away from the Xenos. Rounds hit, causing the bot to stagger back slightly but not to fall. He could see that none of the rounds were even close to penetrating the thick armor plating. It did, however, give Ghost and Alese a small window of opportunity to quickly rip apart one of the closer bots together.

 _'Shawn their armor is too thick, aim for their eye, try and blind them!'_ Ghost shouted to him, as he and Alese tag teamed another one of the bots shredding it apart in seconds.

Taking aim at a bot that was pointing its weapons at Shadow, Shawn opened fire on it. The rifle roared to life, heavy rounds spewed out hitting the armor plating in the back. Stumbling forward slightly with no real damage, the bot turned to target this new threat and opened fire. Ducking down, Shawn slid to the floor as rounds pelted the wall where he had been. There was a sharp, stabbing pain in his right temple as something wet and warm started to run down the side of his head.

Ignoring the pain he raised his rifle and fired back at the mechanical killing machine that was bearing down on him. At best it was sloppy aiming as the rounds he fired off all hit in the torso area and not the optical eye as Ghost had told him too. The bot only staggered back slightly, it then raised it weapons ready to terminate this new threat.

It was then a sharp ear-piercing, inhuman scream filled the hallway. Shawn overwhelmed by the sudden feeling of fury, rage and white-hot hate that was underlined with stark terror. The intense wave of potent emotions flooded his mind. He tried to pull the trigger he found that he had completely frozen up. He wasn't scared, or terrified, but the sudden wave of raw heated emotions had simply caused his body to simply seize up and stop working.

The bot was tackled from the side and slammed to the floor, screaming, shrieking and hissing in a violent rage. Shadow pined the bot to the floor, almost standing on it, grabbing the bot's arms, he started to pull. The sound of grinding and twisting metal could be heard as the joints started to give, loud pops of gears and servos giving out and ripping quickly followed. In a swift motion, the bot's arm separated, artificial muscles, wires, and even the ammo belts stretched out, extending some before snapping and shearing off. It was now little more than a useless hunk of metal, while still operational it posed little if no threat.

Whirling around, the bot's arms still firmly in his grasp, Shadow turned his attention to one of the two remaining bots that were still left. Charging headlong into it as it opened fire on him, the rounds either embedding themselves into his thick natural chitin armor or glancing off did nothing to deter him from his prey. Metal struck against metal clashing loudly as he used the bots arms and guns as makeshift clubs against his quarry. Not giving the bot a chance to continue firing, he swung as hard as he could, wanting now to only finish this battle. Each hit only dented the heavily reinforced metal causing little more than superficial damage at best.

Hit after hit, the metal arms finally gave way, warping, twisting and falling apart under the tremendous abuse. Being useless now as any kind of weapon, he discarded the arms throwing them to the ground and choosing to simply ram himself into the bot instead. Still engulfed in rage, his tongue repeatedly whipped out, pistoning into the metal, punching holes into the bot's half oval shaped head.

Unable to either defend itself or continue attacking due to being so woefully outmatched, the attack bot was soon ripped to pieces. Its artificial brain was shattered and all of its functions immediately ceased as it collapsed to the ground, little more now than a useless hunk of metal.

Recovering himself from Shadow's unintentional mental backlash, Shawn looked over to where Ghost and Alese were finishing off the last of the attack bots. The two drones ripped apart pieces and sections with little difficulty. It was the first time he had ever seen any of them in an actual life or death fight. There was, of course, the times in the combat simulator, but that was training and no one's life had ever been in any real danger. They had always restrained themselves from doing any permanent damage to the training bots. A solid hit or tap, just enough to indicate a simulated kill. This, however, was completely different.

It was no wonder the mercs had been at such a disadvantage and had been so effectively dispatched. The Xenos had ripped through solid carbon-steel alloy as if it was little more than paper. The thought of what they could do to human flesh and bone if they chose too, truly did hit home with him right there. It also made him realize just how powerless he was compared to them, at least in terms of raw strength, speed, and physical toughness. The only advantage humans might have on them would be a technological one. And that was unreliable at best, when the technology no longer worked or when the ammo ran out, any human who was on their bad side would be completely at their mercy. And god help whoever poor sod that might be.

Looking around; taking in the carnage of the area, the remains of the mechanical units strewn about, some of the bots smoking as small electrical fires within the chassis burned. If just three of them could do this to a small group of attack bots, he doubted the guards on Eclipse station really had much of a chance. What would happen if all the Xenos were released, would they to escape right away or try to extract revenge first? While he wouldn't blame any of them for that course of action as he still clearly remembered Ghost's memories, he hoped that none of them would take that course of action. The sooner they got everyone on board the Saratoga the sooner they could find a place to call home.

Scooting up against the wall, his hand inadvertently touched his right side temple. Wet and sticky he looked to see red coving his hand. Feeling back up, he found a sizable tear in his skin a couple of inches long. Another inch to the left and he would have had his head blown off, at the very least he would have lost his eye and that was a best-case scenario. He hands started to shake as the adrenaline started to wear off and he thought about just how close he had come to dying, again. He watched Shadow stomp over to the bot that he had literally disarmed only a minute ago.

Slamming his foot down on the metal chest plate, pushing all his weight down until the bot's chest started to cave in. Shadow twisted his heel, applying more and more pressure until the metal groaned under the Xenos weight, finally caving and giving in. A loud electrical burst and several flashes the bot's body twitched and then went still.

 _'What...were...you...thinking!?'_ Shadow's voice seethed with raw fury in Shawn's mind, the Praetorian standing completely still, his foot buried deep in the bot's chest. While there was anger in his voice there was also a great amount of fear mix in, fear that Shawn was easily picking up. _'You could have been killed,'_ he stated slowly as if there was any real need to point out the obvious in this case.

Shawn brought his hand back up to his temple and held it there covering the open wound that still had blood flowing out of it. He honestly didn't know what to say, he was having a hard time putting anything that he had just experienced into words. It was all such a rushed blur, feelings, emotions, and powerful instincts that seemed to come out of nowhere and relentlessly take hold and drive him on. "I'm sorry, I...I just need to come here. I knew you were all in trouble and needed to come here." He quietly said to them, now sure if there was anything else he could say that would make sense.

 _'You...you needless endangered yourself,' S_ hadow snarled his lips parley peeled back more out of raw frustration than anything else. Frustration that had been from him almost abandoning his hive thanks to his base instincts kicking in and taking over. But now from Shawn showing up and getting himself involved in the middle of a battle that he had no business being in. _'You should have...,'_ at seeing the trail of red blood on the side of Shawn's face, Shadow stopped in mid-sentence. Flashbacks to when Shawn had been shot in CIC started to come back to his mind. The sheer amount of blood that their human had lost, how weak he had become. And the absolute feeling of total and complete helplessness he had felt the whole time, not knowing if he would live or die. Shadow took several steps forward toward Shawn, his own yellow acidic blood still dripping and splattering on the floor plating forming small smoking holes.

Shawn got a full mental barrage of the images flashing through his mind from Shadow's sudden flashback. Up until now, he had no idea just how helpless and weak the Xeno had felt at that time. Watching over him as he tried to patch and heal the bullet wounds to his back and chest, always wondering if what he was doing was correct, if it would at all work. Fighting the instincts to either stay and watch over him or go and continue to fight the mercs that had boarded. Shawn couldn't blame Shadow for being angry about what had happened if the situation was reversed he would have felt the same. "It's just a scratch, nothing more," Shawn said pushing himself up, getting a good look at all three bloodied Xenos, it made his heart sink into his chest.

All three were coated in their own blood, Shawn could see the nicks, and even partial puncture wounds from the discharged rounds. Yellow blood still dripping out, he didn't even notice the newly formed holes being created in the floor as the acidic blood hit the metal plating. Taking a few steps forward he was about to reach out when Shadow backed up, almost fearfully so.

 _'SHAWN, NO...'_ Shadow yelled, causing their human to stop in his tracks as if he had done something horribly wrong. _'You'll hurt yourself if you touch us right now. Remember, our blood, what it can do.'_ He said, his voice becoming softer and concerned.

Shawn watched a few drops fall from Shadow's chest and onto the floor, right away the metal was eaten away the burned edges smoking slightly with a metallic acidic smell. It was the first time he had ever seen what their blood could actually do. Reading about it and watching a centuries-old video over it was one thing, seeing it for himself was something entirely different. Everything before him, the destroyed bots, the acidic blood that could eat through almost anything, it was the first time he saw for himself just how truly lethal the Xenomorphs were.

And in his mind, it still made no difference; he would stand with them no matter what.

Nodding he understood and backed up against the wall. "Right, yea...good point," he said realizing what he had almost done. Sitting back down, placing the battle rifle across his lap, his hand resting across the barrel, "how bad are the injuries?"

 _'Nothing that is life-threatening for any of us,'_ Shadow said as Alese and Ghost stepped up next to him, each one looking right at Shawn seeing blood still dripping down the side of his face.

' _Shawn your injury,'_ Alese said, only now realizing that their human had been hurt. Even though she could see it was nothing critical, it still pained her to see him with any kind of wound.

"It's not that serious, it just looks worse than what it is. A bullet grazed me and tore the skin open but nothing else. A couple of bandages and I'll be fine." He said, adjusted his palm so it covered the whole wound, hoping it would slow if not stop the bleeding until he could get back the Saratoga, grab a medkit and stitch the wound up. "Besides you're all in a hell of a lot worse shape than I am." While he had only received a slight graze; the three of them had been peppered with countless rounds and were still bleeding, though it looked as if some of the wounds had already stopped beading and were starting to heal over.

Right away Shadow and Alese turned their attention to Ghost who was in the worst shape out of all three of them. Ghost stood perfectly still as both Shadow and Alese began to produce gobs of the white colored life jelly. With expert precession started to apply the jelly to his wounds, Shawn watched in fascination as the jelly once applied stopped the bleeding almost immediately. Once finished applying the life jelly, thin strands of resin were discharged and quickly worked into creating small bandages which were cut and applied to the more severe wounds. Once finished, Ghost and Alese then turned their attention to Shadow and shortly after that it was Alese's turn to be doctored up.

Shadow continued to look over Ghost again making sure all his wounds were treated as Alese came over to Shawn and hunkered down in front of him. _'It is safe for me to handle you now,' s_ he said producing a small glob of jelly on her fingertip. 'This will help speed up the healing process.'

Lowering his hand he turned his head so she would have clear access to the wound. "Shadow's really pissed at me; I fucked up badly and almost got myself killed again." He said as the whole scenario kept running through his mind over and over. Just one more inch and he would have died right there. All that training, all that practice and all it amounted to was him getting shot again. His hand gripped the barrel of the rifle even tighter now; he wasn't sure what to feel at this point. Anger, frustration, hopelessness a mix of all three, he thought he was doing the right thing, coming up to help. But it seemed all he did was get in the way, he was wondering if he was going to be a liability when they boarded Eclipse base.

Gently smearing the life jelly across the wound, she gave him a small hiss. _'No, he's not angry with you. Concerned, yes, worried, yes, but he's not angry with you.'_

The stinging immediately stopped and was replaced with subtle but pleasant warmth as she coated the wound with the jelly. The flow of blood stopping within a few seconds as her finger went back and forth a few more times making sure the jelly was evenly applied. Lowering her head, a thin stream of liquid resin coated one of her thumbs two fingers. Vigorously she worked the resin back and forth until it started to firm up and take a light tan color.

 _'He's angry and frustrated with himself but not you.'_ She said stretching out the newly forming bandage.

Shawn looked right at her and then to Shadow who was still applying bandages to Ghost. "Why, why is he angry with himself, Alese what the hell happened up here?" Shawn whispered to her trying not to distract Shadow or Ghost. Nothing about what had just happened was making any sense, the odd disconnect, the pulling, all the security bots. What in the hell was up in this area that was so important, it was a supply depot, wasn't it?

 _'We split up to see if there were any human's on board. Shadow and I searched the lower levels, Ghost searched the upper areas.'_ With the bandage finished, she carefully applied it over Shawn's wound. _'We didn't find anyone and neither did Ghost, when we spoke to him he was going to search for a bit longer and after that, we were going to return to the ship. A short time later we lost contact with him, it was some kind of odd disconnect that we felt. We could still feel him, but something was not right, we couldn't talk to him or hear him anymore even though we could sense him.'_

Leaning in Alese gently nuzzled the side of Shawn's face; ever so slowly her hand reached over and grabbed his giving it a reassuring squeeze. _'Shadow and I quickly made our way up to where we thought he was at. He had entered a hallway, when we found him he was just standing there and in front of him were three of those mechanical things about to fire on him. Even at such short range, we were barely able to communicate with him. It wasn't until we started fighting that he snapped out of it and we could hear him. After the fight he told us that he had detected the scent of humans, however, it was very old. But there was something else he had picked up, the scent of our hive.'_

Shawn only blinked, he wasn't sure if he had heard Alese correctly or not, _their hive,_ the words just hung in his mind. "Your...hive?" He finally asked, more than a little shocked by the news. Was that even possible, he thought that everything to do with the Xenos was on Eclipse base, not some supply depot unless there was something far too dangerous to keep on the main base.

' _Yes, our hive. Shadow scent tasted the air and the same thing happened to him as well only worse. He zoned out and the deepest most potent instincts came to the surface.'_ She continued, leaning away to look right at him. _'Shawn, for those few moments he didn't know who he was. To him, all that mattered was the need to serve, protect, tend and guard the hive and that was it, nothing more. For that short time span, our hive all, of us didn't exist to him. His memories of you were the only thing that broke him out of it before we were attacked again.'_

"Ghost said that Shadow and I had formed an extremely strong bond, I knew it was strong, I just didn't think it was that strong." Shawn looked up at the ceiling, trying to make sense of it all. "So I guess this means that there is a queen on board, your queen I take it." If that was the case, then everything was going to get a lot more complicated. Would she seem him as a potential threat, one to be disposed of, and would she see Shadow, Alese and even Ghost as being corrupted somehow and a threat to the hive as a whole? Worse case scenarios started to play out, each one getting worse and worse.

' _No, we don't believe that there is a queen on board, and if there was, I doubt she would see you as a threat.'_ Alese told him trying to ease his fears, _'as for corrupting us, well I believe that we have all corrupted each other.'_ She said, attempting to lighten the mood, at seeing Shawn crack a smile she was relieved that it had worked.

"So, why haven't you been affected or were you?" He asked, rubbing the front of her dome.

Leaning into his touch she let out a low toned hiss, _'I was, but only for a few seconds. I had scent tasted the air right after Shadow did, thankfully Ghost helped break me out of it. Being that he is a Praetorian, a queen's elite guard, I assume the scent affected him in a much stronger way than Ghost and myself.'_

"And you need to find where this scent is coming from?" Shawn asked, already knowing the answer. It was pretty much a no-brainer, if there was something to find, even if it wasn't a queen, maybe it would at least give them some kind of answer.

Alese only nodded as she already knew that Shawn knew the answer to his own question. Gesturing over to Shadow with her head, who was now being looked over again by Ghost and was applying bandages to spots they had missed the first time. _'You should go and say something to him as he needs you now.'_

"I think we all need each other, now more than ever," Shawn replied back standing up with a groan. He would get no argument from Alese or any of them for that matter, "Damn I really did myself in getting up here." He muttered, his legs and lower back were getting stiff and sore, he wasn't sure how he was going to fair in the next day or two.

 _'How did you know where to come?'_ Alese asked, standing up next to him, it was a question that had all but slipped her mind until now.

"Same as you and Shadow I think, I was still in the transfer bay and I felt this disconnect and a sense of danger, but something else was, hell I don't know, pulling me I think. I just felt compelled to come here and just followed the feeling. So I found a weapon, some ammo and hauled ass up here, damn near gave myself a heart attack getting here. Guess that training was good for something after all." He said catching Alese looking right at him. It was a look of utter shock if it was possible for one of her kind to show that.

 _'Will you show me what you went through, everything from the start until when you got up here,'_ she asked. By all accounts, Shawn should not have felt anything that had happened to them, especially from so far away. But somehow he had felt it, felt the call of their hive, it was something that was both unexpected and unprecedented.

Closing his eyes, the two touched their foreheads together, Shawn had to consternate on the events, the memory blurred by at first, and then replayed by as if somehow he was looking at everything in slow-motion. He realized that Alese was replaying his memory, going over it bit by bit, examining and scrutinizing it. As soon as he came into the battle she stopped the memory.

 _'I do not know what to say to this, you should not have been able to feel what we did,'_ she told him, ' _at least not as far away as you were.'_ He had felt the sudden disconnect, the instinctual pulling, and even when they were in danger from the bots. And on top of that, he had almost acted like one of her kin, coming to aid and defend the hive without question. It was more than disconcerting that he had acted on an instinct that was not inherently his own. It was something she would have to discuss with Shadow and Ghost when they were not distracted, hopefully after they had finished with Eclipse base.

"Yea, it was pretty messed up, guess that link and bond is a lot stronger than I thought. I couldn't communicate or anything but I definitely felt it." He said, "I get the impression that you're worried about it and to be honest I'm concerned as well, but it's something we'll have to deal with later on."

Ghost was finishing up bandaging Shadow up as Alese and Shawn walked up. "How you two doing?" He asked, trying to get the awkwardness out of the way as quickly as he could.

 _'Better,'_ Ghost replied applying the last of the resin bandages to Shadow's midriff, ' _we heal quickly and the life jelly accelerates that healing.'_ Looking over at Shawn he saw the fresh resin bandage over his temple area. _'And you, are you alright?'_

Shrugging, Shawn just looked around at the metal carnage strewn about, 'I'm alive and intact so I can't complain. Guess I got lucky again." It was another case of lucking out; he silently kept asking himself when that boundless luck of his was going to come to an end.

Shadow remained uncharacterly silent, a fog of guilt; even what could be described as borderline self-loathing hung in his mind as to what had happened. He still couldn't accept the fact that he had been ready to simply abandon his hive mates so quickly. After everything they had all gone through was it possible that his primal base instincts might someday cause him to throw everything away. He had won the first battle of wills, but all would it take was for him to lose just one fight and it might very well be over. Something he could not accept.

Walking up to Shadow, Shawn placed his hand on the Xeno's arm and lightly gave him a squeeze. "We'll get through this, all of us," he finally said trying to muster up as much encouragement as he possibly could. "It's just another obstacle that's in the way that we have to work through. Remember, we all promised each other that we would look out for the other, we watch each other's backs no matter what."

 _'You don't know what it was like, just how powerful it was Shawn. I was ready to give up everything. For that short period of time, you, Ghost even Alese didn't exist. All I wanted to do was take my place in the hive, guard and protect the queen and our territory. Nothing else mattered...almost'_ Shadow let out a low toned hiss, shaking his crested head. _'But then I started to remember, I started to remember you, remembered what you had told me in CIC about others of our kind forming bonds with other humans. And how extraordinary that you found it that we weren't the only ones,'_ he reached over and gently placed his hand along Shawn's back, _'I now know that the bond you and I hold can rival that of a queen and its hive. You were what snapped me out of it and brought me back.'_ He wasn't sure if Shawn could ever truly comprehend that not so small fact. To one of his kind, no matter status or rank the hive was all, the queen was all, and that was final.

"That's one hell of a thing," Shawn said, realizing just how potent their bond had become and how precarious his situation might become, especially if a queen became involved somehow. "So just out of morbid curiosity does that make me an asset or a liability? I mean if we happen to come across a queen what's she going to think of some lowly human that has that much influence over a Praetorian?" He asked, knowing from the hive memories that the loyalties from the elite guards were an absolute to the queens they served.

 _'I do not know, and that's the truth.'_ Shadow answered, silently wondering the exact same thing. How would a queen, any queen react to the bond that not just he and Shawn shared but the bond that all four of them shared? The circumstances were unusual, to say the least and this was far from a normal hive. It might even become more so once they had reached Eclipse base and freed the other Xenos. It would be something that they would have to deal with if they ever crossed that path. But for now they needed to deal with the problems in front of them and at the moment that was finding out where the hive scent was coming from and what was there.

Looking around the hallway, Alese and Ghost were waiting to see what their next move was. So far no more attack bots had shown up, maybe that was all or perhaps something worse was waiting for them further on.

"So, what do we do now?" Shawn asked, "I mean do you all want to turn back and forget it or do we keep going and find out what this scent that you found is?"

Shadow turned to look at the two drones, _'What do you two want to do? Do you wish to continue on or do you wish to leave?'_ He asked, as far as he was concerned he wanted a solid consensus from all parties involved, Shawn included. None of them had any idea what lay ahead, and after the fight, they had just gotten through, he figured it was something very dangerous that was being guarded. If it was members of his actual hive he wanted to at least know. But if they wanted to leave, he would respect their decision regardless of his personal feelings.

 _'I would like to continue on, if it is something from our original hive that we were from I wish to know what it is and why it is here._ Ghost said. No one was surprised that Ghost wanted to continue, he was by far the most curious of all three of them. Shawn always figured that if he had the means too, Ghost would be dome deep in a computer studying everything he could.

Alese nodded in agreement to go on as well, despite what had happened with their instincts taking over for a brief time, she too wanted to know as well. _'Continue,'_ she said.

Shadow looked down at Shawn, _'What do you wish to do, this concerns you as much as it does us.'_

"What the hell, we're here, might as well go and see it all the way through, right?" If all three were willing to go on he might as well. If it involved their race, even their hive they had every right to know what it was that was going on. He just wasn't sure what it was they were going to find.

Nodding in agreement, _'Very well, we will continue.'_ Shadow said, _'Ghost you will stay in the rear, your injuries are the most severe and if something should happen, take cover.'_ Placing his massive hand on Shawn's head, Shadow blew out a loud huff or air, _'that goes for you as well. And do not argue with me on this.'_ He was adamantly on the subject, the last thing he wanted to do was lose their human. As far as he was concerned Shawn had enough close calls as it was, there was no reason to add anymore to his growing tally.

"Wasn't planning on it," Shawn replied, checking his rifle, he had only fired off a few dozen rounds from the large two-hundred and fifty round ammo drum. While the rifle didn't have a grenade launcher he did notice an optical sight that that had been collapsed down. Flipping it up, it looked through the small yellow plastic piece seeing a red sighting dot. Far better than the normal iron sights he figured. "So how are we going to find where this scent trail leads, won't you go under if you smell it again?"

 _'Let us find out,'_ Alese said extending her tongue out and tasting the air before any of them could protest. The scent was still there, slightly masked now by all the smoke from the weapons fire, melted metal, and electrical fires. But it was still there. She didn't feel her instincts kicking in like they did before. Perhaps the first time had been some kind of one time trigger for them, something to let them know they were close to home or members of their hive. _'Nothing,'_ she told them.

Shawn could only shake his head, that had been a risky move on her part. Maybe it had been necessary, but still, in his opinion, it had been risky, especially if her instincts had fully taken over again. "Well then, let's go," he said, bringing up the rifle hoping that he wouldn't have to use it again as it was almost worthless against the security bots.

Shadow took the led with Shawn trailing a few feet behind and to his side, aiming the battle rifle down the hallway. Alese was a couple of meters behind Shadow with Ghost taking up the rear. Keeping alert and looking around, each one expected another group of the attack bots to pop out and attack them at any given second. Or perhaps something much worse.

Only the slight flicker of the lights and the occasional hum of the air regulation system broke the tense silence. Cold gunmetal gray walls seemed to stretch on forever only broken by an occasional door or corridor split.

The hairs on the back of Shawn's neck ever so slowly started to stand on end, he remembered the same feeling in the pit of his stomach that he had when he had first boarded the Saratoga. That feeling of dread, that something was off, watching him and not quite right, even with the three Xenos, he was starting to get nervous. And he could tell that he was not the only one, even Shadow was getting slightly apprehensive as they ventured further down the corridor.

 _'This way,'_ he said, scent tasting the air. Coming to a four-way intersection he turned left, it was stronger, much stronger now, they were getting close. Part of him wanted to find the source of this scent, what could be the remnants of their old hive, a hive that they had never known but was nevertheless drawn to. The other part of him, almost dreaded what they would find. Would they find kin that would welcome them or kin that would consider them enemies? Or would it be nothing more than remains that were part of an age that was best left forgotten.

"Security camera," Shawn said, nodding at a ceiling mounted camera that was following the parties movements, a red light just below the bottom of the lens indicated it was on. "If someone didn't know we were here before, they do now. I wonder who's on the other side keeping an eye on us."

Reaching up, Shadow wrapped his fingers around the white camera casing, tightening his grip this was the sound of plastic cracking and breaking. Yanking the camera out of the ceiling he opened his fingers, rolled his hand over to the side, letting it drop onto the floor. _'It does not matter, they can't watch us if we blind them.'_ He said continuing onward.

As they continued on, more cameras cropped up, each one following their movements, and each one Shadow promptly destroyed.

"Anyone else feels like we're about to walk into some serious shit or am I just been paranoid?" Shawn asked, his finger tightening down on the trigger ever so slightly. He could have sworn that the temperature in the area had rapidly dropped somehow, but there was no indication that was the case.

 _'No, you are not being paranoid, I can feel something as well. Something about this place is very wrong.'_ Ghost said, his tail twitching back and forth in nervous apprehension. _'There is this pull in the back of my mind like something is trying to reach out.'_

At hearing those words all Shawn could think about was running away and hiding under a bed, the small five years child that was afraid of the monsters in the closet was starting to come back. The irony was that he was traveling with creatures that so many others would consider monsters was not lost on him.

Another camera was dispatched, _'I can feel it as well, stay on your guard. I'm not sensing anything else but you are both correct, there is something not right here.'_ Shadow told them, turning his head, he tasted the air again; the scent of his hive was now very strong, very close. Turning another corridor, they continued on until the hallway ended, the only thing now standing in their way was a heavy armored double door.

To the right side of the door was what looked like a standard keypad, just above it was a rental ID scanner and below the keypad was a handprint scanner. "One door, three keys, looks like someone really doesn't want anyone getting in there," Shawn said taking a closer look at the security setup, this was so far out of his league, he wasn't sure that there was anything he could do.

 _'Shawn, is there anything you might be able to do to gain access to this door?'_ Alese asked looking at the large double doors.

"Beyond firing an armor-piercing missile or several into it, not a damn thing. This is way beyond what I can hack. Hell, I couldn't even guess what kind of safeguards are in place either."

Stepping up to the front of the door, Shadow looked it over his head tilting up and down. His tongue slid out tasting the air once again. _'They are back there or something of our hive is, we are getting through this door.'_ Turning to look at Ghost and Alese, _'I have an idea, how is your strength right now?'_ He asked.

Alese and Ghost looked at each other and the back at Shadow both wondering what his idea was. _'Our strength is fine,'_ Ghost replied back, cocking his head ever so slightly, _'what is it you planning to do?'_

 _"This,'_ he answered back and turned to face the door, _'Shawn get behind us and watch our backs just in case something goes wrong.'_ Shadow's chest seemed to expand slightly almost as if was taking in a deep breath. A second later a thick stream of yellow acid jetted out of his inner mouth coating the center line of where the two doors met. The liquid quickly started to eat through the armored doors. He hoped that it would be enough as that was all he had until he rested and replenished. Between this monster of a door and the attack bots, he had completely depleted his reservoir of acid that he could use in attacks.

Shawn stared wide-eyed at what was happening, he had no idea that was something any of them were capable of doing. "Where the hell did you learn to do that…how did you do that?" He asked, gawking at the yellow colored liquid continued to quickly eat through the door, some of it dripping onto the floor plating eating small holes into the metal.

 _'An ability that comes with being a queen's guard,'_ Shadow replied back, _'a few other of our kind have this ability as well, but not many.'_ The acid dissolved right through the thick metal door, leaving a massive hole in the center. While not large enough for any of them to crawl through it was large enough for Shadow to do what he had planned.

Stepping to the right side of the door he placed his hands inside the hole and clutched the melted metal. Following his example, Ghost and Alese positioned themselves on the opposite side, all three of them started to pull.

Shawn had seen Shadow rip apart an attack bot as if it were nothing more than paper a short time ago and Alese and Ghost had double-teamed one tearing it apart with little effort. He knew they were strong but it had been at that point that he realized just much raw physical strength the Xenos possessed. But even he had his doubts that the three of them might be able to pry the door apart. From what little he could see from where he was at, it looked like the door had to be at least four inches thick easily. And he wasn't sure if this door was to keep people out or keep whatever might be back there in.

Their lips peeled back, revealing the steel colored teeth back as their muscles tensed and strained to open the door. Dropping down some to give himself more leverage, Shadow pulled as hard as he was able to. Hissing in frustration as the door would not budge so much as an inch. If necessary he vowed he would open up one of his own veins and melt a hole large enough for all of them to go through.

A deafening metallic snap echoed through the hallway as the door shuttered slightly and gave way, but only an inch. Pulling even harder now, the door slowly opened, inch by painful inch, the loud grinding noise of metal scraping against metal reverberated as the door was forcibly opened.

With the doors opened up, Shadow cautiously stepped inside and looking around. The room was large, possibly half the size of the Saratoga's CIC room. Computer terminals ran all along the outer perimeter with several large terminals set in the center of the room. Shadow guessed that it might be some kind of command center, with the way human's thought and did things it made sense, at least to him. There were two glass doors opposite of each other. Swinging his head to the left than right scent tasting the air, he found that the scent of their hive was coming from the right door.

Motioning for the others to follow, they slowly made their way inside, unaware that several hidden cameras were observing and tracking their movements. Shawn looked around, only the center terminals had any chairs, and none of them looked to have been used for a long time. _You need to run, right now,_ the tiny voice whispered to him, it had mostly been silent since the close call in the NPX-391 asteroid field. Shawn's hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end now, he saw that Shadow, Alese and even Ghost's tail blades were twitching. _All of us need to leave this place, turn around and run,_ it urged on almost desperate and panicked.

 _'This way,'_ Shadow said, heading slowly toward the right side door _, 'the scent is coming from this way.'_

As they edged closer, the glass-plated door slowly opened up with a slight mechanical hiss giving them a clear path to what lay beyond. All four stopped and looked down at what seemed to be a brightly lit pristine white hallway. The hallway sectioned off to the left a few dozen meters down giving them two paths to take. The cleanliness, the bright sterile whiteness only seemed to heighten the ever-present sense of danger, it seemed to only accent that something truly was wrong in this section of the station.

Both Shawn and Shadow looked at each other, Shawn only shook his head, this was a bad idea plain and simple and all four of them knew it. Whatever was beyond that door had all four of them on edge. _Turn and run._ The tiny voice pleaded with him, almost whimpering in fear.

There were other scents coming from the hallway, not just those of the humans and his hive. Others that were both strange and unknown to any of them, and while none of the scents made any of them nervous it was that ever-present unseen force that permeated the area. Something that was waiting just beyond the shadows, waiting for all of them to come.

Taking point, Shadow crossed the threshold entering the white hallway, the others following close behind. There slick black bodies painted in stark contrast against the white hallway. Tightening his grip on his rifle, his hand started to ache slightly from the strain. In the back of his mind Shawn thought for just a split second he could hear whispers. Nothing that was desernable as it was almost outside of his range of hearing, just very quiet whispers; then it was gone as quickly as it had come. _'Did anyone hear anything just now, like whispering for a second,'_ he asked using hive speech this time. It wasn't that he didn't want to speak out loud, no, he was now afraid to, as if somehow making any kind of noise would alert whatever it was to their presence.

The quiet and stillness of the hallway was stiffening, a weight that was starting to press down on them. Even as they walked, the normal clicking from the Xenos toe claws on the metal plating was somehow drowned out in the silence.

 _'I heard nothing,'_ Ghost told him, Alese and Shadow also confirming that neither one of them had heard anything either.

He felt a bit of relief, if none of them heard anything then maybe it was just his imagination running rampant, causing him to hear things that weren't there. He stopped as Shadow tasted the air again than sharply turned left.

The hallway was lit with the same bright white lights; three doors came into view, two of them only a few meters away. One was on the left and one on the right, both directly opposite of each other. Beyond the two doors, dark glass windows running the full length of the hallway. Even with the ceiling lights blaring down the windows were pitch black showing nothing inside from either room.

However at the very end of the white hallway stood a dark gray colored heavy pressure door looked to have large bolts sunk into the floor, ceiling, and sides. Shawn wanted to run back to the Saratoga now, and be anywhere but in that hallway. Whatever it was that had not only him but all of them on edge now was behind that door. A door that looked like it was designed to keep whatever was on the other side locked tightly away. He didn't see any control panel to open it; maybe it was back in the control room. He was hoping that the hive scent didn't go past that door and that it was in one of the two nearby rooms.

Shadow was transfixed on the door as well; something was back there, behind all that reinforced, hardened steel, something that was now trying to creep into not only his mind but all of their minds. For just a second, he heard his own race, ever so slight whispers, words that he could not make out and then nothing. He wanted to shake it off, claim that it was little more than his own nerves getting to him, but he couldn't as Shawn had heard something too. They needed to find the source of the scent, figure out what to do and leave, that was all that mattered now.

Coming up to the two doors, Shadow turned his head toward the door on the right. _'Here, this one,'_ he told them his own mental voice becoming a hushed whisper, glancing back to the door at the end of the hallway. A slight tug, a pull, something wanted him to come.

Stepping up to the door, Shawn was expecting an elaborate lock system, instead, it was little more than a small control panel with a few buttons on it, open, close lock and unlock. Tapping the unlock button, a light just above the door flashed green, pressing the open button the door quietly slid open. Overhead lights in the room slowly flickered on, bathing the area in a bright but cold light.

Immediately Shawn noticed that the windows were still black on the outside and did not allow anyone to see inside the room. Possible either heavily tinted, or a one-way window that allowed the occupants to see out into the hallway, but not the other way around. Following Shadow's lead, he kept his rifle level, finger on the trigger ready to open fire on anything that might attack them.

The room was much like the hallway as it was bright white in color as well as being cold and sterile, offering no comfort or warmth at all. Shawn glanced at the room length window for a second seeing that the glass did clearly show the outside hallway. _A one-way window, after all_ , he thought to himself. A cold desolate chill ran through each one of them as they each entered room, almost as somehow a part of their essence had been pulled from their bodies. Numerous rows of what looked like preservation jars and tanks nearly ran the full length of the room. Each row was methodically arranged in order, starting from the smallest of containers that were mounted on stands to containers so vast that Shadow could have easily fit inside with plenty of room to spare. The containers were carefully labeled and marked as to what each one was, its location and time stamped. More than a few were marked as "unknown specimen'. Most of the small containers had pieces of what might have been technology from other species, but none of it resembles anything that he recognized. Much of it looked organic in nature and quite ancient.

 _'Don't touch a thing.'_ Shawn mentally whispered, somehow feeling that even that was too loud and that he might catch the attention of whatever it was that was so close, sealed beyond the pressure door.

Anything in the containers could have been a deadly weapon or something far worse for all they knew. It wasn't just tech that was in the containers, organic specimens also lined the area, in some cases little more than pieces. Some were small creatures, maybe animals or even the remains of a long-dead space-faring species for all any of them knew. Quietly they made their way down the length of the room, sticking to the outer wall. The containers becoming larger displaying bigger specimens most looked to have been dead for hundreds, possibly thousands of years.

Shawn didn't recognize any of the species, maybe they were the remains of long-forgotten races that had died out countless thousands of years ago. He wondered how long this organization had been poking around, gathering items and specimens. Just how far out had they gone, surely not the unknown reaches, not even navy fleets ventured out that far. But then humanity had been pushing back the veil of the unknown, sometimes with disastrous results.

Continuing down the row of preservation containers something caught Shawn's attention in one of the pods. What was in it was humanoid in form, eight feet tall plus a few inches. Pasty sick looking yellow skin speckled with black blotches that covered the shoulders, arms, and sides as well as most of the head. The muscles looked dense with not a single ounce of fat or flab that he could see. The head had eye sockets that were deeply sunken in, with a pair of mandibles set in that protruded out where the cheeks were. Thick black strands, as thick as a large man's thumb, hung well past its shoulder where the hair should be on its head.

It didn't look as old as the other specimens in the room, if anything it looked to be fairly fresh, but it was dead. A large scar ran down the full length of its torso. Two additional scars ran the width of its torso, one just above the pecks and the other on just below its belly. Shawn recognized autopsy scars when he saw them as enough of his friends and coworkers had died. Whatever it had been, to these people it was now just another lifeless specimen to be taken apart and studied. He wondered if it had still been alive when they had opened it up. Or had they had the decency to at least quickly end its life before cutting into it.

Glancing over at the label, he did not recognize the name at all, whatever species they were, they were completely unknown. _'Ya...Yau...Yautja,'_ he pronounced it after a few tries, though he wasn't sure if he got the name correct, _'anything in the hive memory about this guy or any of them?'_ He asked.

 _'No, nothing about any of them looks familiar from the hive memories.'_ Shadow quietly told him, continuing on completely disinterested in the long-dead subjects. All he wanted to do was solve this mystery and leave this place as soon as possible. Coming to the end of the row he suddenly stopped; straightening to his full height he went completely ridged.

Everyone was suddenly bombarded with an onslaught of shock and disbelief which came from the Praetorian's mind. He had stopped right at the edge of the row and now stood there, still as a statue not moving a single muscle. He wasn't scared or even spooked by what he was looking at, just shocked.

 _'Brother, what is it?'_ Alese asked coming up behind him trying to peak around his frame as none of them could see what he was looking at.

After a few moments, he walked forward to let all of them see what he had. Everyone, Shawn included could only stare with the same disbelief that Shadow was as they made their way past him. A massive ornate crested head that made Shadow's look almost plan with powerful jaws and razor sharp teeth looked right at the newly arrived party.

It was a queen.

Or at least it had been one time long ago. Inside a massive preservation container was what was left of one. Lying prone were the remains, the head, neck and most of the torso were still largely intact, along with one of the primary arms and the two secondary arms. Only two of the back dorsal spikes remained, as well as one of the legs. The tail was lying next to her torso in several segments.

Even long dead, she still had a sense of awe and power around her, a presence that was to be both respected even feared. Seeing the queens from the hive memory most looked to be around twelve to fourteen feet tall. While Shawn was having a hard time gauging the size from the remains, this one looked like she might have been well over sixteen maybe seventeen feet in height.

They all approached the container to get a better view; at best it was a bittersweet moment for them. They had found a queen, but one that looked to have been dead for untold thousands of years. The three Xenos wondered if by some off chance might this be their mother, their queen, the one that had so many ages ago laid the eggs that they had come from. Or was she just another unfortunate find for the humans to collect and study.

Getting a better look, Shawn saw massive amounts of what looked like scars, possibly claw marks running the length and even width of her crest. The thick side along the crest was riddled with holes as well; even small sections looked to have been blown off. As old as the remains were, the details were still very visible. In fact, her whole body carried the scars of what he assumed was battle. Perhaps she herself had been involved in the war against their creators.

He doubted any questions about her would even get answered.

Shadow, Ghost and Alese had their heads tilted down, each one mourning this unknown queen. None of them recognized her from their memories, perhaps a queen from another hive or from a different planet altogether. They just wished that the humans that had found her would have left her alone at her resting spot.

The grieving, as fleeting as it might be, did seem to push back whatever force was tugging at them.

Looking over to his right Shawn spotted another door at the far side of the room. Along with other pods that were lined up against the wall, pods that held Xenomorphs in them. Motioning to Shadow and the others about what he had just seen the four of them quickly made their way over to the pods, each one turning to look back at the long-dead queen.

Shawn and the others could feel the rage coming from Shadow as he claws started to tense up and quiver. Looking up at the pods, they could see that the Xenos were dead, and for a very long time too from the way it looked. The normally black glossy skin was a dull light grey, with the biomechanical skin sunken in, the normally shiny, opaque domes were now dull and cracked. _'If Mason had anything to do with this I will peel the skin off of him while he still breaths.'_ The Praetorian seethed.

Studying the remains that were inside the pods for a few moments, Shawn shook his head _'I don't think that Mason had anything to do with this, they look like they've been dead for a very long time, probably as long as the queen. In fact, they almost looked mummified.' He said as h_ e pinched the bridge of his nose, a slight headache starting to form from using the hive speech.

 _'I believe that Shawn is correct on this,'_ Ghost said, moving in closer pressing the front of his dome up against the glass examining the remains himself. _'They have been dead for many years, Mason had nothing to do with this.'_

Regardless of whether Mason had anything to do with it or not, it was a sad thing to see as it sunk right into his heart to see these Xenos final resting place had been violated. And that they were now little more than specimens to be displayed and studied. Going down the row of pods, Shawn counted more of the deceased, ago old Xenos, mostly drones, and warriors, a single Praetorian was in the mix, six, eight, twelve, sixteen, then he stopped.

The pods that he was now looking at were not preservation pods at all like the ones throughout the room. They were larger and far more sophisticated in design and appearance. Small beeps came from the pods; a monitor about the side of Shadow's hand was attached to each one. The screen showed five lines going across that would occasionally spike up and then fall. It was right then that Shawn realized that they were either some kind of sleep or cryo pod. Unlike the hypersleep or even medical pods that were designed for short-term use of a few years, these looked to be more like pods that would be used for extremely long-term use. Decades, maybe even centuries depending on what the circumstances were. Getting a closer look at the Xenos, he could see that their domes were still opaque and shiny; and the skin was still glossy and silky black in color. Their arms were set across their chest as they had been set to lean forward ever so slightly, their heads tilted in a downward position.

Shawn just turned his head and looked at the three Xeno who stood in front of the pods still mourning the loss of their kin from so long ago. _'Ummm...guys,'_ he started, unable to hide the astonishment in his mental voice, _'we got live ones.'_

xxxxx

 _ **Wanted to say thank you to those that have kept reading this story, please feel free to comment or critique, any constructive feedback is always welcomed.**_


	32. The Entity

CHAPTER 31: The Entity

xxxxx

Six.

That was how many cryo-pods that Shawn had counted, six living Xenomorphs that were housed inside…whatever this place was. Shadow, Alese, and Ghost closely examined their sleeping brothers and sisters.

 _'Are they...are they part of your original hive?'_ Asked Shawn his mental voice still little more than a whisper. He continued to look over the pods and their occupants, trying to figure out how he was going to open them. That was if Shadow and the others decided to release them. He honestly couldn't see how they wouldn't want them released and freed, even if they didn't happen to be part of their original hive.

Tasting the air around the pods, Shadow looked back and forth, his tongue coming out numerous times. _'I think so,'_ he said, though there seemed to be doubt in his voice as he placed a hand on the thick glass plating. _'The scent is very weak, but I believe that they are.'_

Reaching up Shawn placed his hand on Shadow's back just above one of the lower ventral tubes. _'So this is what you were picking up back in the hallway? Their scent made those instincts kick in that overwhelmed you?'_

Shadow continued looking at the pods that his kin were sleeping in. His crested head tilting to the side slightly, _'No, I do not think that it was their scent, it was something else.'_ He told Shawn, his mind going slowly going through a rather limited list of things that couple possibly cause those instincts to activate the way they did.

 _'There's no info on any of these pods about where they came from or when.'_ Shawn noticed looking all over the cryo-stations. Unlike the preservation displays that had info on what, where and when the pieces of tech or specimens had been found, the cryo-pods had nothing. To Shawn, it made no sense why live subjects were stashed away on a supply depot. Unless there was something wrong with the Xenos, or maybe they had been woken up and provided to be far too violent to handle and posed a major security risk for the main base. Easier and far safer to simply dump them someplace that had either no human or little human contact. Hence the extra layers of security such as the massive door, triple lock system, and attack bots. If Shadow, Alese, and Ghost had been caught at the pulse weapon's optimal range with no place to take cover when the bots attacked, it was possible that they could have been killed, at the very least severely injured.

Getting a closer look, his face only a few inches away from the glass, Shawn started to notice some oddities about the Xenos inside. The thin, transparent layer of biomechanical skin was tightly recessed into the outer rib cage. Their waists which were normally thin, were too far sunken in, prominently showing the hip bones and connections joints, the skin almost sagging off in some areas. Even their arms and legs were much too slim for their race. ' _They look emaciated and sick.'_ He said, a ball of nausea hitting his stomach at the thought of what they might have had to endure in the past. The bitch of it was that none of them knew if this was the handiwork of Mason and his crew, perhaps a batch of Xenos that had been birthed before Shadow and his kin. Or had these Xenos been found this way on some far off planet and placed in cryo-sleep to keep them alive?

 _'Yes,'_ Alese answered back, _'starved,'_ her hand running up the glass her claw tips only inches away from the dome of another drone, _'for a long time.'_ Pity and sadness lacing her voice.

 _'It is possible that they may have been in deep hibernation,'_ Ghost interjected quietly looking over the pods, examining each one. _'If they were found asleep, in this weak of a condition, none of them would have been able to offer much resistance, if any of them woke up.'_

Nodding over to a couple of the pods, Shawn briefly pointed at them, ' _I see three drones, but the two that don't have the smooth domes and the one that doesn't look to have any dorsal tubes on the back, is that normal?'_ He was trying to recall anything from his link into the hive memory, but so far it was nothing but a collage of images, sounds, and feelings all mashed tougher. His human mind so far was unable to make sense of any of it on its own without being filtered through one of the Xenos first.

 _'Warriors,'_ Shadow answered him, his voice somewhat distant, as his thoughts were on what their course of action should be, ' _the other one, a scout.'_

Ghost broke away and walked passed his hive mates, heading back toward the pods that held the long-dead Xenomorphs. _'There is something else over this way,'_ Ghost told everyone, he stood staring at the door that Shawn had spotted earlier when they were looking at the remains of the Xeno queen. Walking over to the door, he saw that the controls were the same as the ones that had been next to this room's door. Curling his finger down, following Shawn's example he pressed his knuckle firmly on the unlock button, then repeating the same with the open button. A slight hiss and the door opened, darkness enveloped the now open room. A wafting cloud of sticky, hot humid air blew out assaulting Ghost's senses. It was right then he knew and understood why their ancient instincts had kicked in pushing them to come to this area.

Shadow and the others were coming over when he and Alese froze right up, stopping dead in their tracks. The scent of the room overwhelming their already heightened senses, each one knowing exactly what was beyond that door. Immediately Alese cut in front of Shawn blocking his way, acting almost as a shield, _'Stop, don't go any further,'_ she told him, it wasn't worry or fear in her voice. But more of a mix of astonishment and deep seeded concern, primarily for his safety, _'stay right here,'_ she ordered him.

His nerves were already on edge from both the feeling of disconnect and the battle earlier. But mostly it was from the unsettling feeling that they had all started to pick up well before entering this sterile white area of the depot. Shawn's finger slid back over the cool metal trigger, lightly squeezing it down on ever so slightly it as he brought the rifle partly up, half expecting something to come charging out from the other side of the door at them. Quickly he glancing up at Alese wondering what was in that room that had them all on guard so suddenly, and why they wanted him to stay back. It couldn't possibly be more attack bots, if it was, then they would have been in a firefight already. Maybe it was something worse. _'What is it,'_ he whispered to her in a still hushed mental voice; his headache getting worse now each time he used it.

A brief few moments of silence passed by, a silence that seemed to have a crushing weight to it. And when she finally replied back to him, it was only one word. _'Eggs,'_ she answered him, her own voice now little more than a whisper as well.

Shawn just looked at her not quite believing what she had just told him. His gaze slowly going over to where the door was, her skeletal, black frame still blocking him completely, "Eggs?" He asked quietly, not quite realizing that he had just spoken out loud. It all suddenly clicked in place as he quickly came to the realization of why their instincts had taken over like they had. It wasn't the warriors, drones or even the lone scout that was in cryo-sleep that had caused their instincts to take over. It was the lingering pheromone signature from the eggs themselves, possible when they had been moved into the base. Enough trace amounts of the egg's scent must have stayed in the hallway and when the Xenos had scent tasted the air, it had been enough to bring out their deepest and most hardwired instincts. While the queen was the heart and brain of the hive, the eggs could be in many ways be considered the lifeblood, without the eggs to impregnate hosts and help the colony grow and thrive, there would eventually be no hive. He was just wondering how many eggs were in that room, and what the next step was.

 _'How many?'_ He asked Alese, taking several cautious steps back, if a facehugger jumped him he knew it would be over shortly. The videos he had seen back on the Saratoga still haunted him, videos that he had to mute. The thought of something ramming itself out of his chest, the horrible screaming, and the way the chest was literally ripped apart from the inside. It wasn't something he would wish on his worst enemy, not even those corporate bastards of the Belthor Gas, Mineral and Mining Company that had sent so many to their deaths. Although he had to admit, it was tempting.

After a few long seconds, Alese partly turned around and looked at him, _'Unknown,'_ she told him flat out. _'Stay here and we will find out.'_ He didn't need to be told twice, nodding he backed away, turned and went back to examining the cryo-units.

Shadow and the others slowly entered the room; it was warm, moist and dark. Everything needed to keep the eggs properly tended and healthy. At least whatever human that had decided to store them here had gotten that correct. The room itself was not that large, perhaps three times the size of the old sleeping room back on the Saratoga. There was only a few dozen of the large, leathery oval eggs that had been placed in a very neat, tidy and above all orderly fashion from one end of the room to the other. Rows that were oddly enough placed at the back of the room, not at the front. Each row and each egg had been evenly spaced out, the spacing reminded him of how the pods in the other room had been methodically orientated and placed. He would have bet that if someone had measured the spacing it would have been exactly the same between each egg, regardless of which row it was in. Maybe, whoever it was had some odd compulsion for order and neatness.

Given the size of the room, however, it looked as if it should have housed far more than it currently did. Examining the area, Shadow noticed that dried resin chips littered the floor. Spots that seemed to be placed in several rows, right were former eggs would have been if the room was full. His stomach churned with a mix of nervous apprehension, excitement, and dread. It was looking more and more like this was the clutch of eggs that he, Ghost and Alese and all the other Xenos had been birthed from. However far too many of the eggs were missing, before the escape, their numbers had been fifteen and far more eggs than that were missing by his count. Even if not all the eggs were still viable and they had gone through some before finding ones that could be used, there should still have been many more housed in here. That persistent feeling of dread and doubt were starting to tell him something else, something that he did not like.

 _'Not all of them are alive,'_ Alese said bending over one of the eggs to examine it, her long fingers slowly going down the leather exterior. ' _This one has been dead for a long time.'_

 _'Same for this one as well,'_ Ghost said, looking over another egg several meters away. Examining the next egg over, he found the same, long dead, _'this one too.'_

Alese moved down the rows, her head moving back and forth, _'these are alive,'_ she told them, excitement laced her voice at the prospect of live eggs.

Shadow moved down the row finding several alive too, each one started to take stock as to how many were still alive. When they had examined and counted, the number was seventeen. Seventeen eggs, seventeen more potential hive mates, though that was an issue for a much later time. For now, they needed to figure how to move the eggs back onto the Saratoga and where to store them, all without endangering Shawn or James, even though he was still in the brig.

Ghost was running his fingers over a live egg, his head tilting back and forth while his tongue came out, opened and the closed, then slowly returned. _'What of our old sleeping room,'_ he suggested. _'It is covered in resin, warm, damp and dark, and it has enough room to store all the eggs.'_

Both Shadow and Alese gave him a positive that they too agreed with his idea. It had been a while since the room had been used and a new layer of resin might be in order, but it would be more than suitable as a temporary storage area until they found a home.

' _I'll let Shawn know,'_ Shadow told the other two as he turned to leave the room to discuss everything with their human hive mate. Shawn would need to keep his distance until the eggs had been secured in the sleeping room. The last thing any of them wanted to do was accidentally seal his fate to a painful death by an egg opening and one of the impregnators getting loose. At that point, his only chance of survival would be the medical androids, and Shadow had little faith in those things.

Shawn watched as Shadow and the others dispersed into the room, he then turned his attention to the deep sleep cryo-pods. He figured that he should be able to work out the resuscitation procedure as most of the units he had dealt with in the past were fairly straightforward. Other than the pods being slight biggerer to house the Xenos larger frame, mostly the dorsal tubes and elongated heads. They didn't seem that much different from either the standard hyper-sleep or medical cryo-pods. The primary difference from what he knew of them was that it took longer to bring the occupant out of the cold deep sleep since they were designed for long-term use. However that was for humans, and he had no idea what the effect would be with the Xenos. Would they wake right up or sleep for days or even weeks, especially in the malnourished state that they were currently in.

Finding a protective plate at the base of the pod, he pushed on it, with a loud click the plate slid down revealing the control panel. The controls were not fancy in any way shape or form, in fact, it was very basic. _Less to go wrong_ , Shawn thought to himself, looking over the panel and seeing what he needed to do about setting the correct sequence to bring the aliens out of cryo-sleep.

... _Shawn..._

At first, just for a split second, he thought that Shadow or Ghost had called him, but it didn't sound like either one of them. While it sounded familiar, there was an icy almost malevolent undertone to it. He sat there not moving a muscle, fear creeping up along his back, as cold chills ran down his spine, the hairs on his neck and arms standing straight up. Slowly he turned his head to look around, his hand reaching to the rifle that he had sat down on the floor moments ago. He wanted to tell himself that it was just his nerves, but he knew that it was not the case.

 _Run,_ that tiny voice in his mind spoke up again, terror now lacing its voice, that tiny voice that had been birthed from the destruction of Darrius station only a few years prior. That voice that had managed to keep him safe and alive, but had never let him get close to anyone. Repeatedly, over and over it had been telling him to run ever since they had gotten close to this area. And right now he wanted to listen to it, to do what it was telling him. But he couldn't, not now.

Taking several slow measured breathes he attempted to calm his nerves, to block out whatever was trying to creep into the back of his mind. Keeping the rifle in hand, he looked back over the control panel to figure out the sequence to bring the Xenos out of cryo-sleep. A stab of anger also started to take hold; it had been bad enough that he had been both emotionally and mentally traumatized by what happened with Darrius station. In some cases his own mind had become his own worst enemy, he didn't need some unseen force playing tricks on him or messing with his mind. He could do that well enough on his own.

... _Shawn..._

He heard it far clearer this time, not just in his mind, but also with his own ears. He knew that voice from somewhere, but he simply couldn't place it. Jumping up, rifle in hand ready to pull the trigger at some kind of monster, he found himself aiming at empty air. Anger was quickly starting to replace his fear. Looking around again and seeing nothing, he took several steps, and then a few more and he found himself in the open area, the long-dead queen off to the right several meters away. Circling the open area a few times, Shawn panned the rifle around just in case, but so far nothing.

... _ **SHAWN!**_ _..._

The voice boom in his head and ears, so much that he almost dropped the rifle to cover his ears, a fridge chill gripped him, he could feel something was now behind him, swinging around bringing up the rifle ready to shoot, he froze. Standing only a few meters away was an old tattered and ripped space suit. It looked to have been ravaged by years of neglect and the harsh unforgiving conditions of space. Rips and splits ran all along the legs, torso, and arms, even part of the protective faceplate was shattered.

Shawn's eyes darted up and down the space suit, he hadn't seen this model for years. Not since...he heart nearly skipped a beat or several as he held his breath when he saw the ID number patch sown in on the chest of the suit. It was a set of number, one of two sets of numbers, in fact, he would never forget. "Slam," he whispered, seeing part of the face through the shattered helmet visor. The skin looked to be both frozen, as well as cooked by exposure to the hard radiation of space.

" _Why didn't you die with the rest of us?"_ It spoke, the lips not even moving, it was Slam's voice but it was hollow, and dry with a heavy echo to it, almost as if he was speaking through a long pipe. Shawn shook his head, this was not his old mining supervisor, not the same person that he had watched die in front of him as they tried to make their way to one of the escape shuttles when Darrius station had gone up in flames. _"We died, why didn't you?"_ The voice cracked again.

"You're not Slam," Shawn spat, glaring at the apparent apparition in defiance, whatever this thing was, showing up as one of his long dead friends was only making him angry. "Slam died years ago, I watched him. And you sure as fuck ain't him."

With movement faster than what Shawn could even track with his eyes, little more than a wisp the tattered form of Slam was now just inches from him. The sunken in hollowed eyes boring right into him. Even with the rifle still in hand, leveled down, the weapon simply moved right though Slam as if he was nothing more than air.

Shawn's breathing was nothing less than short, hard breaths as he tried to keep his wits and maintain any kind of control. Whatever small amount of bravado he had a moment ago was now stripped away. The soulless eyes of Slam's form locked with his, the cracked lips parted and a haunting wail echoed throughout the room. There was nothing human about it, as no man or woman could make such an otherworldly sound, a howl that pierced right into his mind, and soul.

Closing his eyes as tight as he could, desperately, he repeatedly told himself that this wasn't real. Slam was dead and this was all in his head, nothing about it was real at all. The wailing continued rising in pitch and volume until he felt like his head was going to split open.

Then a still silence unnaturally settled in, the only sounds were that of his rapid breathing and his heart pumping furiously. Ever so slowly he dared to open his eyes, slowly looking around, his hands shaking so badly he was afraid that his weapons would slip from his grip. A weapon that was all but useless at this point. While the apparition of Slam was no longer there, he could still sense a hard, frozen malice that was watching and listening to everything going on.

 _'Shawn?'_ A deep voice inside his head spoke up. Still on edge and heightened from the adrenalin, not even thinking he spun around, rifle still in hand ready to fire. A black, clawed hand grabbed the barrel and pushed it off to the side. Finding himself looking into the Shadow's black dome, he slowly let out a long breath he didn't realize he had been holding, his chest burning ever so slightly now.

 _'What happened?'_ Shadow asked, seeing that Shawn was visibly shaken by something, but he had neither sensed nor heard anything. His human's heart was racing and he reeked with an equal mixture of fear and anger. Whatever had happened, none of them had sensed it, otherwise, all of them would have been out here in seconds ready to attack whatever it was.

Losing his grip on the rifle, his finger ever so slowly coming off the trigger that he had been ready to pull a second ago, he raised his hand to let Shadow know he was alright. Letting the barrel go from his grip the Xeno tilted his head, waiting for an answer. Not saying anything, Shawn reached up and grabbed Shadow's shoulder giving it a firm squeeze. Feeling that he was real and not another trick of the mind. "We need to get the hell out of here as soon as we can," he said, his voice ragged, not caring if whatever it was heard him or not. Part of him suspected that it wasn't going to matter if he spoke in hive speak or human, it was going to hear them no matter what.

Shadow only tilted his head again, that was not the answer he wanted; in fact, it was not an answer at all. _'Shawn, what happened?'_ He asked again, his tone becoming firm.

"I'll tell you later when we're out of this place. What did you find?"

Shadow looked back to the small room. _'Several dozen eggs, but only seventeen are alive, the rest look to have been dead for a long time. From what we saw the whole room may have been full at one point.'_

"Alright, what's the plan? What are we going to do with the eggs and the ones in the cryo-pods?" Shawn asked, looking around the room, his voice far too tense, "it's your call on this."

 _'The eggs we wish to bring back to the ship, we can place them in the old sleeping room; they should be safe there and will not endanger you_.' Seeing that Shawn was still looking around, he slowly scanned the area, and while he did not see anything that should cause their human harm, he wanted to know what it was that had Shawn borderline terrified. It wasn't just nerves; he knew that Shawn had seen something but he just didn't know what it was. There was something that was very close by; they had all sensed it before going through that massive security door. And it was just beyond the wall and that heavy pressure door on the other side. Maybe it was some force or entity that was now starting to become aware of them, its presence ever so slowly pushing into both the room and into their minds. _'Can you awaken the ones in those cryo-pods?'_ Shadow asked, hoping that none of them would have to stay any longer than was necessary.

Nodding to Shadow, he was sure he could do it. He would just have to make sure that he didn't mess up the sequence. "Yea, I think so, the resuscitation process may take longer than what normal hypersleep pods take, and I don't know how long it'll take for them to fully come around either. Could be hours, days...even weeks, I just don't know." He said, trying to calm down and gather some comfort in the fact that Shadow was there with him. What should have been a simple grab and go was turning out to be both a complicated and literal nightmare.

 _'One of us will stay with you, while we transfer the eggs.'_ Shadow told him but was cut off as Shawn shook his head.

"No, the faster we get this done the faster we get back to our ship, I work on the cryo-pods, you three get those eggs back to the Saratoga."

 _'But what happened to you earlier...'_ Shadow protested as he still didn't know what had happened and he had no desire to leave Shawn alone in this place, not even for a second.

"I can handle what happened," he said, "just something trying to get inside my head and fuck with me, that's all." That's all, that was more than enough, it was hard seeing Slam, even if it had been nothing more than an apparition inside his head toying with him. Neither Slam nor Thomas's bodies had ever been found, for all he knew their remains were still adrift in space, close to the Allterus seven gas giant. "Sooner we get this done, the sooner we leave."

After a few long moments of mulling it over, reluctantly Shadow agreed, _'Very well, we will transfer the eggs while you work on getting our kin ready to move.'_ Without saying another word, both broke away, Shadow headed back into the small room while Shawn went back over to the cryo-pod. Just out of the corner of his eye, for a second, he thought he saw the tattered remains of a space suit facing him, turning to look he saw nothing.

As he went to work on figuring out the sequence for the pods, all three Xenos came out of the room, each one carrying a pair of eggs. Alese and Ghost each carried an egg in their arms as well as having one tucked in perfectly between their upper and lower dorsal tubes. Shadow, while his tubes were too wide to carry an egg, did have one under each arm, funny enough it almost reminded Shawn of a football player carrying a ball.

 _'We will be back soon,'_ Shadow said, bolting out of the room, Alese and Ghost right on his tail, each one giving him a warm reassurance that they would not be gone for long.

And with that, he was left alone. Seventeen eggs to move, that would be three round trips total, plus two trips to move the Xenos. Even if they were able to run at full speed through the station, get to the Saratoga, make it to the old sleeping room, store the eggs and make it back, it would take a while. Possibly thirty, maybe forty minutes for each round trip, at best that was going to be around three hours. Trying to prepare himself he closed his eyes and attempted to empty his mind and simply focus on the task that was in front of him and nothing more.

Obviously whatever it was could get into his head, it had already drudged up one bad memory; he didn't know how many other bad memories it was going to onslaught him with. Darrius station, home, perhaps everything in between. Maybe if he was prepared for it, he could ignore, or even block it out.

The minutes slowly ticked by and nothing happened, nothing except that ever-persistent feeling of something watching him. Waiting for an opportunely to lash out and strike. Carefully going over the controls for about fifteen to twenty minutes, he was able to figure out the correct sequence to start the resuscitation procedures; the downside was that it would take around two hours give or take before any of them were ready to come out of the pod and be moved. He noted that a date display on the bottom portion of the control panel indicated they had been in the pods well over six years.

Activating the sequence, he scooted over to the next pod. A low wail echoed throughout the room and Shawn just shook his head, _do not fuck with me_ , he thought to himself, figuring that whatever it was would hear him. _You're just in my head and that's it, you're not real._ Out of thin air, standing right next to him he saw the same tattered space shoes. Not even bothering to look up he knew who and what it was. Soulless eyes, forever frozen in mock horror looked down on him as he continued to work on the cryo-pods. Another wail filled the room.

"Nice try asshole, not going to work, not this time," Shawn muttered, and after a few more minutes got the second pod to activate its resuscitation process, then went on to the third. The lights flickered in a rapid succession, the outer perimeter lights first, then the inner lights right after. Shawn tried to focus on his work and block everything out around him, trying to ignore it and the distractions. At this point, he wasn't sure if it was actually happening or if it was just in his head. Finally activating the third pod he then moved on to the next one. The specter of Slam moved back, keeping equal distance each time Shawn moved. Another high pitched shrill wail and this time the lights went dark, leaving the room bathed in black nothingness.

Shawn froze, his hands clenching up as more icy chills shot down his spine. _It's not real, it's not real, it's all just in my head, it's not happening,_ he reminded himself over and over. He began to take slow measured deep breaths trying to calm himself and regain his focus. Even if the room was in total darkness, he was looking right at the cryo-pod, there should have been some soft illumination coming from the data readouts, but instead, there was nothing.

 _"_ Hello Shawn _,"_ another voice coldly sang out, this one he did recognize right away, one that he had not heard for almost half his life. One that almost made him blindly run from the spot he was at. The lights flashed back on, and standing right next to him was someone he knew he would never see again.

"Paul," Shawn sputtered, falling back on the floor as he could only gawk in surprise. He knew that it wasn't Paul any more than it had been Slam standing next to him moments ago. Whatever it was, it was just having its fun with him. Still, though, it hurt to see his longtime childhood friend standing right there, someone that had died so many years ago. And now this thing dared to assume his best friends form. What was worse was that he or it looked exactly the same the day before Paul had died, the last time that Shawn had ever seen his best friend alive.

Surprise quickly turned to a boiling rage, picking himself up off the floor his hands tightening into fists he stepped right up to the image of his long dead friend. "Don't you fucking dare use his image for this," Shawn seethed, ready to take this things head off, regardless of whatever it might be.

The image of Paul only wagged a finger at him, "Remember I'm only in your head; I'm not really here," he or it said, turning its hand over to disinterestedly examine its fingers. The voice, as Shawn had remembered it was Paul's only far colder, almost unfeeling save for the subtle hint of malice underneath. "At least according to you," it said glancing up, looking Shawn right in the eyes. "I must say, you are far more interesting than the last batch that was here. They were easy to play with, not much fun after a while. You, on the other hand, are far more resilient, it must be the company you keep."

The image of Paul turned to one of the cryo-sleep induced Xenomorph warriors. Its hand skirting over the glass casing, then up and in a swift motion passed through the pod, the Xeno's ridged head and back out the other side. "Tried to reach out to them where they were first placed here, though I might find out what they were. Discovered that their minds were far too different to get into, didn't help that they were in hibernation either." The image said, "but now you and your friends are here, speaking of which," Paul's image raised a finger to his lips and gave Shawn a "shush" sign, smiling ever so slightly. "Won't do any good to say anything to your lovers, they won't be able to see me, _their_ minds are far too disciplined to fully get into, other than the disturbing feelings or odd sounds, at least not yet. So, for now, you should get back to work." It said, watching the area with vague amusement, "come now, chop, chop."

Shawn would have liked nothing better than to wipe that smug grin off that things face, only he really wasn't sure if it was just in his head, or if it was actually there and only he could see it. Kneeling back down, his eyes darting back between the control panel and Paul's image, he was finding it infuriatingly difficult to work on the cryo-pods now.

Less than a minute later, Shadow and the others bolted back into the room. Alese and Ghost heading right back into the small room to gather more of the eggs, Shadow coming up to Shawn to check on his progress. There was something different about Shawn's emotional state, he wasn't scared anymore, no, in fact, he was teetering on the edge of rage and fury. _'What's wrong, what happened?'_ Shadow asked, completely unaware that Paul's image was now standing right next to him, finger on his lips, hinting at Shawn to keep quiet.

Shawn shook his head, "It's nothing, I'll tell you later." He said, starting up the sequence on the fourth pod. "I've got four pods running the resuscitation process but it'll take a couple of hours before they are ready to move," Shawn told him hoping to deflect any further questions.

While not entirely satisfied with the answer, Shadow decided not to press the issue. At least not until they were safely back on the Saratoga, as far as he knew time was not on their side. It frustrated him that something was going on with Shawn but he had no idea what it was. _'Very well, we will be back as soon as we can.'_ He said turning and heading back into the small room.

"You know,' Paul's image told him, watching Shadow walk away, the Xeno's tail swaying back and forth in agitation."While they're not really my type, too much slime and a bit too skeletal for my tastes, plus all that acid, I can certainly see why you'd let them fuck you all the time." it commented snidely, a twisted grin coming across its face, almost daring Shawn to have an outburst on the spot. "So...you think that he'll ever be able to stick it in you all the way." It said with a slightly amused chuckle.

Holding his tongue in check, at least for now, Shawn moved onto the next pod and starting punching in the sequence. He had told himself that he was going to block everything out and not let it get to him, that he could ignore it all. He was dead wrong, of everyone that this thing could have dragged out of his memories, having Paul standing right there was perhaps the worse. Only it wasn't Paul, it was nothing more than an image an illusion he told himself. But it was an image of his best friend from half a lifetime ago, a friend that had his life cut short by a drunk and abusive father that went too far one night.

As the three Xenos left with more of the eggs, Paul's image watched them leave, "that's twelve now, run, run, run as fast as you can." It jeered at them slightly.

About ten minutes later he moved to the last pod and set in the final resuscitation sequence, now all he had to do was hold his temper in check for two hours. He had thought he would be dealing with monsters, or something otherworldly, not just an image of his past best friend. "Alright just what the fuck are you." Shawn seethed, his fists clenching in anger, getting up off the floor staring right at Paul image.

The image of Paul smiled, running its index finger down Shawn's chest, the tip ever so slightly passing through his clothing. "Let's just say I am what happens' when men, like the ones over at Eclipse base, go too far, too fast and don't think about the repercussions of their actions. I remember being like you once, a sense of self, a family, friends, places to go, ideals to follow. Then that was all taken away. I won't go into the grizzly details of what happened. But let me state that when it was all said and done, all any of them wanted to do was lock me away and forget about their great mistake."

"And just what is it that you want from me?" Shawn said, his words tense and measured, barely being able to hold back his anger. While it wouldn't do any good to go into a mindless tirade, it probably would have felt good releasing some of the anger he was feeling.

"Just a bit of company, for now, is that too much to ask of you. After all, you and the others did start to awaken me when you got to close. When your friends broke through that door, which was quite impressive I might add. Brains and brute force all rolled into one. I rarely get the chance to talk to anyone anymore; in fact, it's been years." It said, looking up at the sleeping Xenos. "I wonder what they will do when they wake up, they may very well try to rip you apart. Guess you didn't think that part through very well did you."

Shawn and the others hadn't even considered that possibility, he had assumed that Shadow, Ghost, and Alese would communicate with the other Xenos when they finally woke up and everything would be fine. Course it wasn't like any of them had much time for a lengthy and measured debate. He never even stopped to think what would happen if they were close to being wild and ferial or at the very least hostile to anyone but their own kind. Looking back over at the cryo-pods, it was too late to do anything now, he would just have to hope that luck was still on his side and he hadn't used it all up yet.

"Hmmm, no you really didn't think it through, of course, like you were just thinking, not a big timetable to work with, get in and get out." The image said.

This thing really was reading his mind, it wasn't like the Xenos who could block or at the least ignore his thoughts and give him some privacy. This thing was reading him like an open book with no problems at all. "So you were human at one point I assume?" Shawn asked flatly, deciding if this, whatever it was wanted some company, he might as well probe for some info.

The image of Paul smiled, "Please, try not to be too transparent with your questions, you want to probe me for information on what I was, what I became, who made me and all that, am I not correct, of course, I am." Paul's image circled around Shawn a few times then settled down in front of him. "I don't remember much about who I was before, vague relocation of a mother and father, sister as well I think, friends too, though I don't remember their faces or names I do know that I had them. I do know that I wanted to break the boundaries of science and become more than what I was. So I believe that I volunteered for a project when this organization was still just in its infancy. I was to be used as their secret weapon against the megacorps, but mostly against Weyland-Yutani. Imagine someone with the skills and abilities to be able to read the minds of other, even be able to control others without them knowing it. Sabotage, espionage, even assignation without ever leaving a trace of who was truly behind it." The smile faded away, a grimacing and stern look took its place, "Boundaries that should not have been broken, were. And something that should not have been given life or form was created, we in our pride, our arrogance, our mass of petty and ever-expanding egos, went to a place that humanity was not yet ready for."

"And that was you?" Shawn asked, not liking where any of this was heading.

"That was me. What I became, was something so far beyond their ability to control. In essence, they wanted a trained lap dog, but instead, they got a wild dragon. So they trapped me, froze me, and put me to sleep. What you see right now is little more than a sleeping fragment of a shadow of what I am. Now isolated, helpless, and asleep, mostly, only a sliver of my consciousness ever breaking the barrier, and only when others are around."

"You mentioned that there were others that were here?" Shawn asked, looking around his mind quietly counting how just how much longer he was going to have to be here, entertaining, whatever the hell this thing was.

"Ah, yes, my caretakers," It said, perking up at the subject. "There's still around, mostly. Little bits here, little bits there; you just didn't look far enough, or in the right spots. Down the hall, the next room over, the other hallway in the control room, none of them ever left and they never will. When they were," the image paused for a moment, as it seemed to be searching for the correct words, "whole and alive. They studied me, kept an eye on me when I was brought here. Thought that they were observing just another lab test subject as if I was little more than a piece of bacteria in a Petri dish, making sure I was contained and under their control. Their mistake, in truth I was observing them, slowly getting into their minds and learning all they had to offer. It was satisfying to get into their heads, poke and prod their already fearful and paranoid minds, watch them slowly drift off into madness and insanity, watch as they ripped each other apart for the smallest and pettiest of reasons."

"Do not worry," Paul's image said, easily picking up fearful concern radiating off of Shawn, "I have no intention to do anything to you or your friends. While I might be what most would consider a monster I still have a sliver of humanity left inside me. As I stated, all I ask for is a bit a company for an hour or perhaps two, nothing more. Now tell me is that so unreasonable a request?"

Walking through Paul's image, back into the open area and over to the queen's remains, Shawn let out a long breath, it wasn't like he had a lot of choice in the mater. Course he could simply walk out of this area and wait back on the Saratoga and come back to collect the six Xenos. And in doing so quite possibly enrage some all-powerful creature that had been cooked up in a lab somewhere. Better to err on the side of caution and not make this creature or angry. "Fine," he said, "I'll talk, keep you company for a bit, it's not like I really have any other place I have to be right now."

Paul's image smiled ever so slightly, "Thank you," it replied back its tone just slightly less icy than before, "very reasonable and civilized of you."

"Just…not that form, or Slam or Thomas," Shawn said, hoping that it would take his request, "please." he tacked on for politeness.

Paul's image nodded ever so slightly, "In other words, no dead friends, or close acquaintances," it said, "well since you did ask politely," and with a smile, the image Paul's form was gone in a flash, and in its place was the nine-plus foot tall black, chitin form of Shadow. "I would assume this is better, puts you a bit more at ease, yes?" It asked, the mouth actually moving when it spoke, looking over its new form, hands running over the outer ribcage and thin sides and waist. Turning around in a circle, the tail parted up and flagged over almost in a seductive and sensuous manner.

There was no way that Shawn was going to win either way, as this was only slightly better than it using Paul's form, but just only. For the time remaining, he might as well just suck it up and deal with it as best as he was able. He seriously doubted that there wasn't anyone from his memory that this thing could take the form of that wouldn't rub him the wrong way in one way or another.

The image of Shadow stopped and looked down at him, "Don't fully approve of me using your lovers form? Don't worry it will only be for a little while, then you and your friends can be on your way, and I'll go back to sleep." It said, hunkering down right in front of Shawn. "So what shall we talk about?"

Folding his arms across his chest, he just looked at the all too false image of Shadow that was right in front of him. The image itself was spot on, detail per detail everything was perfect, but there wasn't the depth or warmth that he felt when he was with Shadow or the other Xenos. This was nothing more than a hollow mental projection, one that he had to deal with. "Ok, just out of morbid curiosity, what is it that you want, I mean really want."

The image titled its head in that oh so familiar Xenomorph fashion that he had become accustomed to. "What do I want," the image seemed to ponder that questing for a few moments before replying, "I could say vengeance for a start but that would be too petty and shallow a concept. What I want..." A twisted and warped smile crept across the black, chitin face, cold, malicious hate shot right through Shawn's heart causing him to back up into the massive case that held the remains of the Xeno queen. "...is an absolute and total reckoning with the ones that made me what I am, the ones who made me and then locked me up and tried to forget that I ever existed. I want them to acknowledge their sins for this, to acknowledge their guilt for their actions, their pride, their greed, their self-centered and petty egos, and their outright arrogance in thinking they could control forces beyond their understanding and comprehension."

Lights flickering off and on in random patterns as a slight tremor reverberated throughout the room. For the first time, as Shawn looked around, he was pretty sure that this was not in his head and that it was actually happening. This thing wasn't just angry or merely pissed off, this was cold, unfettered rage and raw hate on a level he had never seen much less felt, not even Shadow in his worse moments had ever come close to this. "I want them to acknowledge they went to a place that we as humans had no business going to." Shadow's image seethed on, drool cascading from the black maw, "and I want them to look at me and accept their mistakes and confess that what they... what we did was wrong."

At that moment Shawn lost track of time, he could feel the raw anger, and hate bombarding him; it wasn't hot anger like someone might feel when they were normally angry, where someone would lash out, release it and then it would be gone. This was cold, frozen and calculated hate, the kind that would fester and grow unchecked over many years. It was in some regards a hate and anger that he himself knew, if only on a far lesser scale.

And as soon as it had started, it was over, the lights returned to normal, and there were no more tremors. "But how often do we really get what we want?" it asked, the words exactly mirroring those of Commander Ortiz word for word before he left the Saratoga.

"Not very often, if ever," Shawn answered after a bit, once he had composed himself. It had been the exact answer to Ortiz and now to this creature.

"Their back and in record time now too," Shadow's image said standing up, looking over at the door. Seconds later Shadow, Alese, and Ghost charged in, skidding to a halt, each one looking around.

Shadow walked up to Shawn, still looking around, ' _What was that?_ ' He asked.

Only shaking his head, Shawn just raised a hand, "I'll..."

 _'Tell us later,'_ Shadow said, becoming more and more frustrated by the same repeated answer his human was giving them. His gaze stopped as he picked up something that was way too close to Shawn for his own personal comfort. It was now more than some uncomfortable feeling; it was more like a cold and a very powerful distortion of some kind. One that was just barely outside his visual range he tilted his head tilted ever so slightly as he tried to focus in on it.

The image of Shadow stood up and took a few steps to the side, the real Shadow's head slowly followed. "Interesting, I think that he can sense me, or sense that I am projecting," his head looking back down toward Shawn, "truly, a fascinating race," it said.

Stepping up to Shadow, Shawn placed his hand on the Praetorian's chest, "I promise, when we get back and settled in I'll tell you. Just not right now," he said, welcoming the tactile feeling of the slick, and bony chest plate, letting him once again know that this was the real Shadow and not some image mimicking him.

Saying nothing, Shadow just nodded, he wasn't sure about what he was sensing as it was just beyond the range of his races sight. But there was something in the room with them right next to Shawn. And that intense wave of rage and hate that had almost sent them scattering on their way back, that was something none of them had ever felt before. It was occurring to him that maybe Shawn might be a hostage now, although he didn't seem to be in distress, or really afraid, more preoccupied than anything. Ruffling Shawn's hair, a sign of reassurances, he headed back into the room to help collect the last of the living eggs.

Heading back to the cryo-pods, which were a safe distance away from the path that the Xenos would have to take, he decided to check to see how the resuscitation process was going. The vital signs on the readout were increasing; in fact, they were going faster than he would have first thought. He didn't know what the proper vitals for a Xenomorph was, but the heart rates were steadily increasing. Plus they were starting to breathe ever so slowly now, the chest on one of the drones slightly rose and then fell.

"Won't be long now," the image of Shadow told him, folding its arms across its chest, "now let us talk of more pleasant things for our remaining time, after your friends leave, of course." The image or projection, as Shawn was guessing, passed through several of the preservation tubes.

The three Xenos came from the room carrying the rest of the eggs, each one giving him a concerned look. Shawn just nodded back indicating that everything was fine, and in seconds they were out the door, taking the last of the eggs back to the Saratoga.

"I wonder," the image of Shadow said, coming back over to him, "who they will use those eggs on. Whom will be the poor, unfortunate souls that will have to give birth to them? Quite an excruciating death to have something rip through one's rib cage. At least it would be fairly quick."

Shaking his head, Shawn walked away from the cryo-pods, "They won't use those eggs on anyone," he said.

Another low chuckle escaped from Shadow's image, "Tell me, are you so sure?" It asked Shawn, "Remember, I know what you know," it tapped its dome forehead, looking right at him," even with their intelligence and awareness of self, they still have those deep-running hardwired instincts. Instincts that just a short time ago had taken them over, even if only for a few moments. What is to stop those instincts from taking over again and seeing that some poor innocent or even less than innocent soul is impregnated? We both know such a thing is a death sentence."

"Neither Shadow, Ghost or Alese would do anything like that." Protested Shawn, hoping that this thing would drop the subject. It did, however, leave a residue of doubt in his mind. If it came down to it, and there were only the three Xenos left, with all those eggs, would they not be tempted to use them to increase their numbers and start repopulating their species somehow. Shawn could think of plenty of people that didn't deserve to live, but it didn't mean that he wanted to seal their fate of having something rip and claw its way out of someone's chest.

"Maybe," it said, plucking its lower lips ever so slightly, "but what of them," it nodded toward the six frozen Xenos. "Do you think that they hold the same sentiments and values that your lovers hold? Do you think they might value an innocent life, regardless of what race it might be? Or do you think they might just look at any potential life form as a host or food or simply a threat to be destroyed?"

Those words stuck with Shawn, in the back of his mind there had been that question, one that he quite frankly didn't want to answer right at the moment. While he seriously doubted that Shadow, Alese or even Ghost would deliberately impregnate a person. He couldn't speak for the Xenos on Eclipse station, and certainly not for the six that were going to be coming out of cryo-sleep soon. For all, he knew they might very well try to use him as a host.

Shadow's image only turned and looked toward the room that the eggs had been in. "The ones from Eclipse station won't be too happy about all this. But then again, from what you have in mind it probably won't matter, I do wish I could witness it, it'll be very exciting. You know the scientist have been sending androids over to collect the eggs for the last several months, a few here a few there. It does make one wonder what exactly they are planning over in their little space station, does it not?"

"You're saying that their breeding more Xenos over there, other there than the original fifteen?" Shawn asked, realizing the implications, he had been prepared to rescue eleven, if what it was saying was accurate then they might be dealing with a far larger number than he had been ready for. And there was no telling what the scientists might have done to them in the last several months."

Shadow's image twisted its head back around almost in a one-hundred eighty degrees turn to look at him, in a rather unsettling and unnatural way. "I'm not saying anything, simply stating an observation; that is all." Turing its body fully around to face Shawn, its head tilted slightly, "Now then, let us take a tour and I will tell you about some of what is in this room, information that I was able to glean from the scientist while they were still here. Or while they were still sane and alive to be more accurate." It said, a hint of arrogant pride underlining the tone of its cool voice as it moved toward a row of preservation pods.

Shawn was getting the distinct impression that it had become bored talking about both the scientist and the Xenos and wanted to move onto another subject. Maybe it knew he would be leaving soon and just wanted some idle chit-chat for a while. Or perhaps there was something more, something that he just couldn't see yet. "Fine with me," Shawn said follow behind Shadow's image. The Xenos image moved its tail, deliberately so Shawn though, in a seductive and blatant motion, it was probably just having more fun at his expense.

For about the next twenty-five to thirty minutes the projection or whatever Shawn was trying to decide it was, rambled on about various recovered pieces of technology and past long dead species from ages past. Some of it in earth's own back door, places such as the moon and mars, most though were far into the unknown reaches, were only a handful of ships had dared to traverse over the centuries. At least according to the info, it had plucked from the mind of the scientists and whoever else was here at the time. In any other given circumstances, Shawn probably would have found it an interesting subject to listen to. But right now, he only was half paying attention, his mind filled with worry about everything that was currently happening, the eggs, the new Xenos and then the station. And on top of it, he was trying to keep the interest of some pissed off test subject that had gone way beyond the bounds of what should have been created, at least according to it. Frankly, Shawn wasn't sure what to believe it this point.

The image of Shadow stopped and turned its head toward the door then swung back toward the pods, "Ahhh, yes, I do believe three of them maybe four are now done and ready to come out." It looked back down at Shawn, "Best to get back and help them out of the pods, your lovers will be back any moment now."

A minute or so later Shadow and the others came back into the room. Shawn had already made his way back to the cryo-units and was standing by ready to open the doors for them. "These first three are ready, the other three should be by the time you get back." He said, activating the door on the first pod. With a slight mechanical hissing sound, the door popped open several inches and slowly started to rise up. Thick fog rolled over the lip of the opening spreading down to the floor; then seconds later dispersed into the warmer air. A hard white light lit the back area of the pod, giving it a somewhat eerie and dramatic effect, especially considering the occupant inside. A Xenomorph warrior.

Reaching inside the pod; helping the Xeno warrior out, Shadow carefully cradled the all too malnourished warrior in his arms. The Xenomorph's frame was thin and frail, barely little more than an exoskeleton with bones and loose skin. While none of them knew what had resulted in them being in such pitiful condition, Shadow vowed to himself that he would find out. And if any of the personnel at Eclipse bade had anything to do with it, he would make all parties responsible pay.

Ghost and Alese did the same, each on caring one of the overly thin Xenos in their arms. One was a drone and the other the lone scout.

 _'I would recommend taking them back to our sleeping area; make them as comfortable as much as we can.'_ Ghost said Alese and Shadow agreeing with him.

"When we get back to the ship, I'll get some androids to round up some more mattresses and blankets, see what we can come up with to help ease their stay," Shawn told them. He couldn't even imagine what it was going to be like for the Xenos to wake up in what they would consider an alien environment. Hopefully, with actual hive kin present in the room with them, it would help calm them down if any of them became too frightened or went into shock. He hoped that neither would happen.

As before, the three Xenos, this time carrying their brethren instead of eggs, quickly made their way out of the room, down the hall and disappeared around the corridor.

"It looks like our time is quickly coming to a close, something you are glad of." Shadow's image stated as it stood next to him. "Do not worry, I do not take offense to your disdain of the situation, in fact, where I in your position I'm sure I would be feeling the same. You at least did make an effort and did not shy away too badly." It said, walking past Shawn, arms folded behind it's back the long segmented tail lazily sweeping back and forth.

Shawn followed behind a couple of meters, "Well, it's been interesting." He muttered, still not happy about the memory of Slam or Paul being dragged out of his mind. "You know, I'm actually surprised you didn't try and get us to release you," Shawn told the image, wounding why in fact it hadn't. It could have tried to manipulate his mind or played some twisted pity game with him, yet oddly enough none of those scenarios had even happened. It was almost as if this whole ordeal was little more than some kind of entertainment for itself.

The image of Shadow slowly turned around; an amused look crept across the black, chitin face, a look that sent a very cold shiver down Shawn's spine. "Oh, that's not something that you need to worry yourself about," it told him, "it won't be that much longer."

Shawn didn't want to ask, but part of him wanted to know, more out of curiosity than anything else. But that last statement had stuck a cord of fear with him. There was something about the way it had sad it, cold and malignant, but with a touch of amusement just under the surface. As if it knew that it was going to be free at some point and soon. "Let me give you a small piece of advice, my way of giving thanks for your indulgence in entertaining me for these brief few hours."

"Run," it told him coldly, the hint of amusement now gone from its voice, "when you get your supplies loaded up and you're Xenomorphs rescued; if by chance you are still alive, run. Run as fast and as far away from here as you can. Go as far as your ship will take you and hide, find someplace and bury yourself where no one will ever notice you."

Those words were a bit out there, way out there in fact. Sure he would need to stay out of sight until everything blew over, maybe in a decade or several, at least. But going as far as he could, he got the impression that it was talking about heading out into the outer rim areas or possibly even into the unknown sectors. "I hadn't planned on doing anything else besides lying low for a while and finding them a home and staying quiet." Shawn told it, "I know that this organization will be coming after us, provided everything doesn't go balls up first."

Shadow's image just shook its head while wagging its finger at him, "No, not the organization, something else. Something else is coming and soon, so either heed my advice or do not."

"You know something?" Shawn asked carefully, each word was slowly measured out. He was starting to get a sick, sinking feeling in his gut. The kind you would get when walking on cracking glass miles up, just waiting for it to break and send you plummeting to your death.

"Just a slight premonition you might say, nothing more. So run, hide, and do not let whatever is coming take notice of you. Perhaps you and the others will survive, perhaps you will not." Shadow's image held up its hand looking over the elongated fingers and claws, "I do so enjoy this form, pity it is not real." The image commented before turning its attention to Shawn again. "Our time is almost up, you will be leaving shortly and then I will go back to sleep."

The image took a step back and looked around the room. "If by chance, in the future, should you hear of some odd and unexplainable occurrences happening to certain members of this organization, please do think of me." The image said with a steel toothy grin, a few moments later the image of Shadow melted into fog and disappeared, leaving Shawn alone in the room.

While it still felt like he was being watched, the intensity was nowhere as bad as it had been. Shawn still had no idea what to think about what he had just experienced, maybe once when he and the others got back into the Saratoga and placed some distance from this place, he could take some time, think and absorb everything that had happened. No doubt the Xenos, especially Ghost would be intrigued by everything that had occurred.

Absently minded he slipped his hands into his side pockets and felt something metal and hard in the right pocket. His fingers gripping the object, he pulled out one of the smaller data pads that he kept on him. Right then an idea came to mind, he doubted anyone outside of his small group would ever believe him. At least not without some kind of proof. Tapping the pad on and setting the camera to record he started to walk up and down the rows. Carefully he recorded each pod with all the info that was on the pods and what was in it. At the very least it would be a solid reminder of what he had gone through and discovered. Off in the distance, he could hear the increased beeping of the Xeno's vitals. It was an indicator that they would be ready to be let out of their frozen sleep and soon. Continuing to record and photograph everything that he could he barely noticed when Shadow, Ghost, and Alese entered the room, ready for their final run.

Coming up to Shawn, Shadow looked around, no longer sensing anything like he had before, he tilted his head and looked at Shawn, wondering what he was doing. _'It is gone I assume?'_ He asked, hoping that Shawn would be forthcoming about what it was that had happened.

Shawn just looked up and nodded, "Yea, it's gone, went back to sleep. I'll fill you in on what happened when we get back to the ship. It's a bit weird." He told them, however weird wouldn't even begin to cover everything that had happened. "Some of it you may not like," Shawn told him, thinking of what he had been told about the androids collecting the eggs over the last few months.

 _'What are you doing?'_ Shadow asked, seeing that Shawn was slowly panning one of his data pads up and down in front of one of the preservation cases.

"Recording and photographing everything that is in here, I figured it might be a good idea to have a record of all this, you never know when it might come in useful." He answered back. It took another fifteen minutes for him to finish walking up and down, recording the preservation pods and everything that was held within.

Putting his pad away, he and the others walked over to the cryo-pods, looking down at the display readout he saw that their vitals were stable and the pods were ready to be opened. "Let's get these guys back to the Saratoga and see what we can do to make them comfortable," Shawn said, opening the pod doors so the Xenos could retrieve their brothers and sisters as he picked up the dropped rifle.

Thankfully, the trip back was quiet and uneventful, no weird feelings, no bot attacks, or odd unexplained station occurrences. The loading bots were still busy ferrying supplies onto the Saratoga as they had been before everything had gone sideways. Crossing the umbilical Shawn got an odd feeling in the back of his mind, it was an ever so slight and all too familiar itch, turning back around, he saw for a few brief seconds the image of Paul standing just inside the station docking area, his hand raised almost as if he was saying goodbye; then the image faded away and was gone.


	33. A Strange New Home

**A/N: Wanted to apologize for the long wait on this chapter, between being very busy, a slight case of writers block, and just trying to work through this chapter its taken longer than I would have liked. It's also one of the longest chapters I have ever done.**

 **So please enjoy.**

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CHAPTER 32: A strange new home

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Upon returning to the Saratoga, Shadow and the others took their kin to the sleeping area to try and make them as comfortable as possible. Shawn broke away from the group and headed straight to CIC. They had been on board the depot for well over four hours, and with everything that had happened, he figured that there was no way that an alarm to alert Eclipse station of their trespassing hadn't gone off. He was surprised that the ship wasn't under attack or that the proximity and boarding indicators weren't blaring away.

Getting to CIC and checking the sensor readout, he found…nothing. No ships were heading toward them; no vessels were engaged or boarding the Saratoga. Not even a hostile transmission had been sent to the ship demanding their surrender. In fact, the traffic pattern around the Eclipse station was at a minimum with only a few ships, freighter class from what he could tell that were heading to dock with the station with a couple departing freighters heading to exit vectors before jumping to FTL.

While he was relieved that he didn't have to face down an attack force, or try and repel a boarding party it did seem suspect that no one had been alerted to their presence. Surely someone from this organization had to have known he and the Xenos were on board. That they had broken into what was probably a top-secret area and had taken the last few remaining viable eggs as well as the six living specimens.

Going over the sensor logs, he found that in fact no transmissions had been directed toward Eclipse base. That wasn't to say that there hadn't been any transmissions sent, in fact, a single transmission burst had been sent a short time ago. Only it wasn't directed to Eclipse base, from what the sensor readout told him, the signal had been sent in the opposite direction. Toward the zone that pasted into the unknown reaches. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the signal contained, someone had seen them, there was no question about that. The big question was how much had they both seen and heard and what were they going to do with that info, whoever they were.

Resetting the proximity alert range to twenty thousand kilometers instead of ten, he figured it would be a good idea to give themselves a bit more breathing room in case a ship unexpectedly showed up to investigate. Thinking back to the six new Xenomorphs now on board, he went about sending an order to a few of the maintenance androids to bring a set of mattresses and blankets up to the sleeping room for each of the new Xenos. As well as adding in some last minute requisition orders to the depot for more mattresses, blankets, food, medical supplies and raw resources for the fabricators and the ship's industrial 3D printers. If that creature, entity or whatever it was had been telling him the truth then the extra supplies and creature comforts would be needed. Especially if there were more than eleven Xenos now on board the station.

Leaving CIC, Shawn made his way up to the converted observation room, his pace deliberately slow, too many questions, too many complications had now been thrown in their lap far too quickly. It was a quagmire he was trying to sort out in his head, for starters he wasn't even sure if the new additions would be friendly or not, even with Shadow, Alese, and Ghost on hand. And then there were the eggs as well as the possibility of the increased number of Xenos onboard Eclipse station to rescue and on top of it all, a signal had been sent out from the supply depot to an unknown location in the uncharted regions.

It felt like a huge and overwhelming weight had been placed on his shoulders and he was solely responsible for trying to figure it all out. While he knew that it was not the case and that the others would help him to figure everything out. All he wanted to do at the moment was just get away from it all, even if it was for a little while. He had never asked for any of this, never asked for any kind of grand adventure, never wanted to lay his life on the line or get caught up in events that he could barely understand. All he had wanted was to try and find some measure of peace and have a quiet and normal life, to put his demons to rest and see if it was possible to be happy again. And while he had found moments of happiness and peace they were small and fleeting. Maybe with time, those small and fleeting moments would grow. All they had to do was survive the next few days and then find a home to call their own.

And while it wasn't the new Xenos, the eggs, or even the prospect of a large number of Xenos from Eclipse base, that wasn't really the problem. The problem was seeing the image of Slam and especially Paul, it had really thrown him for a loop. That had driven the point home on how he would never have a normal life after this. And that a part of him, a large part, in fact, was very much missing having his old life and the sheer simplicity of it. Minus of course all the death, night terrors and that tiny voice in the back of his mind that had happened along the way. Maybe after this crazy, ill-advised plan of boarding a space station and rescuing a bunch of aliens was over, he would try to find something normal to focus on, even if it was something small.

Of course, at this point, he wasn't even sure if he would still be alive within the next few days or not. Rubbing his temples for a few moments, he started to make his way back to the sleeping room. They would need to clear out an area and help to get the new arrivals comfortable. There was also the issue of the new Xenos health, being as malnourished as they were, he was wondering if they would even make it. Something else that was going to be on their plate, he for one didn't know the first thing about taking care of sick or starved Xenomorphs.

A short time later, he arrived at the sleeping room, three of the maintenance androids were already inside the room, standing there holding three of the six mattresses that he had requested. Ordering them to lay them down, they quickly complied and left the room to retrieve the remaining three. Shadow, Alese, and Ghost had placed four of the new Xenos on the bed and the remaining two were on the floor close by.

Quickly getting to work, not wanting to bother any of the Xenos while they were looking over their kin. Shawn started to move some of the tables and chairs that were close by out of the way opening up a large space. Right after that he grabbed the mattresses and started laying them side by side. For the time being, it would be good enough and if he needed to add a few extra he would.

"How are they doing?" He asked walking over to Shadow and the others, seeing that Alese was crouched on the ground, her finger halfway slid into one of the new Xeno's inner jaw.

Shadow looked at him, _'Very weak, we've been feeding them some of our life jelly to help start their recovery, but they will need food and a great amount of it.'_ He said, looking over at the laid out mattresses.

Shawn nodded in agreement as he looked back over at the mattress that he had just sorted out. "Figure they needed to be comfortable, there are three more mattresses on the way, plus some blankets. I'll get some food shortly."

 _'Thank you,'_ Shadow said, as the androids returned each one carrying a large mattress. Shawn quickly instructed them where to place the bedding and with that, they left to retrieve the blankets. _'They'll need a lot of meat to regain their strength.'_ Shadow added, while the protein bars would sustain them under normal conditions, it was far from the ideal source to help rebuild muscle.

"Look, I'm not an expert on your physiology or anything but I'm concerned that if we feed them too much too soon it'll injure or even kill them," Shawn told him, while he had never seen the effects first hand of prolonged starvation, he knew a few people that had gone through it themselves.

Shadow cocked his head slightly wondering what Shawn was telling him. _'Explain please?'_ He asked, surely would it not be better to get them fed and their strength built up as soon as possible.

"As far as humans go, if we undergo prolonged starvation, say for weeks or even months, our stomachs shrink and eating a lot of food at once can rupture it resulting in injury or even death. In other words, we literally can eat ourselves to death. From what I've been told it's best to start off with some water first then small amounts of food for a day or two and slowly go from there. But then again that's for humans and I'm not sure if the same rules apply to you kind or not. Especially considering how tough your race is."

From his human's perspective, it did make sense, and Shadow had to agree that he knew nothing about how their own organs worked, especially when it came to long-term starvation. And none of them wanted to have their kin gorge themselves to death, _'Very well,'_ he said, _'small amounts at first to help build up their strength.'_

Ghost and Alese were already moving their brothers and sisters onto the mattresses, gently laying them down on their sides to make them as comfortable as possible. The sleeping aliens automatically curled up into a ball, their bodies starting to shiver slightly.

 _'There is scaring along all their bodies,'_ Shadow told him, _'identical to the injuries that were on the queen's remains. I am inclined to agree with Ghost, I don't think that these injuries were inflicted by human hands."_

Shawn looked at the four Xenos that were now curled up on the bed; just now did he notice the faint scaring along the length of the smooth domes of the drones and scout. "Natural predator's maybe?" Shawn asked, wondering what kind of animal or predator would try to attack a Xenomorph much less be able to harm one.

 _'Possibly,'_ Shadow answered him, as he carefully picked up one of the drones, _'but I have the feeling that is not the case.'_ Taking the drone over to the mattress he laid her down, her body coiling up like the others. Turning around, Shadow cocked his head to the side looking at Shawn, _'are you planning to wear that from now on?'_

Shawn blinked, a look of confusion crossing his face as he had no idea what Shadow was referring to. "My clothing? He slowly replied back, the bewilderment heavy in his voice.

 _'No,'_ Shadow answered back, walking up to Shawn and flicking the barrel of the rifle that was still slung across his back, 'y _our weapon.'_

Right then it dawned on Shawn that he was still geared up with the rifle as well as the ammo satchel that was slung over his shoulder. He had been in such a hurry after getting out of the depot that he had all but forgotten that he was still hauling around the rifle and ammo. "Oh, that," He answered back, "kind of forgot that I had that on me." Removing the rifle and satchel, he walked back toward the bed, "I'll throw it in the corner until I get it secured in one of the nearby armories.'

 _'If you feel the need to keep a weapon close by until we know how our kin will view you I would not fault you for that.'_ Shadow told him, as he honestly had no idea how any of the sleeping Xenos would react to seeing a human. A creature that to his knowledge was completely unknown to his hive kin, or at least the ones outside of the labs. The last thing he wanted to do was go up against his own blood, however, if it meant defending their human, then he would do what was necessary.

Removing the magazine and safetying the weapon, Shawn set the rifle against the resin-covered wall and dropped the ammo satchel right next to it. He didn't say anything for a few long moments, as if he was pounding Shadow's words. "Do you think I'll need it?" He finally asked.

Shadow cast a glance back at the curled up, sleeping Xenos, all lined up on the mattresses. _'I do not know.'_ He replied back, uncertainty heavily laced his voice. While he had no intention of leaving his hive kin on board the supply depot like some sick trophy or display for all to gawk at, he really had no idea what would happen once they woke up. But as of right now at least as far as the hive hierarchy went, being the only Praetorian on board, he was by default leader of their hive. At least until either a queen was born or one of the Xenos molted into one. But until that happened they would follow his orders without question, at least in theory anyway. What would happen, however, when they woke up was still completely unknown.

"Well, I highly doubt holding a weapon will instill any sense of trust with them, even if it is only in defense." Shawn told him, "I understand that you all are concerned about what will happen when they wake up and frankly I am too. But if they're as intelligent as you, Ghost and Alese then there shouldn't be much of a problem to convince them I'm part of this hive…right?" And that was the big unanswered question that hung between all four of them. None of them knew how these six new Xenos would react once they woke up. Scared and confused, more than likely, hostile, that right there was the main concern for all of them. Would they attack right there on the spot, or would they let Shadow, Ghost, and Alese communicate with them?

All of them could speculate as much as they wanted to, ask all the "what if" questions they could think of. The fact of the matter was that none of them would know anything until one or all of the Xenos woke up and that was it.

 _'That is what we are hoping for, but remember, if none of them have had any interaction around humans, or worse, have had interactions like the three of us have, they may view you as a possible threat or even a potential host._ ' Shadow told him, _'However, in their current state I doubt they would have the strength to stand for long. Even then they would still be more than a match for an unarmed and unaware human.'_ It was a warning not to drop his guard that Shadow was telling him, plain and simple, at least until they knew where they stood with the new additions.

Shawn nodded understanding what Shadow was saying. "I'll be back shortly," he said heading for the door, "I'm going to see what I can do as far as food and water for our guests."

Taking a few massive strides to catch up to Shawn before he was out the door, Shadow gently grabbed him by the shoulder. _'And when you get back, will you please inform us what exactly happened back in that room?'_ He asked trying not to be frustrated by everything that had happened within the last few hours. While he didn't think that Shawn was keeping secrets or simply blowing them off, it was a bit aggravating not knowing what had happened. Right after that eruption of anger and hate, no, it went far beyond simple anger and hate, beyond rage; they had all felt a presence right next to Shawn. Something concentrated and focused, something that was just outside of his own visual perception. In a way it was like trying to view those damn human monitors, he knew something was there, but it was just outside what he and his race could see.

Shawn turned his head and placed his hand right over Shadows', giving the Xeno's hand a slight reassuring squeeze. "When I get back, I'll show and tell everyone what it was, I promise." He said with a tired smile.

Holding onto Shawn's shoulder for a few more moments, Shadow leaned his head down and gently nuzzled the top of Shawn's head. _'Thank you,'_ he softly told him, letting go; then walking back over to his sleeping kin.

Leaving the sleeping room, Shawn made his way down to the mess hall to see what he could come up with and bring back. He wasn't gone more than an hour when he returned carrying a tray with several large containers of water and a large container with some reddish liquid inside. Next to them were two plastic-wrapped packages about eight inches in length.

In the time that he was gone, the androids had returned and were standing just inside the doorway each one holding several large blankets. As with the mattress, he instructed the three droids to set the blankets next to sleeping aliens. He would get to coving up the aliens when he was done feeding them. Walking up to the sleeping Xenos, Shawn sat down on the floor placing the tray next to him.

 _'You were able to come up with something to feed them?'_ Alese asked, as she hunkering down to examine the contents of the tray. Her long fingers tapped the large sealed container that held the reddish liquid. At closer examining she found it looked more like some kind of slurry and not simply a red liquid like she had first thought it was. _'What is this stuff?'_

"Raw synthetic meat pureed with water," he told her, popping the lid off of the container. "I thought that it would be the easiest way to feed them while they are still sleeping, it would also be a lot easier to control the food intake too."

Stepping right up behind Shawn, Ghost knelt down, _'How will you get them to consume both the food and the water?'_

Picking up one of the plastic wrapped packages Shawn peeled the back off reviling a clear hard plastic tube with a plunger and a small flexible clear hose that was about six inches long. "Going to use this feeding syringe and the extender hose to feed them, I thought that if one of you could hold their head and open their mouth up I can get the tube inside the inner jaw and slowly inject the water in first, then the food a little after."

Attaching the small hose to the tip of the syringe first then carefully filling it up with water, Shawn held it up for the three Xenos to see. "Shall we get started?" He asked, looking over at Alese first and then to Ghost.

 _'Yes,'_ Alese said, crawling over to the closest Xeno, which happened to be one of the drones. Carefully lifting the drones head up, Alese gently opened the jaw revealing the toothed inner jaw. Reaching inside she slowly pulled the inner jaw out a few inches and then carefully parted the teeth, revealing the hollow inside. Placing the tip of the hose just inside the inner jaw, Shawn ever so slowly pressed the plunger down releasing a slow stream of water. Reflexively the drone started to swallow the small trickle of water. None of them could have hazarded a guess as to when the last time any of these Xenos had used any of their muscles, or when the last time any of them had eaten.

The whole process took several painstakingly long hours to complete. The water first then after that they would wait for a while before feeding them small amounts of the pureed meat. Eventually, the content was used up; only a small amount coated the bottom of the container. The whole time Shawn had been worried about giving them too much, but due to the Xenos much larger than human size, he soon realized that was something he didn't have to worry about. Both Shadow and Ghost had been probing the group the whole time, searching for any signs of discomfort but could detect nothing. In fact, it was hard to sense anything from the new Xenos as they were still in such a deep sleep, only a faint wisp of clouded emotion would surface every now and then.

Placing the containers, syringes and tray off to the side, Shawn grabbed one of the large blankets, unfolded it and laid it over one of the drones. Shadow, Ghost, and Alese followed his lead, each one grabbing a blanket and draping it over their kin. With all of the aliens covered by the large blankets, Ghost noticed that their bodies had stopped shivering and started to relax. He picked up a slight sliver of contentment coming from one of the Xeno's minds.

"Now we wait and see what happens," Shawn said, walking over to the bed and sitting down on it. He looked right up at Shadow who had followed him over, "Guess you all want to know what happened back in that room and what was in there with me."

Shadow nodded, _'Yes,'_ he said, the whole experience had been weighing on his mind, he and the others wanted to know what had happened. Everything about that place was off and wrong, the mass collection of remains and objects, the feeling that something was watching them the entire time, and everything that had followed. Even now that they were back on board the Saratoga, there was still this odd unease that had followed all of them on board. They were all hoping that it was just a bad case of nerves and nothing beyond that.

"Honestly I don't know what it was," Shawn started, "possibly human, at least at some point, but not anymore. It or I guess he told me that he was a volunteer for some kind of experiment that would allow for mind-reading and even controlling people without their knowledge. This was apparently at the very beginning of this organization's birth, and that they were going to use this person or persons for infiltration, espionage, and sabotage of some of the megacorps like _Weyland_ _-_ Yutani. But apparently something happened and they went way beyond what should have been the limits for humans."

Ghost cocked his head to the side as he squatted down on the floor, his tail wrapping around his feet. _'And this,'_ Ghost paused for a moment searching for the correct word as he didn't want to call it a creature or simply it, _'this individual was sealed right next to the room that we were at?'_ He asked becoming curious at this new information.

"Something like that and apparently in cryo sleep too; just our presence was enough to waken part of it up, **a very small part** ," Shawn said, emphasized the last part.

 _'That thing was asleep?_ Shadow asked, ' _and we only woke up a small part of it?'_ He couldn't hide the astonishment and even fear in his mental voice. He had never felt that much rage and hate ever and if it, whatever it was, was still asleep, save for a small part of it. _Damn those human scientists for messing in things they had no business in._ He thought to himself, somehow they had created a true monster and apparently had no idea what to do with it except keep it locked up.

Shawn just nodded, "Yea, at least that is what he said, and to be quite honest with you, I don't think he was lying about that, or anything else for that matter." His gaze slowly turned to the six sleeping Xenomorphs only a few meters away. "Something else he told me was that the eggs and our new friends were brought over to the depot a few years ago and that the scientists have been sending androids over to collect the eggs for the last few months."

 _'That explains why there were so few eggs in that storage room,'_ Ghost stated with a bitter note in his voice.

What sounded almost like a rabid snarl shot out from Shadow, _'Bastards are birthing more of our brothers and sisters, who no doubt are being tortured by Mason and his kind.'_ He growled, his tone seething with raw hostility at the thought of more of his kind being experimented on and harmed.

"That does seem very likely," Shawn said his voice low, almost hushed now. "No telling how many of your people have been born and are now being held captive."

Alese stepped up and sat down next to Shawn on the bed, her tail coiling around his hip and draping down to the floor. _'Will you show us what happened?'_ She asked, her hand coming to rest on his back.

Closing his eyes, he thought about it for a few moments, it would require reliving that whole very unpleasant experience again. While it hadn't been the ever-present feeling of having something watching them, or the lights going off and on, or even the noise. It was the not so small fact that he had come face to face with two of his dead friends. Everything else he could handle, but seeing Slam and Paul, even if it was nothing more than an illusion had hit far too close to home for him. Still, it would be a great deal more efficient instead of verbally trying to explain everything that had happened.

Reluctantly he agreed to share those few unpleasant hours. He felt Alese gently pushed into his mind and drew out the hours that he had been stuck in that room with the entity. He was just thankful that whole process went quickly as Alese pulled the memory from his mind and shared it with Ghost and Shadow. And while he did relive the memory, it was sped up, almost like someone had hit a fast-forward button for his memories.

Alese was quiet for a little while before she spoke, _'I'm sorry you had to go through that,'_ she told him, a heavy pain of regret in her voice. Her hand slowly rubbing up and down the length of his back, _'one of us should have stayed with you.'_

Shawn shook his head disagreeing with what Alese had said, "No, it was my call on that, getting your brothers and sisters plus the eggs onboard as quickly as we could took priority." He told her, "Besides, I can handle what happened. I'm just not too happy about the image of my friends being used for someone else's amusement; goes without saying that it brought back a lot of raw feelings, but I can handle it."

 _'She is correct,'_ Shadow said, _'one of us should have stayed with you.'_

"Guys, it wouldn't have made any difference and we all know that. Hell, I still have no idea if that thing was only in my mind or if a part of it was actually in the room with me, maybe both for all we know. You just experienced my memories; all it would have done would delay getting your kin and the eggs off the depot and on board this ship. Besides as angry as he was, for all any of us knew having someone else in there could have made the situation worse."

 _'Anger does not even begin to describe what we all felt._ ' Ghost said, _'and if what it said is accurate then the humans truly have created something that is so far beyond them and they have no way of controlling it. The fact that it was mostly asleep and still had that kind of raw power, if it were to ever fully wake up and escape there is no telling what kind of damage it could inflict.'_

Shawn looked right at Ghost, that thought had crossed his mind more than a few times after leaving that room. "If it or he ever gets free I'm pretty sure he would go right after the scientist that turned him into, well whatever he is now. And if that ever happens, I don't want to be anywhere close when that shit goes down."

 _'I am curious about two things,'_ Ghost stated, _'the first, it seemed to indicate that it was going to be free and soon. And second, that it knew that something was coming, and implied that it would be catastrophic somehow.'_

"Yea," Shawn said, "Wish I could say that he was messing with me, but I don't believe that was the case, he was dead serious on that. At first, I thought he was talking about the retaliation that would come after we free your brothers and sisters but he wasn't."

Shadow let out a hiss mixed with a disgruntled snort, _'While I don't necessarily disbelieve what that creature was telling you, I don't fully believe it either. The whole time it was using you for its own amusement. Tormenting you with images of your dead friends first and then using my own image to try and have some fun with you. Even though we have all seen and experienced your memories, there is very little reason that any of us should trust what that thing told you.'_ Shadow said bluntly.

"I know," Shawn replied, "maybe he did get in my head some, and maybe he was bullshitting me the whole time. But regardless I feel that he was being serious when he said that something was coming and that bit wasn't him having fun at my expense."

 _'Perhaps, but it was an all too vague and generalized warning at best,'_ Shadow told him. _'Nothing that would tell us of what this supposed danger is, or where, or even when it is coming, or if it even exists at all.'_

Alese looked up at Shadow and then back at Shawn, _'This is something we should focus on at another time. We not only have to worry about getting our brothers and sisters off of Eclipse station but now we need to tend and help the recovery of the ones that we have just brought on board.'_

Looking back at the sleeping Xenos, Shadow turned his gaze back to his sister and nodded in agreement. _'You are correct my sister, besides whatever happens to those that created that creature is not our concern. If they want to play with forces that are beyond themselves then they should be willing to pay the consequences for their actions. It has nothing to do with us.'_

"And the other thing, if it's real?" Shawn asked.

 _'If it is real then we will either hide and hope that whatever_ _ **it**_ _is, passes us by and does not take notice of us or we will face it as best as we can.'_ The Praetorian told him, _'But until then, as Alese has said, we have other matters to focus on.'_

"And that brings up something else that we need to discuss right now," Shawn said, looking over at all three Xenos, A hint of uncertainty in his voice that all three Xenos picked up right away.

Ghost tilted his head to the side slightly, curious as to what had Shawn slightly nervous all of a sudden. _'Which is?'_ He asked.

"Someone may need to stay behind to keep an eye on the new arrivals," Shawn said. While he didn't like the idea of going into Eclipse base and having one of the Xenos say behind, the idea of having one or even all the new arrivals wake up while no one was around might have dire consequences. Especially if one of them found either James or Amy and decided to use them as either food, a host or outright kill them on sight.

Shawn felt all three Xenos gaze just lock right onto him as soon as the words had finished leaving his mouth. He knew that Shadow would protest this right away, but that Ghost would see the logic in it, as for Alese, she could go either way.

As it happened Shadow was the first to say something, although he did not simply blurt out his disapproval as Shawn might have fight thought. _'You think they may wake up while we are gone?'_ He asked.

"We have less than thirty hours until everything is loaded on board, I'm not sure what the chances are but I think it's possible." Shawn answered him, "If they wake up while we are on Eclipse base what will they do, what happens if they find James and Amy? What happens if we are either captured or killed? That's why I'm wondering if one of us should stay behind just in case."

Ghost was the one to answer his concerns on this, and while he did feel that they were justified questions, he felt that Shawn may have been worrying too much. _'I believe that you may be overthinking the problem.'_ He stated, _'Yes, they may very well wake up before we depart or they may wake up while we are gone. Regardless, however, none of us can afford to stay behind and while your worries are valid, it is doubtful, even if they woke up, that any of them would be able to do anything in their weakened and starved condition. If you are concerned about their wellbeing you could either seal the doors that lead to both the medical bay that Amy is in and the brig area that James is in giving them some protection. You also could seal this room up as well until we return if you are that worried.'_

Rubbing his temples Shawn tried to alleviate the tension he was feeling. Between everything that had happened within the last few hours he was still fighting off a major headache that he had gotten on board the supply depot. And that was neither helping his dispossession nor helping him think clearly on what course of action to take. Too much had happened too quickly and all of it seemed to have gotten thrown right into their laps.

Perhaps Ghost was correct; maybe he was overthinking things. The six new Xenos were still in a deep sleep, it might be days or even weeks before any of them woke up, or possibly hours for all any of them knew. There was also the very real possibility that they might never wake up and would just eventually pass away in their sleep. They might have a better idea once everything was loaded onboard and away from the depot. Best-worst case scenario would be that the boarding would be held off for a few more days if the Xenos woke up to see how they would react and acclimatize to their new surroundings. The worst case scenario would be that as soon as they woke up they would start attacking on sight and would need to be put down. Something Shawn really hoped would not happen.

"Maybe your right, maybe I am over thinking things. It's just that we got thrown one hell of a curveball and I don't really know what to do right now, other than think of everything that can go wrong."

Both Ghost and Shadow cocked there heads a bit to the side, not fully understanding the new term that Shawn had just used on them. _'Curveball?'_ Ghost inquired after a few moments.

Shawn just shook his head some, "Sorry, another figure of speech means we got hit with something unexpected," He answered and suddenly remembered the signal he had detected up in CIC that was directed toward the unknown regions. "Which reminds me, when I was back up in CIC the sensors picked up a signal was sent out from the depot a short time before we got back onboard."

Shock and even a hint of fear radiated out from all three of the Xenos, they all knew that if a signal had been sent out than those from the station would be here soon. Why had Shawn not mentioned this earlier, right away in fact, why were they still tethered to the depot and not making a run for it?

 _'Then we need to leave right away if those from Eclipse station know we are here…'_ Alese was cut off right away as Shawn raised his hand.

"That's just it," he said, "The signal wasn't directed at Eclipse station."

Shadow leaned forward slightly his gaze locked right onto Shawn, all of a sudden a cold chill crept down from the base of his neck to the tip of his tail. _'Then where was it directed at?'_ He asked something about that did not sit well with him. Why wasn't that signal sent to Eclipse station, if their presence had been detected would it not be prudent to send warriors over to try and capture or destroy them, at the very least investigate.

"Out toward the unknown reaches, where exactly I don't know." He told Shadow. "Guessing that someone either already knows or will know soon that we were someplace we weren't supposed to be."

An uncomfortable silence hung between them all for a several long moments before Alese spoke up. _'Let us worry about one problem at a time, if at all possible.'_ She said, _'as of now we have to focus on our weaken kin as well as freeing those still on Eclipse station. For now, nothing else should matter, we shouldn't be distracted by events that we have no control over. As Shadow said, when the time comes we will deal with whatever else comes to us.'_

"Far easier said than done, but you're right." Shawn agreed, getting up off the bed and heading toward the door, "I'm going to go and check the sensors again and prepare some more food for our new friends. I went and expanded the proximity warning out to twenty thousand kilometers just in case someone does show up unannounced. It should at least give us some extra time to disengage and hide." He told them, trying to focus on the small things that he could at least have some minute control over. Right now it seemed like everything was starting to spiral out of control, and there was nothing he could do to fix it. The new Xenos, everything that had transpired on board the supply depot, and that signal, a very powerful short burst signal from what the sensors told him that had been broadcast out to the unknown regions. And in a short time, it was only going to get worse and even more complicated with them boarding Eclipse station.

Logically he knew that he was just way too tired and overwhelmed to think clearly and needed to get some decent rest, a good night's sleep would hopefully make everything better. He just didn't know if he could sleep, deep down he was still pretty rattled by the images of Paul and Slam, plus the possibility of having unwelcomed company show up didn't help either. There was the option of having the ships onboard alarm system go off in the sleeping room if the proximity alert was activated. That would more certainly wake him and the others up in an instant and get them moving.

Alese's voice resonated within his mind, _'everything will work out we just have to focus on what we are able to.'_ She told him.

"I know," Shawn replied, doubt lingering in his voice as he waved to her in acknowledgment of her words as he left the room. He wanted to believe her and that everything would work itself out and be fine. And given the circumstances, Alese was trying her damnedest to be cautiously optimistic, not just for herself but for all of them. But as he had told her, it was something that was far easier said than done, and if past experiences had taught him one very important lesson, things always got worse before they got better.

xxxxx

The powerful signal burst that was sent out from the supply depot reached its destination within a few hours. Far quicker than what would have been possible using normal communication equipment. The modified and enhanced equipment was able to send a data package to the far reaches in a relatively short period of time. What would have taken normally days if not weeks now only took hours maybe a day depending on the distance the signal had to travel.

On a small airless and desolated planetoid just inside the borders of the unknown reaches was a rather insignificant looking and unassuming structure that jutted out just slightly above the cold, gray surface. A small number of satellite dishes and antennas clustered close by the structure with only a few red and white power indicator lights gave any color to the bleak backdrop.

While the top portion of the structure looked small from the surface, what lay beneath was only moderate in size running five levels deep. It was hardly what anyone would call impressive as it housed only a handful of living personal. Personal that would call it a safe haven, if being stuck inside a small base in the unknown regions was considered safe.

An aged, slightly overweight man with short black recessing hair with streaks of white that had come over time and with far too much stress sat at a terminal. Dressed in a loose-fitting white lab coat he sat looking over a display monitor his hands clamped tightly together. A short time ago he had been notified of a signal and was in the process of looking it over. In the years since he and a few others had been brought to this so-called safe harbor. He had hoped and prayed that the demons that he had helped create would never surface again and that they would all be safe. As he started to look at the video footage from the remote area of the supply depot, he began to fear that their safety was going to be coming to an end. There was only one reason that he would have received a signal and video feed like this. Containment breach either full or partial had happened.

It was not what he had expected to see, a midnight black figure with an elongated head, skeletal structure, and segmented tail came into view of the cameras. He recognized the creature, although he had never seen one in person he had seen been briefed on the Xenomorphs existence. Odd that one would be roaming the supply depot like this, one that almost seemed to have a purpose in its wanderings.

It was no surprise that the security bots, even as obsolete as these particular models were, had attacked. One at first, then other after the first bot was destroyed. What was surprising was the appearance of more Xenos that leaped into the fray. And even more surprising than that, even astounding was the appearance of a human that seemed to be helping them.

The man's hands tightened, balling into fists, not out of anger but more out of fear. As he watched the video progress, the bots were destroyed, and the injured Xenos tended their wounds and well as tending the wound of the young man that was there. Under any other circumstances he would have found this fascinating to watch, but not now.

The small party advanced further into the complex, destroying the cameras as they progressed. Finally coming to the first security door, he watched as the door was partly melted and forced open, the man could only cringe. Why, why were they there, why were they heading that way, what had prompted them to go to the trouble of getting through that door?

He continued to watch, uncomfortably shifting back and forth in his chair as his hands balling up and loosening up over and over. The room they entered had been an old archives room, at least when he was still on the team. Alien tech, information, and specimen remains that had been gathered over the centuries, for good reasons nothing alive should be in that room, and yet there was. He froze at seeing the cryo pods lined up against the wall and cursed his former co-worker's fools. Nothing living should have been on that level or in the area, not even in cryo-sleep.

Pausing the video he stood up, his legs almost buckling out from underneath him, regaining his balance he nervously paced the room for a few minutes. "No, no, no, no, no." He repeated to himself over in a hushed tone. After all this time, he could swear that everything was coming back full circle. The sheer weight of all those awful mistakes that so many of them had made years ago and now only a few were left alive was coming to bear itself down on them. His colleges, some of them friends had died insane as their minds were torn apart from the inside. If it broke free, there wasn't any place that it couldn't reach them, no matter how far they ran.

Looking back over at the terminal, maybe, just maybe he would have lucked out. Maybe nothing would happen; maybe their presences would go unnoticed. The logical, scientific side of him knew better, he just needed to finish watching the video and analyze it, break it down and be objective about what he saw.

Sitting back down at the terminal, he started the video back up. He had been only slightly hopeful as he watched the Xenomorphs and the human wonder through the archives room. As he watched them, he could have sworn that they were communicating with each other somehow that didn't involve verbal speech. As the scene unfolded out, his heart sank as the human started acting strange, looking around, raising his weapon and quickly whipping around his rifle pointing at something. It only got worse as the Xenos left the room, carrying what looked like eggs.

 _That answers the question as to why they were in there in the first place_. He thought to himself, he watched as the lights flicker and go out and then come back on seconds later in the archives room. The young man started talking to someone that was not there. So it was awake, at least partly and communicating with him, maybe that was all it could do, maybe if it stayed frozen and asleep nothing else would happen. It didn't seem to be trying to take control of the man's mind and other than talking to someone that wasn't there or at least that didn't show up on the video feed, he seemed to be acting somewhat normal. If interacting with an overly hostile alien race and being in contact with a failed but all too powerful mentally unstable test experiment could be considered normal.

As the video came to an end, the Xenomorphs had taken the eggs and the other Xenos out of the cryo-sleep pods and had left the room. He had no idea what idiot had decided that having living creatures in such close proximity, even in cryo-sleep, was a good idea. Unless what had happened had been omitted and no one even knew about who and what was beyond in the next room. No, someone had to know, even if none of the original staff were still there, the director, the various boards of trustees and investors, someone had to know and should have warned them.

And while he was out of the loop on current events, he did get occasional info, such as the new director, Collins was it? If he correctly remembered the man's name that is. Was he the third or fourth director now? Apparently, the director before him had made a mess of things and had been relieved of his duties. Regardless, however, there should have been measures in place to prevent something like this from happening.

The man paused for a second in thought, unless someone was circumventing proper protocols and acting on their own accord. _No_ , he told himself, _no one could be that careless and stupid, not with such a huge risk._

He was about to turn the video off when a burst of static and a blood-chilling noise erupted through the feed. The noise almost sounded like an enraged scream mixed in with a tormented howl. It was just for a split second, but he could have sworn that someone had just walked right over his grave. His whole body went numb with cold, all he could do was stare at the screen, unable to move, fear gripping his body. After a few moments, he forced his hand to move, paused the video, rewinding it and started to analyze that second of the transmission.

After several minutes, the computer finished analyzing that second of the video feed. Slowly playing the video segment out, what looked to be a distorted man's face buried in the static came through and while it was barely visible he did recognize the face. " _Soon,"_ it was only a single word that filtered in through the speakers. Cold, malignant and filled with an icy rage, but it was a word that he knew was directed right at him. Almost in an almost blind panic, he hit the power button shutting down the computer.

Closing his eyes, he needed some time to compose himself, to get his thoughts in order, and to figure out what to do next. He would need to tell the others, the ones that helped bring this demon into being, those few that had survived and ran were still alive and here on this tiny base out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it was trying to scare them all, make them act and inadvertently release it. It was still locked up, imprisoned, in deep cryo-sleep, it hadn't taken over that man's mind, and from what the dialog he had heard, it seemed to be doing nothing more than talking to him. He prayed that's all it was doing, amusing itself, there was always a method to its madness, even when tormenting and killing those around it.

He would tell the others, make a copy for them to see and from there they would need to decide on a course of action. If luck held, then that course of action would be a lack of action. But if it did get free, it would find them there was no question on that and while death was a sure thing, how they died was up for debate. Walking out of an airlock didn't seem like that bad way to go compared to what he had seen, neither was downing a handful of the many suicide pills that were available, just in case.

Powering his computer back on, it was time to get to the very unpleasant task of breaking the news to his companions.

xxxxx

Dim star light bathed the sleeping room in a cool, relaxing light. A lone figure stood at one of the smaller windows along the wall, the blast shield that was normally closed for the smaller windows was now wide open as was the protective cover that normally covered the transparent observation dome.

Sleep had not come to Shawn, not even in the protective arms of his lovers and bond mates. His mind was running rampant going over everything that had recently happened in the last few weeks. The mercs, being pursue into the asteroid field, the brief but deadly firefight that had happened, even the ship-wide system shut down. Delay after delay, it almost seemed as if fate or whatever was throwing everything it could at them to try and slow them down. And while he knew that was far from true, there had been times, including right now that it felt like it. Even now, with the supply depot, the thirty-six-hour wait for resupplying the ship, that entity, the Xenomorphs that they had found in cryo-sleep and the eggs. He wondered if the universe was having some kind of twisted fun at their expense or if it was in some warped way trying to prepare them for something else far worse.

When he had left to go up to CIC to check on the sensors again he had found that everything was still in the clear. The only ship traffic had been a few what looked like transports moving away from Eclipse station. After getting some more food ready for both the Xenos and James, he had headed down to the brig and filled James in on most of what had happened and just how utterly fucked up the whole situation was starting to feel. But with any luck in a few days after the Xenos from Eclipse station were freed, they would be able to ferry James over to a free-port station and send him on his way, possibly transfer Amy over to a proper medical facility, and then they would be gone to look for a new home. Well after he finally got the rest of the Ember-Rose fixed up and back in full working order.

In all that time none of the new Xenos had moved, not even after being fed again. According to Shadow while they weren't in hibernation, his description of what they were now in seemed to be more akin to a coma of some kind. Maybe the stress of being malnourished, taken out of their natural environment and then being placed in cryo-sleep had wreaked havoc with their systems. It was looking more and more like they might never wake up, through maybe in the very short term that might be for the best. If the Xenos did wake up while they were on Eclipse station there was no telling what damage might happen.

Shawn let out a heavy sigh, Alese had been right, _try and focus on what we can_ , she had told him. It sounded more like something Ghost would have said, regardless, however, she had been right. The only problem was that his mind was scattered in a hundred different directions and simply focusing on one or two things right now seemed damn near impossible. In fact, Shawn was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he never even heard or even detected the thin, black, skeletal form that had quietly snuck up behind him.

 _'You mind is restless tonight,'_ Ghost's warm mental voice glided across Shawn's own mind, startling the human for just a second. The drone drew the smaller human into a loose embrace, the large hands crisscrossing across Shawn's bare chest.

Shawn only managed a halfhearted smile, "Yea, restless mind, restless body, can't seem to shut down at all, just way too much to think about I guess." He told Ghost, placing his own hand over's the Xenos.

Letting out a slight hiss, Ghost tightened his embrace drawing Shawn in fully. _'You worry about events and situations that you cannot change or control, it is a waste of energy and focus, and you will exhaust yourself if you continue.'_ He told Shawn mater of factly, his tail slowly snaked and coiled around the human's legs.

"Chalk it up to a human thing, we tend to worry about stuff we can neither change or control, especially the stuff we can't change or control," Shawn replied, pressing his back into Ghost's chest, which elicited a deep rumble from the Xeno. It was a telltale sign that Shawn knew all too well as being one of both pleasure and contentment.

 _'Humans can be such odd beings,"_ Ghost playfully retorted.

"That we can be," Shawn replied back, agreeing wholeheartedly with Ghost's comment.

For a few minutes, both of them stood at the window looking out at the stars, each one wondering what kind of home they would find after all the madness was finally over. "Something I was wondering about?" Shawn asked suddenly.

Ghost glanced down at the human in his embrace, _'Which is?'_

"I gave you all names, actually nicknames, and to be honest, it seemed easier than saying, hey you, all the time. But I never did ask if you already had names or something that's the equivalent of a name." Now that he thought back to it he had never bothered to ask, as none of the Xenos had ever said anything, they all had seemed to have accepted them and that was that.

Ghost was silent for a few moments thinking about what Shawn had asked him. _'No, at least not in the way that you mean,'_ He answered, at least in part. He could easily sense Shawn's confusion at the answer. ' _Each one of our kind has a unique pheromone scent that identifies one from the other.'_ He elaborated, _'In a way, it is what might be the equivalent of a name as it is a way for one to identify another other out of many within a hive.'_

"You're talking about that odd glow that seemed to be surrounding all three of you that I first saw when the link was fully established and stabilized? The one that shifts and changes color depending on your mood."

Ghost nodded slightly, _'Yes that is correct. Do you still see it?'_

"Off and on, it just randomly happens. There's no pattern that I can make out as to when I can see it and when I can't and it's never as intense as it was that first time. It's more of a subtle glow when it kicks on." Shawn answered as he reached up to scratch the underside of Ghost's jawline, one of several sweet spots that he had found. The deep chest rumbling ramping up several decibels as the tips of his fingers scratched and rubbed along the sensitive slick and textured skin.

 _'More than likely due to you being human, none of us know what the effects are for someone outside our race that has been boned and linked like you have.'_ Ghost purred, his hands starting to reflexively explore and caress Shawn's body in response to his human's wonderful touch. The soft fingertips rubbing and hitting all the right areas and sensitive spots.

Waves of heated arousal cascaded through Shawn's mind, bombarding him, almost overwhelming his own senses. With all that had happened on the supply depot and the stress from both it and the not so tiny fact that they were damn near on Eclipse stations front doorsteps. It wouldn't take much to push any of them over the edge for some much-needed stress relief. And as far as Ghost was concerned that was exactly what all of them needed. Especially Shawn as he was now wound up so tight worrying about things that were so far beyond his control. They were all concerned that he might make a mistake or have a lapse in judgment that might be fatal or at best get one of them injured while on board Eclipse station.

And that was unacceptable.

Shawn's mind needed to be clear, focused and straight for what was coming, not worrying about events and problems that he could not change. To do so was pointless and a waste of energy, however, it was very much human as Ghost had come to learn.

Picking up on Ghost's thoughts on the matter, Shawn turned around so he could face the Drone. Ghost was right, hell they all were, there was nothing he could do to fix, change or even control anything that was going on. And worrying about it was just going to make him and everyone around him crazy and tense, well even tenser than what they already were. The best he could do was just let go and accept what happened, and focus on what they were able to. If everything worked out, so much the better, if not, they would just have to deal with and face the fallout.

"You know," Shawn started to say, reaching around Ghost's waist, his hands resting on the base of his tail, his fingers starting to gently rub along the side. "If I remember correctly the last time we started to get going we were rudely interrupted, so the way I see it, I still owe you." He said quietly, trying to take his mind off of everything except the Xeno that was in his embrace. His fingers working their way underneath Ghost's tail gently massaging the sensitive erogenous zones.

 _'Yesss,'_ Ghost hissed back, lifting his tail up giving Shawn full access underneath, _'very rudely interrupted,'_ he added lustfully. He had not forgotten about Amy's seizure and that it had put a cold stop to what would have been a very passionate and pleasure filled night. And while saving the female merc's life had been far more important than passion and pleasure, it had been a minor sore spot for him for a while.

Ghost let out a long hiss of pleasure as Shawn's fingers glided underneath his tail, targeting another one of the sweet spots. He thrust forward as those wonderful soft fingers of his human found, rubbed and slightly penetrated his vent in inch. It was a world's difference when he had been back on Eclipse station. Back then it had been painful, humiliating, nothing more than a form of torture by doctor Steffen and his group. But this, this was pleasure, ecstasy, something he could and would give and submit himself to without question for hours or even days at a time if that was at all possible.

Crisscrossing his arms across Shawn's back, his clawed hands playfully groped his human's rump, the claws slightly digging in. Lowering his head, his chin came to rest across the back of Shawn's neck. Several strings of warm drool flown down over his human's back as Ghost's mind started to shift. The more primal part now surfacing, the need to mate and feel that warm and wet tightness, to be one with his partner and mate, to climax over and over.

Shawn felt something, wet, warm and hard pocking his belly. He didn't need to look down to know that Ghost's member was starting to emerge from its slit opening A thick spot of the natural lubricant starting to coat the area the black member was pressed into. Reaching in between, Shawn grabbed the stiffing cock head and gave it a firm squeeze, his thumb stroking the sensitive glands.

A loud hiss that turned into a lust filled screech filled the room as Ghost thrust several more times. The base of his member plowed along Shawn's warm and soft stomach leaving a thick and clear trail of lubricant.

"I have an idea," Shawn said, his voice slightly raspy, as he too was now entering a lust filled mental haze. At this point, all he wanted was to either have Ghost enter him or have it the other way around. "How are you at lying on your back? He asked, throwing a mental image of his idea at Ghost.

The Xeno smiled at the idea, it was a good idea and he liked it as it would be something new to try. Releasing Shawn from his embrace, he cupped the human's face and lowered himself, leaning in his lips peeled back slightly. Bringing his mouth to Shawn's, his inner jaw slowly slid out, Shawn opened his mouth and allowed the white tubed toothed tongue to easily slide in. The metal-colored teeth slowly and playfully clamped down on Shawn's own tongue, not enough to draw blood or hurt him, just enough to heighten the pleasure. With the lightest of nips and pulls, Ghost carefully worked the human's tongue over.

Closing his eyes, Shawn started to finally relax as he let Ghost take over and do whatever he so desired. It was an odd feeling to him as the Xeno gently worked his mouth and tongue over. No matter how many times this playful interaction happened, as pleasant as he found it, he could never fully get used to it. It also found it completely unfair that he was no match when it came to this kind of play as he was so totally at the Xenos mercy. The best that he could hope to do was tickle the inside of the tubed tongue with his own, something that had taken Ghost completely by surprise the first time.

He suddenly felt and tasted something slick and sweet in his mouth, a large glob of the precious life jelly, by now he knew the taste all too well. It was a fair amount, why Ghost had decided to feed him some of it at this time, he didn't know, unless it was to help him relax and his body to recoup from earlier.

Slowly pulling his tongue out, Ghost tilted his head to the side, a sly smile crept across his face. _'Mine.'_ He said, his mental voice lust filled with a deep husky growl to it, the base instincts tightly taking over. With a quick single movement, Ghost picked up Shawn in his arms and was walking toward the bed. Their human more than a little surprised if not taken back and even turned on by the sudden display of dominance the drone was now showing.

In a few quick and lengthy strides, Ghost was across the room and at the bed, laying Shawn down on it. Taking a step back he puffed his chest out as he drew his arms back, a second later his tail was raised up and then draped over his shoulder running down over his chest. Raising his head up exposing his throat, Ghost let out a series of what sounded like chirps mixed with hisses and growls. A deep, rumbling came from his chest a few moments later, the semi-erect black member ever so slowly working its way out of his slit.

Shawn immediately recognized it as a full-blown mating display. Shadow himself had done the same thing the second time they had made love; only the cheeky Praetorian had taken his time showing off for about an hour. Letting Shawn touch, rub and caresses every inch of his body, before being bent over and properly breed for several hours straight. While Shadow had been in a fair amount of control during the whole time, Ghost's control right now was quickly slipping.

Submitting himself completely to the drones will, Shawn got off the bed and slowly stepped forward, rubbing his head along Ghost's chest and neck area. The act resulted in a hiss of pleasure, the primal part of Ghost's mind was pleased that this human, their human, was more than willing to submit and engage in satisfying him. A streak of warmth and pleasure ripped through his cock-head sending a shudder down his spine. Looking down; seeing that Shawn was on his knees. Gripping the Xeno's member, his tongue was running up and over the base of the swelling and slick head.

 _'Yesss...good,'_ Ghost growled, the primal part of him was more than pleased with this, and while it was a good start, it wanted what their human had shown him, the desire increasing every second. But they could wait for a bit, this was good too. A long and loud hiss ripped from his lungs as their human took the slick cock-head in his mouth and started to rock back and forth. _'Very, very good,'_ he growled again enjoying the blowjob; he would, of course, need to return the favor, oh yes, as it would be rude not too.

Enjoying the foreplay for a while longer, Ghost took a step back, his member now fully engorged slipping out of Shawn's mouth. _'I desire you and what you showed me.'_ Once again the words were husky, almost bestial in tone and whatever rational part of Ghost's mind was left was now taking a back seat and enjoying the ride. Nudging Shawn to the bed, Ghost climbed on first and started to lie down on his back, his dorsal tubes parting out slightly. Shifting his weight until he was comfortable, Ghost's gaze locked right onto Shawn, spreading his legs apart, his member fully erect, ever so slightly bobbing up and down. His hands ran down his bony chest plate, past his stomach and settled on his groin, the clawed finger playing with the slick base and shaft.

"Gods, you're magnificent," Shawn shuttered, knowing that the primal part of the Xeno's mind was pleased by the words. It was also very much the truth, the number of times that he had mated with Ghost, the Xeno had never acted this way. In fact, it was a complete one-eighty to the normal almost submissive attitude he took when engaging in sex. Regardless, however, he was going to ride Ghost like there was no tomorrow.

Getting on the bed, Shawn threw his right leg over Ghost's waist, a moment later he was straddling the drone. Lowering himself down a few inches he felt the warm, wet member press up against his lower backside. Reaching back around and grabbing the shaft with one hand, he raised himself up and leaned forward while trying to maintain balance with his other hand. Carefully aligning himself up and going slowly, he felt the wet warmth of the fleshy member make contact. Relaxing, he started to push down, there was the slight discomfort of being stretched as that always came and a few moments later he felt a slight fleshy pop as Ghost's cock-head pushed through the opening entering him. Pushing down more, inch by inch the Xeno's member slid further into him.

Grabbing Shawn by the hips, Ghost's tail came up and over coiling loosely around Shawn's neck and draping down his back. This he wanted to enjoy, the tight wet warmth, the blissful scent of his human, the pure ecstasy of being one with his beloved hive mate.

Shawn let out a low moan as he rammed himself further down on the glistening black member. Stopping only for a second then rising up a few inches, and then going back down, gradually he started to speed his rhythm up, going faster and faster, taking a little more in each time. Ghost starting to gently pump his hips up and down, pushing in deeper and deeper with each shallow thrust.

The brief discomfort of being stretched had subsided and was now replaced with the ever-growing feeling of warm bliss. Closing his eyes, Shawn leaned forward slightly letting Ghost's metal link envelop and fill his mind as now each one feeling what the other was.

Letting out a hiss, Ghost leaned forward to meet Shawn, the front of his dome rubbing up against his human's forehead. Gripping tighter, the tips of his claws slightly penetrating the warm skin, slow trickles of crimson red trailed down the soft, pale flesh. Neither one feeling any pain, only the growing sexual rapture. _'More,'_ Ghost growled, thrusting his member in deeper, the primal part of his mind fully in control. His teeth fully bared in carnal ecstasy, thick warm drool dripping off his chin onto his chest. The warm tightness gripping his cock, the powerful musky and salty scent of his human, he let out a loud hiss as he breathed in more of his mate's scent, sending him further into a sexual frenzy.

Continuing to ride the Xeno's thick, black member faster and faster, Shawn clenched as hard as he could, each time he rose and pushed down, sent another wave or sexual pleasure coursing through them both. His inner walls massaging and gripping the Xeno's hard, slick member. He never even realized that he had taken the full length in. All he could feel was how close Ghost was to climaxing as the Xeno pumped harder and faster. A few dozen thrusts later, a powerful climax tore through Ghost's body, breathing and hissing heavily, he pumped his hips up repeatedly releasing his warm seed inside his mate.

After another dozen or so more thrusts Ghost started to relax as the climax ebbed and then faded away, his chest heaving up and down as he breathed in deeply. While the primitive part was still driving, it started to ease up and relax a bit, enjoying the blissful afterglow.

Catching his breath, Shawn was still hard and so close to peaking all it would take was a few tight thrusts and that would be it. Reaching down he started to rub and pleasure himself, wanting release as well. Only to have Ghost grab his hand and pull it away, denying him any release.

' _IN me,'_ Ghost rumbled; while his voice was not quite as bestial as it had been, Shawn could tell that the primal part was still very much in charge and running the show. Slowly leaning forward, the still hard member slipped out with a dull, wet plopping sound. Sliding off of Ghost, Shawn found himself laying on his side, in a quick motion, Ghost was up hovering just above him, the drone opened his mouth, sending a stream of warm drool flowing down coving Shawn's hardened penis.

Turning around and laying down on his chest, raising his hips in the air, tail parting off to the side to present himself, he looked over at Shawn and gave the human another low toned hiss. It was an offering for his human hive mate to sate his own needs and pleasures.

Shawn felt a warm puff of air blow across his neck and back, a tingle of lust and amusement snaked through in his mind, he glanced back seeing Shadow and Alese now wide awake and looking at them. Shadows own penis was already halfway out of its slit and partly erect with Alese's claws gently caressing and fondling the huge, glossy member, neither the Praetorian nor the female drone did or said anything to interfere, for the moment the show was good enough for them. Though after he and Ghost finished up, both of them would be joining.

Pushing himself up onto his knees and positioning himself behind Ghost, Shawn's memories for a second went back to their first time on the Ember-Rose. The way Ghost had offered himself freely and willingly. It had been a good first time for the two, and the times following had only gotten better. And this was no exception, though Ghost had never been this aggressive or dominating before, perhaps the Xenos true mating nature was starting to surface. Shawn had to admit he didn't mind playing the part of being submissive when it came to the Xenos and their needs. Oddly enough there was a certain freedom and liberation that he felt when it happened. As if the all the weight of making any sort of decisions were lifted from his shoulders, all he had to do was bend to their will and satisfy their carnal desires.

Of course, it was never as simple or straightforward as that, as the Xenos at times enjoyed playing the submissive role and giving themselves over to the will of the other.

Lining himself up, Shawn played and tickled just below the base of the tail and tubes with his fingers, sending Ghost back into another sexual tizzy.

 _'Now,'_ Ghost pleaded, almost begging to be penetrated and bred.

"As you wish," Shawn whispered, pushing firmly against Ghost's vent opening, at first there was resistance then a moment later Shawn slipped himself fully inside of the drone. Grabbing Ghost by his hips he started to quickly thrust back and forth. The warm, tightness, the inner muscles clamping down on his own cock, massaging and working his member over. So close to climaxing as soon as he had entered he had to force himself to slow down, maybe he would last a few more thrusts.

Arching his back and head up, Ghost hissed in pleasure as Shawn worked his inner walls. His hands tightly gripping the bed sheets as he started to rock back and forth, his rhythm matching Shawn's own.

Shawn was only able to last another minute at most, no matter how much he had tried to hold off. Speeding his thrusts up, he rocked back and forth as hard as he could finally climaxing inside of Ghost. A few powerful thrusts later he was done, he had been so worked up it was little wonder he had climaxed so soon. Trying to hold himself inside Ghost for a little longer, enjoying the tight warmth, his semi-erect member slipped out a couple of minutes later, a bit disappointed in himself that he was unable to perform longer. Ghost sent him a mental reassurance that there would be more to come now that they were a little more relaxed and the tension was being released.

Not saying a word, Shawn just smiled at Ghost, laying down on his stomach crossing his arms, slightly raising his hips in the air he looked at the drone. He sensed the primal instinct was there, relaxed slightly by the previous release but still very much in control. "You want this, don't you, to do a proper breeding and mounting," Shawn said, teasing the primal part of the Xeno, slapping his thigh some, almost as if he was daring the primal part of the Xeno to a challenge.

Ghost rose up, hissing loudly accepting the challenge, if his human wanted this then so be it, who was he do deny such a challenge. In a blur of movement, the black form was on top of Shawn, pinning him to the bed and spreading his legs apart, the fully engorged member easily finding its mark and sliding all the way back inside of their human with a single thrust. Most of the Ghost's full weight was now bearing on top of Shawn, the black hips rapidly pump up and down. Rubbing his dome along the back of Shawn's neck, the lips fully peeled back, exposing the glistening steel colored teeth, teeth that glided across the soft and sensitive skin, leaving a thick trail of warm drool. A single wrong move, a lapse of control could easily injure or even kill there human. But even the primitive aspect that was now fucking Shawn for everything it could and enjoying it to no end, had more control than that and had no desire to harm their soft and delicate hive mate.

"Fuck," Shawn gasped in ecstasy, as his inner walls were being vigorously worked over. His own member starting to get hard again as Ghost's mind was still linked to his and he was feeling everything the sex-crazed drone was. Almost on his own, his body started to rock back and forth as much as it could as loud, fleshy, wet slapping sounds obscenely filled the air. For the first time, the realization hit that Ghost was fully inside him, buried slit deep as it were. And while he had never truly gauged just how big Ghost was, he guessed that the Xeno was around twelve, maybe even fourteen inches in length, and right now he was being worked over by every girthy inch.

The primitive part, the primal part, squealed and screeched in joy, a proper mounting and mating, glorious and wonderful. He continued to quickly thrust in and out burying himself in fully, enjoying the warm soft flesh that he had been blessed to mount and breed. Reaching out he gripped his human's hands, the fingers interlocking together. As he continued to rub his face on the nap of their human's neck, drinking in the human's musky scent, he felt his release fast approaching.

He didn't want to have the release, not yet, not while they were one. He could feel everything his human felt, the warm, slick, fleshy girth working his inner wall over and over, the overwhelming pleasure of being filled so completely. The absolute joy or giving up all control, even for a short time and letting himself be dominated so completely and totally. The primitive part, the primal part, wanted to go on forever, to mate, to breed, to fuck; to give their human all the pleasure that they both desired.

Instinctively Ghost's body sped up acting almost on its own, his hips slapping down faster and faster. Holding out as long as he could as the oncoming climax built, a few short minutes later an orgasmic surge ripped down his spine and through his cock. A rabid mix of hissing and screeching erupted from his maw, ramming himself in as hard and as fast as he could, his seed erupted inside of Shawn, coating the human's inner walls again in a slick cascade. Shawn start to buck and thrust as his own climax peaked at the same time. Thrust after thrust both Shawn's and Ghost's climax finally subsided, each of them going limp and laying still, Ghost's member rock hard and throbbing.

The primal part of his mind ebbed with satisfaction at the wonderful and fulfilling climax. The much-needed release that he had never been able to obtain, that part of himself that had never been able to come to the surface fully, but was always just below, finally had its moment and it was glorious. Another barrier, perhaps the last barrier that Mason and his team had thrown up had finally been shattered. Basking in a satisfying afterglow the primal part relaxed and drifted back into the recesses of the Ghost's mind.

 _'Are you hurt?'_ Ghost asked as he regained full control of himself, his voice heavy laced with concern. If he had injured Shawn in any way, sudden panic started to fill his mind, what if he had inadvertently ripped Shawn insides open. He hadn't intended to be so rough, to go on like he had, but everything went flying out of his control as his instincts had taken over. But yet it had felt so right to do this, everything in his core telling him that they both needed this and that their human could handle it. Quickly he probed Shawn to see if the human was in any pain. Surprisingly and with a great deal of relief, all he could feel was a deep, filling warmth running throughout the human's mind and body, a glowing mix of pleasure and satisfaction.

Catching his breath, Shawn ever so slightly turned his head, his eyes relaxed almost dreamy. "You were right, we needed this," he said, squeezing Ghost's hand, "and for the record, you are an absolute beast," he said with a slight chuckle.

Ghost gently nuzzled the back of Shawn's neck, basking in the musky pheromones that he was giving off. Pheromones that told him their mating had been both successful and satisfying for the two of them, he knew though that they both would want more and soon. Thankfully the desperate need to mate, the need to release all the stress had been built up had been alleviated and now they could simply play with each other for the pure pleasure and enjoyment. At least the two of them could, there were still two others that needed to be desperately satisfied.

 _'I believe that our brother and sister have desires that should be taken care of.'_ Ghost seductively whispered to Shawn on a private channel.

Shawn turned his attention over to where Shadow and Alese were. The female drone had spooned up to her much larger counterpart and was slightly draped over his side, stroking and caressing the Predation's enormous member. Her fingers gripping the shaft and working it over, thick lubricant permeated from the minute pores and heavily coated both her hand and his member in the sticky substance. While Shawn had never gotten a look at Shadow's penis the first time the two had made love, he had sure felt it when it Shadow had penetrated him. He figured he had taken a third of it at most that first time and even then it was a challenge to do so. Proportionally wise he wasn't sure where Shadow stood at compared to other Predations, average, large, perhaps small, somehow he doubted that though. However given Shadow's nine-plus foot stature, the Xeno was hung like a large horse when fully aroused, probably to help impregnate their queens when needed. Most fortunate for him there were no queens around. He seriously doubted that he would ever be able to fully take Shadow's member all the way in, no matter how much he wanted to. At the Praetorian's size and length it would be fatal if Shadow tried to fully penetrate him; at best he might be able to take a little over half of it.

He felt Ghost slowly push himself up, his member ever so slowly and carefully pulling out inch by inch. The sticky, warmth that had filled him up was now gone as the black cock-head popped out. He quietly wished to himself that Ghost would have stayed down and inside of him for a while longer, the warmth and blissful connection they all shared always seemed stronger when they were intimate like this.

Shadow shifted his position, sliding over to Shawn and carefully rolling the human onto his back. Taking Shawn's legs he raised and placed them so they were around his waist, leaning down, he nuzzled the base of Shawn's neck and shoulder. His lips peeling back slightly, taking in the well known musty scent. Even now their human's body was crying out for another round, the smell coming off of Shawn was getting stronger and stronger by the second. Even if the human didn't mentally realize it yet, his body was craving another release. Shadow silently wondered to himself if this was part of the change Shawn's body was going through, the subtle change in his scent, the way his mind was reworking itself. And while he had no idea what kind of sex drive most humans generally had, their humans seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. He was worried that Ghost would have accidentally hurt Shawn with their voracious mating, yet Shawn was completely unharmed and now craving more.

' _I will be gentle,'_ Shadow reassured Shawn privately as he rose up then leaned back. Reaching down he slid the tip of his claw over Shawn's stomach down to his groin, getting a small sample of the human's spent seed. Bringing the tip of his claw up to his mouth his lips peeled back scent tasting the organic fragrance deeply. His mind reeled from the onslaught of pheromones suddenly assaulting his senses. His member fully hardened, fully springing out from between his legs as the smell started to bring out the deeply seeded mating instincts. His whole body felt like it was on fire, corseting with sexual energy, the need for release trying to overtake his senses. His arms, legs, and tail quivered as he leaned back down and began to rub his member up against his human's stomach and groin, marking his mate. The enormous cock rubbing back and forth over Shawn's own leaving a thick mess of clear lubricant.

Shawn felt like he was looking right down the barrel of an armed cannon that was primed and ready to fire as the Xeno's member kept rubbing up and down his groin, stomach and even lower chest. He wondered if Shadow was going to lose control, climax and spray all over him. While the Praetorian normally had far greater control over his instincts and emotions most of the time, today had been a whirlwind for all of them. However, that control was slowly eroding away, as the deeply needed instinct to mate was at the surface. It was right then Shadow backed away some, lowering his hips, positioning his member he leaned back in. He was just thankful that Ghost had worked him over, even then it was some work for the fully engorged cock-head to slip inside him.

Leaning down, Shadow pressed the front of his dome to Shawn's forehead, his arms wrapping around with the massive hands cradling up against the back of Shawn's head acting as a pillow of sorts. Slowly he started to rock his hips back and forth, carefully pushing inch after inch up inside his beloved human. He felt Shawn lifting his legs up and wrapping them around his waist giving him better access.

Short, sharp gasps escaped from their human as Shadow sped up, there was a world of difference in how Ghost and Shadow performed. While Ghost had been in desperate and much-needed release, he had been going on almost pure instincts and drive. Shadow, however, was far slower and gentler, his movements measured, the thrusts short and controlled.

Despite that though, there was a hint of desperation, not just from Shadow but also from Ghost and even Alese that bled through the hive link they all shared. It wasn't just the primal desire to mate and climax countless time with each other. It was about sharing whatever time they had left with each other. Each one knowing that this could very well be the last time that all of them might be able to be intimate together like this. Very soon they would all be onboard Eclipse station and from that point on, no one knew what the outcome would be.

Shadow's link blanketed his mind, wrapping him in soothing, mental warmth. All the worries about what was to come fell away and disappeared, at least for the moment, for now, the only thing in the universe was the four of them. Giving himself completely and totally, he tilted his head back and closed his eyes letting the carnal warmth take over as the Praetorian, his Praetorian continued to make love to him.

Shadow was careful, as always, not to push too far inside for fear of harming or killing their human. Each time he and Shawn had mated or made love as Shawn always put it, an odd but pleasant term for mating he thought. He managed to push in a bit farther, half an inch sometimes a full inch other times, and sometimes he would speed up just a bit more. This time was different; all he wanted to do was feel the warm, fleshy, slickness for as long as he could, to go slow and prolong the climax.

Time disappeared as he gently continued to thrust back and forth, drinking in the beauty of his beloved human hive mate. Lowering his head, his lips and steel colored teeth softly glided across Shawn's throat, Ghost's scent still strong. The Praetorian smiled at that, he was both pleased and grateful that his elder brother had finally overcome and broken all the barriers that those sadistic human scientists had put up. Much of the shyness and reclusiveness now gone, the deep natural instincts that had been suppressed for so long were finally taking their place, as they should.

Pushing in ever deeper Shadow barely realized that he was close to being halfway inside his lover. His human let out another wordless gasp enjoying the wet, pleasure of their coupling. The pressure in his groin started to grow as his need for release was building with each thrust. The Xeno started to rock back and forth faster and faster his cock-head swelling locking them in place for the moment. Almost on its own, his tail rose up and then slammed down on the bed with a loud slap.

A dull thud echoed throughout the room from Shadow's tail slapping the bed, catching the attention of Ghost and Alese who were enjoying one another. She had found the concept of a blowjob interesting and was now trying it out on Ghost; his member fully engulfed by her inner jaw as she pistoned it back and forth, sending him into a helpless squealing black, chitin mass of ecstasy. He promised himself that he would need to thank Shawn again for introducing him to such a delightful form of play.

Shadow's whole body erupted in a climatic bliss as he ejaculated his seed deep inside of his human. Thrusting hard over and over several dozen times, his seed finally spent for this round, his body slowed down then became still save for his tail which slowly swept back and forth over the bed. Resting his head on his arm, he simply looked at Shawn who was starting to come out of his trance.

Opening his eyes, Shawn turned his head to look over at Shadow, reaching up with his hand he tenderly caressed the front of the semi-transparent dome, the Praetorian leaning right into his touch. Part of him felt so wiped from taking both Ghost and now Shadow, yet energized at the same time. A deep rumbling purr from Shadow reverberated through his body, relaxing him even further.

 _'You desire more?'_ The Xeno asked somewhat surprised as he picking up on the already rising need.

"Not now, but soon," Shawn replied back, shifting his body slightly or at least as much as he could while being tied and having the nine-plus foot alien lying right on top of him. He could feel the swollen cock-head deep inside locking them both together. Something deep down in his psyche told him he should be worried: even scared that the length and now sizable girth would injure him. But that fear never materialized, only a blissful warmth and contentment that for now all was right and was as it should be. A sudden thud next to him broke him out of his dreamy state.

Alese had plopped down next to him laying on her stomach, her hips positioned in the air, tail parted over, a definite pose of submission and readiness. Ghost was right on top of her, squatting down and grabbing her by the hips as he feverishly started thrusting back and forth trying to find the mark. After several misses, his erect member found the spot and with a single hard thrust buried himself deep in her slit. Widening his stance and then leaning forward, with an animalistic furry he started to pound away. Drool was cascading from his mouth onto Alese's back as his lips peeled back fully; short and sharp high pitched squeals escaped, sounds that Shawn had never heard any of them make. Alese for that matter was in the same state, her tail had coiled around Ghost's midriff, and her own lips too were back all the way as drool pooled just under her chin. Both of their rational minds were almost gone, all either one of them cared about was filling their own carnal wants and needs.

It was a full blown sexual mating frenzy, something that might go on for hours if not longer. Even Shadow was starting to become enthralled by it as the raging mating pheromones filled the room, his lips peeling back slightly as he scent tasted the air, and his member fully hardening again.

"Guess you're ready for another round maybe two." Shawn teased him jokingly, knowing full well the effect the pheromones were having on him. He just prayed that Shadow wouldn't fully lose control, while he didn't mind things getting a bit wild, the last thing he wanted was for the Xeno to go all out. Something like that would be fatal.

Shadow replied, gently nuzzled the top of Shawn's forehead, _'Only if you wish it, I promised I would never harm you and will go only as far as you wish.'_

Shawn just smiled, he knew that Shadow wanted to go on as long as he could, and he did too. And seeing Ghost and Alese breeding each other like a pair of feral animals in heat, which he had to admit was pretty damn hot, was getting him fully aroused again very quickly. He didn't have to say anything as Shadow had picked up on everything that was going through his mind and started to gently rock back and forth. From that point on only thing running through Shawn's mind was the different ways and positions that he was going to mount and penetrate Shadow, Ghost, and Alese before collapsing from exhaustion.

For now, however, his body ached for release more and more as his mind was dragged further down into the lust and sex-filled haze. There was no real sense of self from that point on as they continued. To pleasure and to be pleasured was all there was for now. To feel the hard, slick members sliding up inside him and to feel the wet, warmth of tight flesh clamping down around his own cock as he climaxed countless times. Eventually, it was nothing more than a single human among the mass of moist and slick, black serpentine bodies, of tubes, and tales, coiling, rubbing and fondling each other, humping and thrusting, each one desperate to fill, or to be filled by the other. Their seed, either being deposited inside the other or spewing over the each other's bodies. For them, at this moment, nothing outside that hazy, lust filled world existed.

So caught up in their acts, that none of them noticed they were being watched, silently and with a great deal of curiously.

One of their guests had unexpectedly woken up.

xxxxx

For a long time, longer than she knew, she had been bathed in the warm timeless sleep of her hive. For how long she did not know as her race had no actual concept of time, no concept of seconds, minutes, hours, even days or years, no way to tell how long she and the rest of her hive had slept. That warmth that bathed her, at some point changed, turning cold, and it was a bitter coldness that seeped into her core, one that she was unable to awake from. And then the cold stopped, and she slowly became warm again, her senses gradually coming back to her. It was then she realized that she was no longer in the deep sleep that her queen had sent her and the other of her hive into, in fact, she was no longer in her hive.

No longer was she in the deep, protective confines of the massive hive that she and so many others like her called home. A home that had sheltered and protected her and her brothers and sisters from the onslaught of the creator's cruel weapons and hunter-killers that had slaughtered countless thousands of her kind. The fog of the ageless long sleep still held its tight grip on her, her mind and senses were dull and clouded, even her own body would not respond to her commands.

Focusing on one thing at a time, she concentrated first and foremost on finding her queen, her mother. She would know what to do, using whatever strength she could muster, she mentally reached out, expecting to hear the queen's response, to feel her warmth, the all-knowing, and all-seeing presence that had guided the hive as long as she could remember.

Only nothing came. No warmth, no comfort, her queen, her mother, protector of them all, was simply not there.

Panic gripped at her, what if the creators had won, by some impossibility maybe they had actually managed to win. No, that was impossible, they had been defeated. The Empresses and queens on many different words had relayed the messages, informing the other hives that their creators, ones that they once held in reverence and loved without question, now mortal and most hated enemy had been either wiped out or had been forever driven into the void. Only the remnants of the hunter-killers that stalked their word remained as a grotesque reminder of their former masters, twisted abominations that scoured the lands looking for hives to attack and destroy.

It had been the reason the queen had ordered her children into the ageless sleep. They no longer had the numbers to fight against the endless swarms of the hunter-killers. All they could do now was sleep and wait until the abominations died off. Something poked through the mental fog, the queen, her mother had been hurt. The last thing she remembered before she drifted off into the ageless sleep was the elite guards and warriors sealing off the entrances to the hive.

She had been born as a drone, and as all drones, her sole duty was to tend to the hive. Drones under normal conditions did not engage in battle, not when the warriors and elite guards were there to do such things. However, in the end, they had all became warriors and fighters, fighting for their very survival. Each member of their proud hive, from drone to scout, and warrior to elite guard, even their own queen, each one carried the deep scars of the battle against the creators and their weapons. How many of her brothers and sisters had she seen torn apart by the hunter-killers or be burned into ash by the creators very own weapons?

Burying the creeping panic deep down, she refused to let it take a grip on her. She would not give into fear as she herself had looked into the black eyes of one of her own creators once. Black eyes that had shown nothing, no emotion, no fear, not even a hint of remorse at the pain they had inflicted on so many. And a moment later she had punched a hole right into its miserable head, ending its life once and for all. That had been a good kill, the whole hive, her own queen, had been proud of her for that.

As the fog began to lift from her mind, and her senses returned, she took note of her surrounds. Right away she noticed that something soft and warm was covering her, as well as something soft that she was lying on. Odd, very odd. It reminded her of the covers they would create for themselves at times to wrap up in when they were cold or for shelter when away from the hive. A sweet aftertaste hung in her mouth too, right away she recognized it as the taste of life jelly; one of her own kind had fed her. Right then hope started to rise up, if others of her kind were now awake then mother must still be sleeping, perhaps the reason she had not detected her. There was also another taste as well; it was the taste of meat but nothing that she knew of. The taste while not bad was off, not rancid or poisoned, but something about it was not natural.

She spotted one then two of her hive mates next to her, wrapped in the same odd covering that she was, curled up sleeping deeply. She could barely feel them, a very faint tingle, just a sliver of their minds as they were slowly coming out of the ageless sleep. Reaching out she felt another two, then three others close by, behind her, also in the deep, ageless sleep. But no others of her hive that she could detect. It was right then that she started to notice the odd smooth angled walls, floors and...as her gaze slid upward, she saw it, the blackness of the void, hanging right above her. Her body coiled up even tighter as she looked up at it, that never-ending blackness with the small pinpricks of light. That light as she had come to know it meant other worlds, other worlds that held her own kind. She had never seen it personally, but she had and seen it through shared the memories from other hive queens and Empresses. Many of her kind had been inside those great, juggernaut sized vessels when the creators had been traveling between worlds so long ago. Seeing the memories of such things had always scared her, the empty vastness of it all, the nothingness of it, how something like that could exist she had no idea. And now it was looming right above her, ready to take and swallow her body and soul, to send her tumbling into that nothingness and be consumed by it.

But the void and its cold, airless presence was being kept at bay and was not in the room with her. The atmosphere was warm, humid, and the scent of a fresh hive was there. She reached out again with her mind and she felt them, those like her. There was also something else, the potent pheromones of her kind in a mating frenzy.

She found it odd that the scent didn't affect her as it normally would have. Lifting the warm but odd covers to examine herself, she now saw how much her body had wasted away while in the ageless sleep. The shocking reality hitting hard, just how long had she been asleep for this to happen? How many day and night cycles were to have passed, how many hot and cold seasons and those in-between had gone by?

It was more of a cold shock that tightly gripped her than any kind of fear. They all knew they would be in the ageless sleep for a long time, but how long had it really been, hundreds, maybe thousands of seasons, perhaps more? As before she refused to let panic take hold, she did not appear to be a prisoner of the creators, maybe some other race. Or maybe her race had unlocked secrets that the creators had kept hidden and now they themselves walked among the starts.

The sounds of hissing and screeching reached her, not the sounds of battle or pain, but of pleasure. Slowly she tilted her head up trying to gage more of her surroundings and to see her fellow hive mates that she heard. The smooth metal walls and the floor gave way to the welcoming slick and black resin that made up a hive. But only a small portion of the area was being used as a hive, maybe a third of the area. And only the walls and floors, the clear ceiling portion had no resin, why was that, she asked herself. In the corner part of the room, the black resin sloped up revealing a large platform, and on that platform were three of her own kind. She did not recognize them as members of her hive but their scent told her differently, she made out that two of them were drones, one male, and one female, both looked healthy and strong. The third was one of the elite guards, and he too looked strong and healthy. All of them were engaged with one another, and suddenly her vision locked in on something, a smaller, pale form was among the trio, taking part of the mating frenzy. And the elite guard was breeding it as he would a female or even a queen.

Her claws instinctively clinched up and a rush of hot anger flashed through her mind. She didn't want to believe it, one of the creators were here, mixed in with them, no this was not possible. She stayed still observing the going on of the four, something about this was not right, it was smaller than the creators, much smaller and looked puny compared to the white giants. Its skin was not the pure pale white of the creators; it also had something fuzzy covering the top and sides of its head and even seemed to lightly cover some of its body, and its head while the same shape did not have the pounced features that the creators did.

What if the creators had returned and somehow won the war they had supposedly lost. Not by raw brute force or by their weapons, but what if they had created something else. A smaller lesser version of themselves, something to draw her race in and somehow enslave and subjugate them again? Maybe the three were being controlled somehow, then why the mating frenzy, pheromones never lied about one's condition and state of being, and the three were enjoying themselves.

No, it was something else, something she wasn't seeing.

She focused her gaze again as the four intermixed and continued to mate with each other. It looked to be such a puny, week thing. Something that was barely worth using as a host, and yet the three seemed to be enthralled with it for some reason. Most notably the elite guard. Another thought entered her mind, what if, no, it wasn't possible and yet, she was looking right at it. What if the three were traitors to their own kind, their own hive, her hive, and queen? What if they had sided with the creators and this was somehow their reward. There had been rumors of members of hives going over to fight for the creators, but nothing that anyone had ever seen.

Staying still as not to draw unwanted attention to herself, she would observe and wait. She would have her answers and if necessary, if they were being controlled, she would free them. And if it meant ripping that puny thing apart she would gladly do so.

They continued to mate for a long time, switching partners or all four engaging at once. How long this continued she did not know as to her the concept of time had no meaning. But eventually, the four stopped now satisfied, settled down and drifted into a deep sleep.

Satisfied that none within the group would wake up, she slowly pushed herself up. Her thin legs wobbly and her sense of direction horribly disoriented. Standing still for a while her direction sense slowly steadied, looking around and getting her bearings, she found that the room that she was in was much larger than she had first thought.

Objects that were similar but different in design to the ones the creators had used littered the room. Vague hive memories that told her that the creators and even a few of her own kind, before the war, use to sit in objects like these. Checking on her brothers and sisters, she found they were still in a deep sleep, and from what she could detect, had been given food. And while she was hungry she was not ravenous like she should have been, could it be that she too had been fed while she was asleep? Quietly and slowly, she walked around, her hands touching and gliding off all the foreign objects examining them, some smooth and cool to her touch, others slightly fuzzy and warm.

Her gaze jumped back and forth between the room and the all-encompassing void that seem to wait outside. As she slowly circled the area, she found herself walking toward the corner area that had the platform with the sleeping group, the pheromones lingered heavily in the air. The elite guard was coiled up around the soft puny looking thing. Only the strongest, bravest, most intelligent and cunning were ever allowed to become elite guards to the queen, how did this one have the honor of becoming favored by a queen? And to that end, where was the queen?

She scent tasted the air, there was no mistaking it now, these three had come from her hive, and their scent confirmed it. And while they were children of her own queen, she had never seen them and she knew all that were of her queen's hive. Was it possible that something had happened and they had been born after they went into the ageless sleep? Or maybe the eggs of her mother had been stolen? Something else flickered in her fog haze brain, their scent while it was of her queen's hive, it was also off somehow, something about it was slightly different. But it was something that she could not identify.

Her claws twitched as heated anger suddenly rose up, was this puny thing responsible for them being taken from their rightful hive. Taken away from their mother, their queen, or had they possibly rejected their queen and turned their backs on the hive? Such things did happen, but very rarely and depending on the queen, the result was either death or permit banishment.

Observing the hive resin, it was fairly new, wet, shiny, the design was different as it varied from hive to hive. It did give her some comfort as she stepped onto the warm, wet resin. Moving closer she was now standing at the edge of the soft platform, it was like the one that she had woke on only larger and higher up. Her gaze locked onto the small thing, was it a creator, only remade somehow? Her lips twitching back slightly, a thin strand of drool trickled down from the side of her mouth.

Not so distance memories flashed through her mind, how much pain had they caused? How many of her own kind had been burned alive or ripped apart, while she did not know the body count she did remember all those that she had seen and felt die. Her body seemed to move on its own as the memories came back. The black eyes, the pale white flesh, the armor that they wore that mocked their own beautiful and perfectly formed black, chitin bodies. How many hives had been destroyed in the war, how many queens and even Emperies had died at the hands of the creators and their abominations.

She found herself on the soft platform, squatting just above the small, puny thing, only inches from its ugly, misshapen flat face. Her lips fully peeled back, she would end this thing's life now, and free those that it had taken control of. Her inner jaw slowly starting to work its way past the steel colored teeth, all of her hate, rage, and anger was now focused on this thing soft flesh. She would need to be quick, as much as she would delight ripping it apart piece by piece and hearing it scream. If the others were under its control she would need to sever that control as quickly as possible to save them.

The puny things eyes flashed open and locked right onto her, fear and shock radiated out, and with it a deafening distress call through the hive mind. She reeled slightly back in shock as that was something she had not been prepared for. With a black blur of motion; a split second later she found herself being toppled over and pinned to the floor. Anger, hot and fierce bore right into her mind, as she recouped her senses she came to the sudden realization that the elite guard was on top of her, holding her down, his lips peeled back in full aggression and was poised to strike. The lethal tail blade was arched right next to his head ready to come bearing down and end her life should he so wish it. A pitiful screech ripped for her maw, she had failed, failed to release those of her kind from the creator's twisted hold.

What was going to be a few moments of much-needed sex play and relaxation with Ghost, had turned into many hours of what Shadow had described as a full-blown mating frenzy. A frenzy that would only end when it exhausted itself out. To Shawn, it was nothing less than an orgy plan and simple, but whatever anyone wanted to call it, it was something that was very much needed by all four of them. The tension and stress were now gone and Shawn had fallen asleep in Shadow's arms with Ghost and Alese curdle up with each other right next to them. All four had drifted off into a deep blissful sleep, warm in each other's minds.

Shawn didn't know how long he was asleep, but something was off and very wrong. He felt that he was now in danger, anger, rage, even cold hate drilled into his mind. Even in his slumber, he could feel that it was directed right at him. In his subconscious mind, he wondered if that entity creature had somehow broken free and made its way onto the Saratoga and was now targeting them. Everything in his being was telling him to wake up and that his life was in grave danger and was about to be snuffed out.

His eyes blinked open, cold dread filled his core, his gaze titled up looking for the threat. Just inches from his face he found himself staring into a domed eyeless head. Lips fully peeled back, the deadly inner toothed jaw just aligning up with the steel colored teeth. Thick drool dripping off the chin, and teeth. While it would not have been the first time that Ghost or Alese had played the odd practical joke on him being just inches from his face when he woke up, never once had they ever had their lips peeled back in aggression ready to strike.

In that second Shawn knew that it was neither Alese nor Ghost and that one of the Xenomorph drones had woken up while they were asleep and was now poised to kill. Furry, rage and hate tore into his mind; all focused right on him, something else bled through the raw emotions. Brief flashes, images of dead or dying Xenos, hundreds perhaps thousands littered a yellow acidic blood-soaked barren landscape. Pale, white giants wearing black bone looking armor walked through the carnage, heavy weapons in hand, carving a swath of death and devastation through the oncoming Xeno attackers.

Shadow had told him of the war, how his race had rebelled against their creators and rose up against them. For a micro-second, he wondered if he was looking at the drones actual memories. Had she actually been there, first hand, fighting in a war that was untold thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, maybe longer?

His mind almost on instinct screamed out in panic, and in an instant Shadow was up and flying over him. He heard more than saw the two go over the side of the bed and hit the floor with a loud thud, and then an ear piercing scream echoed throughout the sleeping room. The scream wasn't one of rage, but more of defeat and hopelessness.

Glancing over to his right, Shawn saw that Alese was off the bed and up on her feet in an attack posture ready to strike. While Ghost was right next to him, down on all fours, his pose more set to defend. He picked up the confusion between the two drones, each one wondering what was going on. Were they under attack, where was the enemy?

Shadow's voice, tense and on edge came through and in a few moments, they knew why. _'She was about to kill Shawn,'_ he said, his grip on the female drone tightening a little more as a pitiful, low toned whimper escaped from the drones mouth.

Ghost and Alese exchanged looks, both of them in shock as to what had happened. Was the drone insane or did she have a death wish? Even a feral Xenomorph would have better sense than to attack someone who had been scent marked by one of the elite guards. That act should have been more than enough warning to leave anything well enough alone. Lowering their guard slightly both of the drones slowly and cautiously approached.

 _'Why,'_ Alese was the first to ask, _'why did she attack, Shawn has done nothing to harm them, why attack unprovoked.'_ She looked down at the pitiful sight, the female drone, starved and wasting away, pinned to the ground by the much larger Praetorian. Her body had in a defensive pose curled up to protect itself, not that in her poor condition it would have made a difference.

 _'Possibly confused, maybe she believed that Shawn was somehow a threat to her. Or her instincts took over and she was trying to feed.'_ Ghost added, offering a couple of possibilities.

"Lovely thought there," Shawn said sarcastically sliding to the edge of the bed to get a better look. He figured there might be some wariness and even some animosity that he would experience from these Xenos after they had woken up. But for such a blatant attack to happen and right after one of them woke up, never even crossed his mind, certainly not while he was sleeping with one of the elite guards. _Another stupid mistake_ , he silently chastised himself, wondering just how many more stupid mistakes he would make before it caught up with him, though even Shadow, Ghost and Alese were surprised by the attempted and unprovoked attack.

 _'What do we do with her?'_ Alese asked, she had no desire to kill one of her own kind, certainly not one that was from their original hive. A hive that none of them had ever seen and for all they knew no longer existed. Regardless of that, they were still hive mates that belonged to the same family, but if she was a threat, then something needed to be done.

Shadow was silent, his mind still on a defensive high and right now he did not want this female drone to move a muscle. Not until he knew her reason for trying to kill his mate.

 _'We communicate with her and find out why,'_ Ghost said, walking up to Shadow and the pinned drone. _'It might help if you released her.'_ He said to Shadow placing a hand on the Praetorian's shoulder.

Shadow didn't move an inch, his gaze still locked onto the drone. He could feel her confusion, her fear, also worry and even, was it shame that she was feeling as well? _'She tried to kill Shawn, tried to kill our human, our hive mate.'_ He retorted back coldly, _'after all we have gone through, another few seconds and we would have lost him, and lost any chance for us to get our hive mates off that damn station.'_

Ghost nodded fully understanding Shadow's apprehension, _'This I understand, but we need to know why. And she is our sister, our blood and we all knew that something like this might happen. But we need to communicate with her and find out why.'_

Adjusting his position on the bed to where he was sitting instead, Shawn coughed slightly. "I think I might have an idea why or at least something to work off of." He said, getting the attention of all three Xenos. "Right before she was ready to strike, she projected some images into my mind, I don't think she knew she was doing it, I think that she was remembering something. I believe that it was the war against your creators."

Shawn felt the collective shock coming from all three Xenos at what he had told them. "I saw the bodies of your people, hundreds if not thousands or more, scattered across some wasteland. They were fighting large white what looked like humans, but with no hair and black eyes, identical to that image you showed me a few months ago. They were wearing armor that almost looked to be made out of bone. Her main focus seemed to be on them more than anything else."

Alese looked right over at Shawn, _'Maybe she mistook you for one of the creators. If she was actually there in the war...'_ Alese's voice trailed off, none of them knew how long ago that was, and what they had gone off of was what little they had overheard back in the labs, which was almost nothing.

Shadow's grip loosened up, slowly he let go and backed away a few feet to give the drone some room. _'It would explain a great deal,'_ He said, _'the scarring, the condition they were in when we found them, the remains of the queen and the eggs.'_ He started to calm down some if she had been in the war, then her last memories would have been of death and destruction. He made several low toned chuffing sounds to the drone, letting her know he would not strike and would not harm her.

Hesitant at first but after several moments she slowly sat up, her tail coiling around her body, her head tilted down slightly. She glanced around looking at her brothers and sister, and then at that puny thing sitting on the platform. Her lips started to peel back slightly, a move that was met with a warning hiss from the elite guard. Instantly she pacified herself at the warning, a new thought crossed her mind as she thought back at the actions she had observed when the four were mating. Maybe she had gotten it wrong, maybe that puny thing wasn't in control of her hive mates as she had first assumed. Maybe it was the opposite, maybe it belonged to them and they were protecting it for that reason. However, if that was the case then why were they treating it more like an equal, like one of their own hive members. And would it not be better off if it were simply used as a host. And right then she remembered the mental distress call it had let out when she was about to kill it. Had it actually bonded with them somehow?

It would not be the first time a race different than theirs had formed a bond with a hive member. It had happened during the war with the creators with other some of the other races the creators were trying to kill off. Even though it was a rare thing, it did happen.

"There is an uncanny resemblance," Shawn said, getting a disapproving glance from Shadow. "Well there is, I mean if you look past the pale white skin, the height difference and the black eyes, physically there isn't a whole hell of a lot of difference."

 _'He does make a good point,'_ Ghost said, taking a few steps back standing next to Shawn, while the female Xeno seemed to have gone into a passive stance, he still did not want to take any changes in her suddenly attacking Shawn. _'In her state, she may very well have thought he was one of our creators or perhaps something similar.'_

Getting up, Shadow turned to look at Ghost, _'Damn it Ghost, Shawn looks nothing like our creators, nor does any human for that matter. Yes, there are a few physical similarities but even a half-blind youngling could tell the difference right away.'_ He said, not liking the fact that Shawn was being compared to a creator.

"More than just a few," Shawn said, getting another disapproving look from Shadow. "Okay look, we can debate and compare until we're blue in the face," it was another human saying that got him odd looks from all three of his Xenos. Waving it off as just another slang term, he continued, "But it's not going to do any good until, as Ghost suggested, someone can talk to her and find out why and if she and the others are going to be an actual threat to us." With that, Shawn slid off the bed and started toward the door.

 _'Where are you going?'_ Shadow asked.

"Going to get our guest something a bit more solid to eat, might help calm her down some. Figured my presences is something of a distraction so I'm going to step out for a few, Hopefully, it'll give you a chance to get things going without her getting stressed out by my being here." He replied back.

Shadow took a few steps forward toward the door before stopping, _'You do not have to leave right now, one of us can go and retrieve some food.'_

Shawn turned around right as soon as he had gotten to the door; he noticed that the gaze of the female drone was still on him. And while there wasn't the raw anger or rage radiating off of her as there had been minutes ago, he still felt hostility coming from her, primarily directed at him. "Think of this as a peace offering for her, or at the least something to let her know I'm not the enemy."

Shadow and the others watched as Shawn left the sleeping room, he slowly turned around his own gaze focusing in on the drone. After many hours of blissful mating and pleasuring each other, something that had relieved a great amount of stress, they now had to deal with another situation. The fact that things had suddenly gone sideways like they had; it seemed to be some constant cosmic joke directed right at them. _'Fuck,'_ he mentally swore to himself.

The drone sat silently her gaze never wavering off that thing even as it chattered at her brothers and sisters. It would look at one of them and vocalize something, they would look back and it would chatter again. It was apparent they were communicating with it but they were doing it privately. Finally it left the room and though the elite guard did seem concerned as he moved toward it, he did let it leave. Good.

For several long moments, there was uncomfortable silence between all four of them. She looked back and forth between the elite guard and the other two drones. This should not be the way things were between hive members, even members of different hives had always greeted each other more warmly than this. Her thoughts were interrupted as the Elite guard stepped back and sat down in front of her, the other female drone stepping away from the male and squatting down next the elite guard.

Shadow and Alese looked at each other, neither one certain how to proceed. And as he was still more than a little irate that she had tried to kill his human he wasn't sure how he would come off. Thankfully Alese took the first step, she sent out a warm mental welcome to the female drone. The drone did seem receptive to that at least and returned the welcome, but there was also confusion as to what was going on. Suddenly a loud flurry of images, feelings erupted from her followed by vocalizations, the drone seemed to be getting worked up, and Shadow, Ghost nor Alese seemed to know what to make of it.

 _'Please calm down,'_ Alese told the drone trying to get her to relax.

The drone, cocked her head clearly confused by the odd and strange sounds that her sister had mentally produced, they sounded like the useless chatter that soft, ugly creature had emitted. Her anger started to rise slightly, were they unable to understand what she was trying to ask them, all she wanted to know was where she was, and what had happened to her and the rest of her hive. Where was mother, their queen, was she safe and with them somewhere.

Alese and Shadow now knew they were at a serious disadvantage when it came to communicating with members of an actual hive. Having grown up in a lab all they knew was the human language, even their own hive speech had been in the human language and the knowledge from the hive memories didn't seem to help with communicating. It should have been simple with the mental link, exchange of images, feelings and the like, but it was something they had very rarely done with one another. Always opting to talk with each other, it was simply the way they had been brought up. Just another barrier they would have to get past.

The exchanges continued back and forth for about thirty to forty minutes before Shawn returned with some food for all of them. In that time very little progress had been made and the female drone did not seem happy that he had returned as she gave a slightly irritated hiss in his direction.

Shawn picked up the frustration from everyone in the room, save for Ghost who had been standing off to the side and observing the exchange. "Got something for everyone, figured you all might be a bit hungry." He said, slowly approaching the trio and knelt down and presented a large tray of the synthetic meat. He had hoped that an offering of food might make her feel better, his offer was only met with a loud hiss of displeasure.

Immediately Shadow rebuffed her with another warning, his own loud hiss of displeasure. It wasn't just the lack of communication; it was her seemingly hostile attitude toward Shawn. If all the Xenos were going to be this way, he was afraid that Shawn's life would be in danger. He just didn't know how to get through to her, it shouldn't be this hard.

Right away Shawn backed off at the drone's warning hiss. "Maybe one of you should make the offer instead." He said, looking over to Shadow and Alese.

 _'Let me try,'_ Alese said, her own voice a bit fatigued by both the failure and the lack of rest, she was also getting irritated by the constant hostility that the drone seemed to be focusing on Shawn. Taking several slabs of the synthetic meat she offered a couple to the drone. The drone tilted her head side to side, her inner jaw coming out several times sent tasting the meat. She first looked at Alese and then to Shawn and back down to the offered meat. _'By the queen mother,'_ Alese blurted out getting annoyed, ripped into a piece to show the female drone that the offered food was not poisoned or tainted in any way.

As to prove Alese's point, Shadow took several slabs and started to rip into them. His own hard gaze focused right in on the drone.

Grabbing a nearby stool, Shawn dragged it over to the bed and set the tray down on it as he sat down on the edge of the bed looking at the interaction going on between the three Xenos. The female drone had finally taken a bit of the meat; she had what could only be described as a curious and puzzled look on her face at the taste. However, her stomach seemed to take over as she started to tear into the slab of meat.

Grabbing a slab of the meat from the tray Ghost sat down next to Shawn, his tail coiling around Shawn's waist. A second later his inner jaw shooting out taking out chucks from the meat slab.

"I'm guessing that things have not gone well?" He asked Ghost, his voice sounding tired and worn out.

Ghost just shook his domed head, _'No, they have not, we can see each other's mental images, feel the emotions, everything that hive mates should be able to do, yet we cannot seem to establish any kind of clear communication or understanding with each other.'_ Ghost just let out a loud puff of air, _'there is this barrier that we run into and cannot get past.'_

Closing his eyes, Shawn tried to consternate and listened to what was going on as Alese and Shadow tried to start up the dialog again. Shadow offered one of the slabs of meat to the drone who gingerly took it and started eating it. The back and forth communication attempt going on, all parties involved were determined to succeed but were frustrated that so little progress was being made. If it had been a human trying to learn a different language than it was something that would naturally take a long time. But with the Xenos and their mental link, understanding each other should have been instantaneous.

Ghost sat there and continued to tune in and observe, trying to figure out what it was they were missing, it was right there but none of them could see it just yet. While the mental link was fine, it was just the way that the communications were being handled, and something about it just wasn't clicking for either side. _'There has always been a question that hung between all of us_ even _back in the lab on how extensive the changes Mason did to us were. And now I feel we are starting to see those changes.'_ Ghost bluntly stated, lowering his head, the drone no longer seemed interested in eating.

"None of you went into any great detail on what kind of changes he did, or if you even knew what he did," Shawn said his eyes were still tightly shut as he tried to listen in on the exchange going on between the drone and Shadow and Alese.

 _'We do not truly know what he did or how he did it, all we do know is that he altered our carriers, what humans call face-huggers. We remember being born the way humans are and not the normally fatal way our creators intended for us to be. We also know that our, I believe what you would call a gestation period was increased, we remember developing at a slower rate while inside our hosts.'_ For a few seconds, Ghost recalled being inside the warm, comfortable, darkness of his host, nestled up feeling safe and secure, the tentative link first forming between host and Xeno. Though he also remembered feeling something was wrong, his host's mind, her feelings were always slow and sluggish as if something was in the way. It was only after he was born that he and all others like him would find out the horrible truth.

He remembered wiggling through his host-mother's womb, emerging into the world, and then being taken away by cold uncaring hands, away from the one that he loved more than life. And then to be thrown into a place so bright and yet so cold; to then feel his host slip away into nothingness, and then to be tortured day after day with no end in sight.

Shawn's eyes flashed open as just for a moment he caught a glimpse of the only warmth and safety that Ghost had ever experienced back in the lab. A warmth and safety Ghost often wished he could return to when he was still caged up. "You can remember being inside your host?" He asked completely astonished that Ghost was able to remember something like that.

 _'Yes,'_ Ghost answered, _'we all do.'_

"Damn, I knew you all had eidetic memories, but I never even knew you could remember that far back."

 _'As you would say, it is both a blessing and a curse to be able to remember something like that and with complete clarity.'_ He had stopped counting just how many times in his early days at the lab after his host-mother had passed that he had gone back to that memory to relive it over and over just to escape the cruelty of Mason and his group.

Right away Shawn picked up the profound sadness coming from Ghost at this particular memory. Another part of his traumatic experiences back at the lab, and another grim reminder for the Xeno drone how much not only he but all of them had lost when their host-mothers had died. All of them wondered what might have happened if the human females that had carried and given birth to them would have lived instead of slowing wasting away until their bodies gave out weeks later.

Perhaps considering the appalling conditions and inhumane treatment each one had suffered, it was best the hosts had never woken up or recovered and had slipped away to whatever lay beyond. Ghost and the others had no doubt that Mason or some of the other twisted scientists would have used them for further testing. Still, there was that ever-present void, an ache that would forever be there, each one always wondering, even if it was in the back of their mind, what could have been? What would have happened if their host-mothers had lived and had been allowed to bond with them?

In the end, however, it was nothing more than wishful thinking, a fantasy that would never come true no matter how hard any of them wished for it.

"Do you what to hear something kind of weird?" Shawn asked, reaching over and rubbing Ghost's back, trying to get his mind off of the bittersweet memory.

Tilting his head over to look over at Shawn, Ghost gave a slight nod as he welcomed the pleasant rubbing of his backside. He needed to be focused on the present, not specters of the past.

"When we first met, I wasn't sure if I was going to die or live, I had no idea what was going to happen. It went without saying that I was scared shitless and coming face to face with an alien race that I had never heard of or seen is pretty damn scary. Mostly it's that unknown factor of what is going to happen next that really pushes the boundaries of fear. But the weird thing is this, even though I was scared, I never felt that my life was actually in danger if that makes any sense. And I'm talking about the kind of danger that makes you want to chew through bulkheads and take your chances in space. With you three I never felt that, ever. But with that drone over there, for the first time ever, I did feel like my life was in actual, real danger." Shawn stopped for a few moments to continue to collect his thoughts on what he was saying and then started up again.

"You're the exact same species, the same hive apparently, actual brothers and sisters in every sense of the word. Yet, when I look at her, she seems far more alien than you or Alese or Shadow. And the odd thing is this; I can't put my finger on it. But maybe it's the way she moves her body, or what I mentally pick up from her, even how she looks at me. I get there's a heightened sense of aggression and even hostility, but that could be from where she came from or just waking up in an unknown place and going into a defensive survival mode of some kind."

Ghost listened intently as Shawn continued on, it was interesting to hear what some might call an outsider point of view. Perhaps there might be something that would help break that barrier they were having trouble with. _'You are not incorrect in your observations if what you saw in her mind before she tried to kill you was accurate, if it is so then she has great reason to be defensive. But what you say about her being more alien than what we seem to you is interesting. Perhaps Mason unknowingly changed us somehow.'_

"You think that it's possible that he did something to you and all the others and didn't realize it? Maybe somehow pushed your group past their natural boundaries of what they were meant to be. I mean your race was already evolving well beyond what your creators had designed you for."

 _'It may be possible, he altered our carriers and by that nature, us, but for what purpose we do not know, nor do we know how it will affect us in the future. It would not be out of the realm of possibilities to guess that he might have even evolved or mutated us in some way.'_ Ghost looked over at his brother and now sisters, if something was wrong with them, then the female drone should have reacted in some way. Yet she was sitting on the floor, still trying to communicate with them. Time was not on their side, the Saratoga would be finishing taking on supplies soon and then after that, they would be on their way to free their kin from Eclipse station. They needed to be able to communicate with the new Xenos and soon, or at least this Xeno.

Closing himself off just for a few moments, Ghost went within both his own memories and that of the hive memories, maybe there was an answer somewhere. None of them had any of the real world experience of being born and growing up in a living hive. They had all been birthed and then taken away, placed in clear plexi-steel cages and tested on. There was not a queen to guide and teach them, no hive mates to play and interact with, no hunting in groups for food or hosts. And while the hive memories were there to help and guide them, it was a poor substitute for an actual queen.

Focusing in on what he could that involved the different hive member commutating with each other. Body language was always a large part of it. The tilt of the head, the position of the lips, the way the tail was poised, was it fully up in aggression or lying down in submission. Then the vocalization, high pitched screams for an alarm, or distress, anger. Or the soft hiss and purring for pleasure or when one was trying to attract a mate or even calm a hive mate when in distress and pain, even the potent pheromones that informed others to their state of mind and body. All that was instinct, hardwired in, it was something that had been with them since the first day of their birth and had been something they had used all the time.

He went deeper into the memories, studied, observed and then it was right there that it hit him as he studied the interactions between a drone group from another hive and a queen. The drones had submitted themselves before her and in a less than a minute a barrage of information that flowed from the drones to the queen and back. No actual words were ever used, instead, images and feeling of what they asked for, a visual painting of all they requested was sent. In this case an alliance against the creators, hive joining hive for an attack, as well as food and those that could help aid the injured. The location, when the attack would happen, the number of forces for the attack and what the opposition would be, all of it communicated in a short, ultra-efficient manner.

The answer had always been there, they have used this method of communication back in the labs and even on the Saratoga, but it was always bits and pieces, nothing at this level. But as the months went by back on the station they had resorted to communicating in the human language, maybe in some ways, it was easier. _'By the queen, it was so simple,'_ He said to himself, feeling like a fool, the answer was always there they just were too clouded and busy to see it.

Coming out of his trance, he caught sight of Shawn looking at him. "You alright, you seemed to zone out there for a little bit?" The human asked, rubbing the drone's head, an act that right away caught the attention of the female drone.

 _'I am fine, I went deep into the hive memories to see about getting some answers._ He replied, purring slightly at the welcoming touch.

Shawn cocked his own head, not even realizing that he had almost done a near perfect Xeno quizzical look, at least for a human. Something else that had not gone unnoticed by either the female drone or by Ghost, "That's was quick, did you get your answers?"

' _I believe so,'_ Ghost answered, leaning in and rubbing the front of his dome against Shawn's chest, deeply taking in the human's heavily musky scent. Shawn's scent was still mixed with odors of the four of them mating only a few short hours ago. Even now after the four of them had tired themselves out, his body still desired more. While he doubted it would happen tonight, maybe before they got to Eclipse station he could have another go around.

Putting those thoughts in the back of his mind, he got up off the bed, walked over to where the three other Xenos were at and sat down. _'I believe I may have found an answer to our problem.'_ He told Shadow and Alese on a private channel. _'We are going about it all wrong; we have been thinking more in human terms of communication not those of our own kind.'_ He sent the past memory that he had discovered to both of them.

It was as if a light had suddenly been lit for the two, both Shadow and even Alese grimaced at the foolishness of it all. They had spent so much time communicating with Shawn in his own language and so much back on Eclipse station they had all but forgotten how to truly communicate in their own way. The natural ability was there and had been used from time to time, but for the most part, had been sorely neglected.

 _'How do we proceed then,'_ Shadow asked, feeling like a fool, no, not just a fool, but more like a youngling that didn't even know how to properly communicate.

 _'We show her everything, each of us one at a time.'_ Ghost answered, _'maybe then she will understand what is happening and stop being so hostile to our human hive mate.'_

Shadow and Alese agreed, it was bad enough that one was being aggressive. Neither of them wanted to deal with six fully angered and aggressive hive mates who might be hell-bent on ending the life of their human mate.

The female drone cocked her head to the side, wondering what her three hive mates were communicating. The male had been rather intimate with that soft thing sitting on the platform; she didn't understand what any of them saw in it. Hopefully whatever was going on she would be able to communicate fully with her brothers and sister soon. The elite guard and the other female drone had been trying to communicate with her, that much she knew, but most of what they did made little sense to her.

Letting out a small hiss toward the female drones, Ghost slightly bobbed his head in a friendly gesture. It was then he started sending her images, an open link for all to see and bear witness to, even Shawn. It was slow at first as the earliest of his memories started to trickle in, barely a drip, then it started to speed up. The unusual birth, being ripped away from his host-mother, the bright cold cell and the false white energies, and then that horrible man thing, the one they called Mason, and then finally the escape.

Their freedom in a ship they did not know how to operate, the crew they forced to help then escape and then let go later on when they were far enough away. And then that faithful time where the Saratoga's computer systems locked onto a lowly damaged ship in the deep void of space and brought it on board. Their first encounter with a human who was not from the station, the hesitation but the leap of faith he had taken in helping them and being allowed to try and repair his own ship in return. And the growth and healing all four of them had undergone. Bonding with all three of them, even giving them names, it was an odd concept to her, but somehow it had brought them closer together, their first time mating and the healing release that had gone with it.

The memories flew into the drone's mind, helping her understand their position, and why this soft thing, this human as it was known was so precious to them. It enraged her to no end that some soft, weak, race had the barbs to torture, possibly alter and hold her own people like this, to subjugate them to unwanted humiliating acts of rape and violation. Those soft things on this Eclipse station, as it was called, walked a very dangerous path, a path that was like that of the creators. If she could she would rip everyone one of them apart, and show them no mercy. And to learn that somehow after her and her brothers, sister and queen had entered the ageless sleep, she and five others had wound up here, as well as some of the eggs.

Growing up in conditions like this, it was no wonder they knew nothing about how to properly communicate. And yet, there was so much of it that she did not understand. As soon as the drone that she now knew as Ghost, finished. The Elite guard and then female drone sent her their memories; each set of memories helped complete a far larger picture.

As the memories ended, she looked over at where this human known as Shawn was sitting, his head tilted down. Had he been able to listen in on all this? While she found her hostility toward him now gone, she honestly did not know what to think or feel toward him. He had placed his life before theirs to help them and had been injured in the process and even protected them when they would have been taken away by the mercenaries. Even he had substandard physical and emotional injuries before meeting her race. Injuries that in some cases had festered and grown, but had been healed by her brothers and sister.

While she might have been wary of him, she found that she could not hate him, not after everything she had seen through her hive mate's memories of him. And while she was able to see the differences between this human creature and the creators, there was still an unnerving resemblance between the two races. Despite that, however, they considered him a part of their hive. She had to wonder what her queen would have thought about this odd predicament had she been here to see it all. At that brief thought, she wondered if her queen, her mother was alive someplace. The remains that she had seen through her hive mates memories on what they called a supply depot were too small to be her queen. From the size, the queen had been young, possibly from a newly developed hive, and one that had died either in the war or shortly after.

Shawn tried his best to listen in on what was going on, even with an open link it was hard to keep up with the flurry of images running back and forth at such a rapid pace. And while the drone did not speak, not like Shadow, Alese, and Ghost did. As they had always spoken to him in a human language that he could understand, it made sense since they were raised on a station run by humans. Of course, they would have picked up human speech and used it as their primary way of communications with each other. But this, this was something that to him was completely alien. No words, just the flood of images, sounds, sights, feelings, whole concepts being communicated at once in an intricate tightly knitted web. And while he had experienced a little of it, this was far above what he had experienced in the past.

It was right then that Shawn realized just how slow and clunky the human language was compared to the Xenos. In second's whole thoughts, ideas, concepts were broadcasted to the whole hive, what would have taken hours or days to carefully think out and explain by one of his own kind could be done in mere seconds. Up until now, he had only an inkling of how the hive mind and mental links really worked, what he and Shadow, Ghost and Alese had been doing was little more than barely dipping below the surface of a very deep ocean. Despite how much he might have grown as an individual since being picked up and meeting the Xenos, he was now feeling more and more like a child, a very small, insignificant and stupid one at that. One that might be holding a toy ball, he could see it, touch it, but might have no true understanding of what it was.

Something else that occurred to Shawn as he sat and watched, he wondered if the drone that they had found, might consider Shadow, Ghost, and Alese...slow. None of them had the benefit of a hive or queen to help guide them, the hive memories certainly had helped, but there was no real-life experience or upbringing in showing them how to be what they were meant to be or were becoming. And now they were meeting a member from an actual hive, their own hive in fact.

It was certainly turning out to be a very messed up and awkward family reunion. And as bad as it might be for his Xenos to muddle their way through their own language barrier, he wondered how much of a shock it was for the drone. Waking up in such a strange surrounding, far away from home, starved and on the verge of death. It seemed like with each new development the whole situation was getting more and more messed up and complicated.

To Shawn's surprise the female drone slowly stood up, her tail down in a passive stance and he could no longer feel the aggression focused toward him. It was more of an uncertain wariness now, still, she would observe him and the other two humans on board to gain more insight into them. She was curious about this human and wished to see his memories and gather insight into the whole picture of this odd and highly unusual union. This she communicated to her hive mates so they could inform him of her intentions.

Shadow slowly rose up, looked at the drone and then over to Shawn, he had felt her desire and if he was interpreting the imagery correctly she wished to search his memories to better understand the situation. It was progress, small steps, but progress nonetheless. _'She would like permission to see your memories so she can gain a better insight into our situation.'_ Shadow told him, not sure how Shawn would react, a short time ago she had been on the bed hovering above their human ready to kill him. Now she was asking to look at his memories. One thing that Shadow knew all too well was that humans were nothing if not private creatures; even Shawn had been hesitant to share his memories with them all. But when he had, it had been a cascade of pain and built up resentment, a poison that would have rotted his soul if not released. _'Of course, it is your decision to do so or not. But it should help her understand you better and it would be information that she could pass onto the others when they wake up.'_

"Information that will tell the others I'm not a threat so they won't try and kill me first thing when they wake up," Shawn stated flatly. While he didn't have a problem letting his Xenos inside his head, it had taken many small leaps of faith and trust to get to that point and a lot of internal boundaries to overcome. But the thought of letting, what amounted to a complete stranger and one that had been ready to end his life a short time ago, didn't sit well with him at all. Still, it might be better than the alternative of facing down five, possibly six hostile Xenomorphs that might view him as something to destroy, or a tasty snack.

 _'Yes, that is correct,'_ Shadow replied, feeling just how apprehensive Shawn was about this. Not that he could blame his human for having such feelings, but at the moment their choices were somewhat limited. And in the long run this might be the better course of action for ensuring peace, or at the very least not having all three of them guarding Shawn every second.

Shawn just shook his head, he didn't like it at all, but it was better than becoming a walking target or having to have Shadow, Ghost, and Alese put their hive mates down. A course of action that none of them wanted to happen, "Alright," he said, "just please tell her to go slow, I don't really feel like having my brains scrambled all over the place."

Shadow turned to the female drone and relayed the message, it was difficult to articulate human speech into the visual and emotional medium of hive speech, but he managed to muddle through it to where she understood. In essence, he had told her to go slow and not harm their human or he and the others would become very displeased with her, it was a message that she got and understood. For her and her hive, and as with most, the elite guards were second only to the queen, and if one of them was displeased by the actions of a hive member, they let that member know without hesitation.

Shawn carefully watched the female drone slowly approached, it was the first time he had seen her at full height. He quickly guessed that she was a few inches shy of eight feet tall and while physical she looked the same as Ghost and Alese, minus the horrible malnourishment as her body was little more than a walking skeleton at this point. She moved with a deadly and purposeful grace, staying silent with each step as she slowly walked toward him. Her moves looked to be more attuned for silently stalking prey, ambushing from behind and with deadly efficiency. Shawn had no doubt that she could and would wait for hour's maybe even days in a single spot to score a kill. If that was the case than patience was no doubt one of her most lethal weapons, he wondered if Ghost and Alese would pick up that trait from her, if it wasn't already ingrained into their DNA.

Standing before him, she reached out and firmly clamped her hands to the side of his head. Her hands while not dry were nowhere as slick as the others Xenos normal were. While Shawn wasn't panicking about having his head in what could have been a deadly vice-like grip, he wasn't exactly overjoyed with it either. With Shadow and the others, when they had done it, it had always been a gentle and soft grip, one that he felt comfortable with, he fully trusted them and knew that they would never intentionally harm him. This, however, was a complete and total stranger, a stranger that could easily crush his skull in a few seconds.

She leaned down and in a hesitant manner touching the front of her dome to his forehead. Right away Shawn felt the link fully open up as his memories were slowly pulled out. There were a lot of things he didn't want to relive, but just for those few minutes, he hoped anyway, he would endure. It had been a lot worse with that entity, that bastard hadn't even asked, it had just gone in there and took what it wanted, this at least was more consensual.

His whole past seemed to pour out, day by day at first, then week by week, and then slowly months turned into years. So much that he had forgotten as a child and teen, something's he wondered how he had ever forgotten and some he wished he could forget forever. Having to bury his best and closest friend, and then heading off to Darrius station shortly after, buying the Ember Rose, and then in an odd twist of fate meeting the Xenos. After that it had been a rollercoaster of events, developing relationships, events of self-discovery and harrowing escapes. There had been those much needed tender moments of opening up and releasing those inner demons, making love to his Xenos over and over. And knowing that he was theirs and they were his for as long as time allowed.

Carefully letting the link fade away, the drone let go of Shawn's head and stepped back. Her thoughts toward the odd human creature left her more confused than before, he had given himself over to them in such an absolute way, and yet in many ways was still very independent. She would have to think back over what she had now seen from all four of them, and when her hive mates woke up, she would need guidance on what to do next, in fact, they all would. It was a great deal to take in and process by herself, now more than ever she wished that her queen was here to help guide her to tell her what to do. One thing was an absolute for her, nothing from this point on would ever be the same for her or for any of them. Suddenly she felt very fatigued, rest, yes rest would now be needed, to sleep and rest.

Opening his eyes, Shawn felt something wet and warm run down his lips and chin. Reaching up he wiped the wetness away, blood coated the back of his hand and while it wasn't much it was just enough for his heart to jump slightly. The world around him swirled slightly as his head became light and dizzy, for him sleep was all he wanted now. He figured he had maybe a couple of hours at most after the four of them had mated and made love.

 _'You're bleeding,'_ Shadow said, kneeling in front of him, the back of his long black finger wiping away some of the crimson liquid. He had told her to be careful, and go slow and while not angry at her he was annoyed by this.

"It's alright; she didn't pull anything out of my head to fast. Just never relived my past like that, don't think the human brain was designed for that kind of interaction." Shawn said, his eyelids getting heavy, he noticed the female drone walking away, her movements slightly staggering as she headed toward the mattress. "I think it was a drain on both of us," he nodded toward her as Shadow look over toward her, seeing her once graceful movements become cumbersome. As she reached the mattress the drone collapsed on it grabbed the blanket and covered herself up as her body coiled up. They all could tell that she was already fast asleep. "Think that she had the right idea," Shawn said, feeling Shadow grab and lift him up onto the bed and in a few moments he was laying on his side with the Praetorian curling up around him.

'She does, we all need rest.'Shadow told him, as Ghost and Alese joined the two. Hopefully this time there would be no rude interruptions and they could get some much needed and proper rest. He could already tell that Shawn was falling into a deep sleep. He gently reached over and caressed his human's cheek with the back of his finger; Shawn murmured something incoherent and drifted off to sleep. If fate and whatever luck they might still have would hold, in a short time they would all be free and on their way to a new home and a new life.

xxxxx

Yellow warning lights, in sync with emergency klaxons, blared out through the normally dark maintenance hallway that Ryan and the large Praetorian had been using to move from area to area to avoid detection. The passageway was now ablaze as fire mixed with a thick toxic smoke started to fill the narrow passageway. The acidic smell of scorched metal and melting plastic choked Ryan's lungs as he tried to keep ahead of the massive lumbering black hulk that was catching up to him. In the distance behind him, he not only heard but felt the heavy footfalls reverberating through the deck plating as the Xenomorph was charging toward his position. The screams of the dying calling out for help echoed throughout the hallway, only to be drowned out by a high-pitched enraged screech.

Covering his mouth and nose with part of his lab coat, he pushing himself to run as fast as he could, his hand tightly gripped around the handle of his Glock pistol, ready to fire at anything that was in front of him. Ever since the Xeno had brought back Doctor Turner to their hiding spot, a foolish move he thought, they had been forced to leave earlier than what they wanted to. Since then Commander Snyder had been hounding them, sending in small groups to search for them, find them and hit them from multiple areas at once.

At first, the two of them had run, trying to avoid fighting, then getting cornered the Praetorian had, at first, resorted to nonlethal tactics trying to scare the guards off or simply injure them. It wasn't until some damn fool of an idiot or rather two idiots tried to play the hero with a flamethrower and grenade launcher. The resulting attack had only enraged the Xeno and ruptured a minor fuel main that ran the full length of the maintenance corridor, which resulted in a whole squad being incinerated in the all too narrow pathway and another squad being badly injured. While the Praetorian had shielded Ryan from most of the flames he had been burned, how badly Ryan didn't know. He prayed it wasn't anything too severe; the Praetorian had been far tougher than even Ryan first suspected. Shrugging off pulse and even smart gun rounds as if they were nothing, fire and heaver ordnance he wasn't too sure about.

Getting shoved forward, the Xeno had pointed down the hallway indicating Ryan to run as fast as he could. The flames were spreading quickly as the main continued to rupture and burn, in a few minutes maybe less the corridor would be a nothing less than a giant oven. Just as he had started to move he caught the movement of heavily armed and armored combat synthetics walking through the flames. Giving Ryan a stern hiss, more than likely telling him to get his ass moving, the Xeno had charged headfirst into the flames attacking the combat synthetics directly.

He had felt like shit leaving the Praetorian behind like that, but there was nothing he could do to help. And he had been told by the large alien to run.

Choking on the toxic smoke, a blast coming from behind him knocked him off his feet and into the side of the bulkhead. Glancing behind him to see what had happened; he saw flame jetting out of the pipe. More cracks were starting to form as the metal began to glow and buckle. Picking himself back up, he started to run, by his memory, there should be a sub-access room after a couple of corners they could take safety in.

Rounding one of the corners he slammed right into something and tumbled to the floor. It didn't even register with him, not at first as he was slightly dazed. Only when something clamped around his throat and started to squeeze did he see what he had run into. He had plowed right into one of the combat synthetics, knocking them both to the floor and as luck would have it, he was laying right on top of the damn thing.

The cold, rubber hand slowly tighten its grip around Ryan's throat cutting off his air supply. It could have already killed him, crushed his windpipe or snapped his neck in two, no doubt it was trying to render him incapacitated, probably on Snyder's orders. Ryan tried to pull back, hoping to slip out of the iron-clad grip but no luck. Something hard was still in his hand, made of plastic and metal with a comfortable grip. Even going down to the floor, he remembered that had held onto his weapon. Spots started to form and he began to feel light headed, it wouldn't be long before he passed out. Raising the weapon and then shoving it down into the android's eye, before the synthetic could react, he pulled the trigger. Several loud pops echoed through the hall as the white nutrient fluid sprayed out, coating the floor. The android's hand loosen up suddenly but stayed in its position around his neck. It was a far to close parallel to when he had taken out the android in his office. A single shot right through its eye as the damn thing was reaching out to him, only to stay frozen as the artificial brain was destroyed.

The main rumbled and metal screeched, a warning that this section was going to rupture and soon. Pulling away from the android, Ryan stood up, his legs slightly shaky, lying right next to the combat synthetic was its discarded weapon. It must of have been either knocked out of its hands or dropped it as it was choking him. A combat shotgun, with a couple of belts of shells attached to it, and ten ammo magazines attached to an holster the android was wearing around its torso.

He had opted out at first for not picking up one of the heavy pulse rifles when he had broken the Praetorian free. A part of him regretted that decision, but he had no idea on how to use those weapons and he had been afraid it would have slowed him down. But this, this was something he could use. He had practiced with the older pump action shotguns back on earth in his child and teen years, and it was like riding a bike, you never really forgot.

Grabbing the weapon, and quickly undoing the ammo holster, he yanked it free, just in time to see the black alien tear around the corner and come to a sliding halt only a foot from him. The Xeno looked down at Ryan and then to the android, and a second later he pointed down the hallway and hissed. Translation: time to get going.

Both of them took off and in the distance, more explosions could be heard, this time in rapid succession each one was getting closer.

" _Emergency vent action procedures now in effect, all crew in affected areas evacuate immediately or move to safety rooms."_ A female voice blared over the PA system, _"Engaging emergency bulkhead doors."_

"Shit, move it!" Ryan screamed, pushing himself to go as fast as his legs would allow him to go. If Snyder had given the order to engage vent procurers than the fire was far worse than he thought and wasn't just contained to the maintenance corridor they were in. Going around the second turn, they both saw the door to the sub access room was just a few hundred feet away.

More explosions erupted behind them, shaking the area. Another sound came just from above the two of them, and further down the corridor, the distinct sound of metal grinding against metal. Slowly the massive safety doors started to engage, he could see the lip of one of the doors starting to come down only a few dozen meters away. Both of them picked up the pace, the Praetorian leaned forward and with massively wide steps was suddenly putting meters worth of distance from Ryan in seconds. For a split second, Ryan thought that the Xeno was leaving him behind to die. Cold fear started to take hold, he had heard that dying from being vented was somewhat quick but still painful for the small time one was still awake.

It wasn't until the Xeno halted under the falling pressure door and grabbed it preventing it from coming down, his muscles and body straining under the immense pressure of the hydraulic door, Ryan now understood what he had in mind. He had bolted forward to give him time to make it past the pressure door. Not wasting a second of that precious time Ryan flew past the Xeno and headed for the sub room. A moment later the alien was right on his heels and then passing him again. Another door was starting to come down; thankfully they were both close enough that they were able to go under it before it had halfway closed.

It was right then Ryan and his alien ally heard it, the distinct sound of air being vented out. A small hissing should that would quickly turn into a deafening gale sucking anything not held down toward the outtakes. Almost slamming himself into the sub-room door, he pulled at the handle, the door slowly creaked open. A clawed hand grabbed the edge of the door and with no effort yanked the heavy metal door wide open and pushed Ryan in. A moment later the alien was in the room and pulling the door closed with Ryan engaging the safety locks and seals.

Any room like this was supposed to act as a makeshift short-term safety area for fires and even possible vent action. With the locks and seals engaged, provided they weren't rotted, there should be enough air to last for a while. Carefully listening for the telltale sound of air hissing and escaping, and hearing none, Ryan let out a deep sigh realizing that for the time being they were safe. All they had between them and Snyder's forces were several heavy pressure doors and possibly several sections of vacuum now. If procedures still stood, then once the fires were out, they should repressurize the areas. Of course, once that was done, then it was back to running and hiding again.

Walking over to a wall, Ryan sat down and took stock of his new weapon and the ammo. The last thing he wanted to do was kill anyone, but right now it was starting to look like he might have to. If only the Xeno hadn't taken Turner, they might have been able to somehow sneak to the main hub or onto a different pod. But the Praetorian wasn't going to leave Elizabeth behind, something he had made clear. Part of him couldn't blame the Xeno for abducting Turner like he did, but that action had put both of them at serious risk.

Setting the shotgun off to the side, he looked up at the Xeno who was carefully studying the room. "You know, "Ryan finally said, not able to hold his peace anymore, "if you hadn't fucking grabbed Turner we wouldn't be in this goddamn situation right now." His voice was an equal mix of anger, fear, and frustration.

The Praetorian stopped his studying of the room and slowly turned to face Ryan. He hadn't been sure if Ryan was ever going say anything about that since they had left Turner in the maintenance room. The human had kept quiet about it so far, but then they had been on the run and other than getting a few hours of sleep here and there, they hadn't had the time for such a discussion. He guessed that this was as good of a time as any.

"I mean I get why you did it, and I can't blame you for wanting to punish those assholes for what they did to that other Xenomorph. But if you hadn't gone half-cocked and abducted Turner like you did then Snyder might have turned a blind eye for a bit and given us a way out of here. Hell, we could have slipped onto a transport or freighter and been out of here. But because of what you did we're pretty well fucked now." Ryan rubbed the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his dirty lab coat, he didn't know what to do or how much longer they could keep going on like this, sooner or later things were going to come to ahead, and that would be it. "I just don't want to die in this place, not like this, and I'm sorry to say this, but I fucking hope that it was worth it."

The Xeno looked at Ryan for a few moments longer and then turned away. He couldn't blame the young human for being angry with him, he knew he had made a foolish and stupid mistake, but a part of him couldn't let go what they had done to his brother. That deep seeded anger at those that had hurt him and his kind, the one that had hurt Elizabeth. He had wanted them to know real fear for once, to let them know that they were not safe. Mostly though he just wanted to hurt them, make them feel a fraction of what he and his kind had felt since the beginning. To give them a taste of what it was like.

And now his reckless and vengeful actions were going to get one of the two humans that had ever helped them hurt or killed. He wanted to say he was sorry and apologize for how bad everything had turned out and that Ryan was neck deep in it all. But he wasn't going to apologize for what he did, they had it coming and as far as he was concerned that was final. He did, however, realize that if he could have shown a bit more restraint and wisdom and held off on his acts until later, they would have stayed hidden for a while longer.

Too little too late as the odd human saying went.

Sitting down next to Ryan, the Xeno coiled his tail around his legs, he gave Ryan a soft hiss, his own way of saying he was sorry. He wasn't sure if Ryan would even pick it up what he meant, not that it mattered as there was no way to undo what he had done. But it was there regardless. For now, all they could do in the meantime was sit back and wait.

After a few minutes of silence, Ryan reached up and placed his hand on the Praetorian's leg, "Look, I am pissed, some at you, but mostly I'm pissed at myself for not doing more to help when I could have, and not enough to help Elizabeth when she needed it the most. And I do get why you did what you did, hell, if I had been in your position I might have done the same thing, so I do get it. I wanted to kill Mason and if Elizabeth hadn't been bleeding to death I probably would have. I still don't agree about Turner, but I do understand." Ryan said, feeling a bit better, at least he had said his peace, even if he didn't make it out, he had at least cleared the air.

The Xeno chuffed slightly, reaching out and playfully ruffled Ryan's already messy hair some. If they were going to make it through this, then more caution would be needed, no more abductions in the name of vengeance. He had made his point both with Steffen and with Turner, now it was time to work on getting out alive. However, he wasn't going leave Elizabeth behind, nor was he going to leave his hive mates to simply rot while they escaped. They all needed to escape; he just didn't know how, if they could all get out of the labs undetected and slip onto one of the outbound transports, they might have a chance.

A thought occurred to him, humans did love their power, and if the whole station somehow lost all its power then they might be able to slip away undetected. It was an idea, an idea that might in some way turn into a plan. A wide toothy grin formed on the Praetorian's face as he continued to mull the idea over.

 _Yes_ , he thought to himself, it might be possible.


	34. The Calm Before The Storm

CHAPTER 33: The Calm Before The Storm

xxxxx

As the massive docking clamps opened up releasing the enormous black ship, a series of rapid and carefully controlled bursts erupted from the port side maneuvering thrusters slowly pushing the ship away from the supply depot. Once far enough away, the main engines roared to life for a few minutes. Adjusting course and setting its vector, the engines after another minute dimmed and then went silent. With the ship now coasting silently toward its first intended waypoint, it would still take a few hours at their current speed.

The running lights that normally ran across the ship's hull slowly dimmed and then blacked out. The only indication of the ship's presence was its black outline silhouetted against the vast star field. With much of the ship's power cut to the bare minimum and all non-essential systems now fully powered down the Saratoga slowly drifted toward its preprogrammed coordinates. Running on minimum power, it would have taken another ship running right into them or passing directly by for anyone to know they were in the area. A black specter against an ocean of nothingness, now totally invisible to everything except the naked eye, should anyone be close enough to see it.

To say that Shawn and his Xenomorph hive mates couldn't wait to put as much distance between them and the supply depot was a gross understatement. They were all relieved when the signal had come in that the ship's replenishment procedures had been completed and that all the supplies had finally been loaded onboard and secured. In fact, Shawn had been tempted with the idea of firing a full spread of heavy torpedoes right into the station and vaporizing it. However, such an act would have drawn unwanted attention immediately and sabotaged their mission. No, better to put as much distance between them and the depot and...it as possible and concentrate on getting the captive Xenos off of Eclipse station.

Unfortunately, with the passive sensors at minimum range to both reduce the power output and help avoid detection any ships wouldn't be picked up until it was a few thousand kilometers away. And at even low sublight velocity, a few thousand kilometers could be covered in mere seconds. Barely enough time to react to get out of the way. Fortunately, the sensor readouts before they had disengaged from the supply depot had only shown a couple of departing ships in the area. Ships that would be long gone before they got to the station. Shawn just hoped they wouldn't have anyone pop in at the wrong time.

"So you already had one of them wake up?" James asked, looking up over at Shawn and Shadow from his bunk, as he sipped on a bowl of soup. "And how did that pan out if you don't mind me asking?" He had to wonder just how different the Xenos were, one group being held in captivity for their entire lives and one group that had been born and raised in a hive. It would be interesting to hear the comparisons. But at this point talking about dirt would have been more interesting than reading or watching the same materials over and over.

The Praetorian let out a low growing hiss at that memory, if she had killed their human. He let the thought hang there as he honestly didn't know what he would have done. More than likely he would have killed the drone in a fit of blind rage. He was thankful that it had not come to that, but only in the not so small fact that Shawn had picked up on the drone's thoughts and had woken up just in time. Time to let out a mental scream that had alerted them all to the danger, a few seconds later and it would have been too late.

"Well, as first impressions go, not the best." Shawn said, looking over at Shadow, "Especially since she tried to kill me after she woke up." That memory of raw hostility, aggression, and hate, was still fresh in his mind, that and seeing her inner jaw only inches from his face ready to shoot out and plow a hold right into his skull.

James almost did a double take at what Shawn had just told him, he couldn't quite believe it, mostly because the large Xeno was most of the time not more than a few feet from Shawn. "She tried to kill you, how the hell did that happen, isn't Shadow always right at your side?" He asked, growing more curious and even concerned. What if while they were gone and she came across him or worse yet what if the others woke up and found him. He had seen how insanely strong they were, and he had no doubt that the cell door would not hold out for long.

"We were asleep together when she woke up and tried to kill me." He answered nonchalantly at the question, "Crawled right on top of the bed we were sleeping in and was just a few inches from my face when I came to. Thankfully Shadow is a light sleeper and tackled her before she could do anything."

James cut Shawn an unsure look by what had just been said, he knew that the three Xenos and Shawn were close, but sleeping together. The thought hung in his brain for a moment, he had pieced together that the Xenomorphs were social creatures by nature, and were very protective of Shawn, even overly so by the way they acted at times. And for a second he wondered if their relationship went further than that, and if so, how much? Human and nonhuman relationships weren't unheard of, very rare in the core systems, especially now with the rising anti-alien hysteria growing at a fever pitch rate. But in the outer mid range and outer rim systems, those relationships were far more commonplace and accepted.

He pushed the thought out of his head; even if that was the case it wasn't any of his business. He had seen a lot of weird and nasty shit from some pretty odd people, and not all those people were human. A human and alien relationship, whether it was one or all three of them was pretty low on his WTF list of messed up stuff. "So, what happened?"

Shawn just tilted his head slightly, recalling the events in his head with unclouded clarity. "Well the short version is this, Shadow managed to pacify her enough to try and communicate. Which presented a whole other set of problems unto itself, but eventually they managed to talk to her if you can really call it that and convince her that I'm not a threat. Since then we've been trying to get her acclimatized to being on this ship."

"And I take it that is presenting its own challenges?" James asked, taking another sip of his soup.

Shadow just let out a loud huff, and slapped his tail on the floor, a resounding "Yes" to James question.

"You could say that," Shawn told him, "Not that I can blame her for being scared, I mean imagine going to sleep in your home and then waking up in someplace completely alien, not knowing where you are or what is going to happen next. I'm pretty sure that would fuck with anyone, regardless of what race they are. Probably didn't help that she was confused and disoriented too, being in hibernation for however long and then getting shoved into cryo-sleep."

James was quiet for a few moments thinking about that, he could relate in a way. After all, he had woken up in this cell and didn't know where here was for a while and he certainly didn't know what was going to happen. It was a far cry from what the drone must have gone through when she first woke up, but it was at the very least a slight inkling.

"So," he began, finishing off the bowl of soup, I take it that this is not entirely a social visit?" He had picked up the seriousness of Shawn's tone on the subject, that and the slight sudden g-forces he had experienced a short time ago, told him that the ship was now moving, which meant that they had finished taking on supplies and would be going to Eclipse station next.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Shawn looked sheepishly away, "Look I know you don't have any real reason to trust me, and probably by this point don't care for me that much. I do hate the fact we've had to keep you in this cell for so long. But I need to ask a couple of favors of you, really big favors."

It was now James turn to cock his head slightly, while he didn't care one bit for being locked away for all this time, he did fully understand Shawn's reasoning's behind it. If the situation had been reversed he would have done the same exact thing. So in that regards he could understand why Shawn had done it.

Still though, while he didn't like being stuck in a cell, he had a few friends that had been sent to prison for a stent. At one point he had even got a chance to see the cells that the prisoners were housed in. They were small uncomfortable cramped rooms if they could even be called that, which were far too hot in the summer and way too cold in the winter. Places that would far too often reek of shit and urine. Sometimes prisoners might go weeks between showers adding the overpowering sour and rotten stench of body order to the list of unpleasant smells. A tiny ten by twelve cell that might house two to three inmates at a time, sometimes more, with only a single sink and toilet. The lucky ones that got shoved into an overcrowded cell would have clam on the bunks the others might get issued a thin mattress to use on the floor with a single pillow and blanket.

Compared to those places, he was housed in a palace, he had a fairly comfortable bunk, a clean sink and toilet, a shower, three meals a day, fresh clothing and even entertainment. Still, however, a cell was a cell, and personally, no matter how nice it might have been or how well he was treated, he couldn't wait to leave. And given everything that had happened Shawn and even the Xenos had treated him fairly well and with a measure of dignity and respect.

Something he had learned from his friends after they had gotten out was that inmates, regardless if they were low-level offenders, even the non-violent ones or lifers. Was that more often than not, the guards didn't distinguish one from the other and were often treated the same. Meaning, most of them were treated like rabid animals, beatings, harassment, sometimes even torture, though the later when it was done, was done out of sight. Treat someone like garbage, continually hurt them, put them down, strip away every shred of dignity and they'll become an animal pure and simple. In that the opposite was true, treat someone with dignity and respect, and they'll keep their humanity.

"I think you're a decent person," James started, "just one who got thrown head first into the deep end and right now you're trying your best to work through a situation that is way above you. And on top of that, you're carrying the weight of caring and looking after others. Not something that everyone can do without caving in." He studied both Shawn and Shadow, looking over their posture and expressions, though with Shadow, for him it was almost impossible. But somehow Shawn was able to read them without any problem, how he was able to do that little trick James still had no clue. "So, what are these big favors you want to ask of me?" He asked.

"In a few hours we'll be hitting Eclipse station, if we don't make it or are captured, I would ask that you take the Saratoga and find the six Xenos that we rescued a home somewhere. Someplace far away that doesn't have any human colonies or settlements on them." Shawn said, "After that, you're free to take and do whatever you want with the Saratoga."

James felt his jaw almost drop to the floor, of all the requests he had been expecting this was one wasn't even on his list. It took him a few moments to get his thoughts in order before responding. "And if you don't make it back?" He stated, "just how am I supposed to talk to those Xenos, or pilot this ship, I'm stuck in a cell and not exactly in a position to go anywhere."

"If we're not back onboard in seventy-two hours then chances are we won't be coming back at all. I'll set up one of the androids to let you out of the cell at the end of that seventy-two hours, I'll leave all the access codes on a data pad in CIC for you. As for communicating with them, well that just takes time and trust." He stated matter of frankly, "Shadow and the others will communicate with the drone and let her know that you are not to be harmed." Shawn told him, "She can relay that info to the others when or if they ever wake up."

"And how do you know I'll honor your request even if I say yes?" Asked James, testing what kind of reaction Shawn would have to his question.

Shawn looked at the merc for a few seconds, studying his features trying to gauge what the man was thinking. "I don't." He stated, his voice very calm, steady and matter of factly, "But consider this, you can either stay locked up until this ship is discovered, which sooner or later it will be, and when it is I very much doubt the boarding party will be too happy to find survivor from the failed captured mission, or two as the case may be. Now they may let you go or they may silence you, either way, I doubt your time with then will be all that pleasant, as I have no doubt they will interrogate you for information wanting to know everything you saw on board this ship. There will also be the question as to why you and Amy are still alive and not dead or were not on board the shuttle that we let your companions have when we released them. And such a situation I am sure you would wish to avoid."

James slowly mulled over what Shawn had unloaded on him. The guy was correct as it would be more than a little difficult to explain everything that had happened, damn near impossible in fact. And by his actions in helping Shawn train, he might as well be considered a traitor both by the mercs guild and by the corp suits that had hired them. The best case scenario would be that he would get out without being skinned alive but would be released from the mercs guild for conflict of interest.

 _Great_ , he thought bitterly to himself, his last good chance to serve a cause greater than himself and all of it was slipping out of his grasp faster than he could hold onto. There was also the bum, or at the very least incomplete intel they had gotten from Doctor Mason on the Xenos. Intel that had cost the boarding party a large number of lives and that fact still ate away at him. If they had all the correct info at the start they could have gone in far better equipped and in larger numbers. And while they probably would have taken losses it would have been nothing compared to what they had sustained and the mission more than likely would have been successful.

At least by helping Shawn and his Xenos out, he would be able to walk away, that's if everything went to plan. And if it didn't he still might be able to walk away, but he would need to find the aliens a home somewhere, aliens he didn't know how to communicate to in the least. All he had ever heard from them was hissing, growling and screeching and other odd and at times unpleasant noises. He didn't have Shawn's ability to communicate with them, and he still had no idea how the guy had acquired that little ability. Still, there was the possibility that if Shawn and the three Xenos failed and didn't make it back he would acquire the ship for himself. What would he do with such a ship he had no idea, finding the remaining Xenos a home for a start, but after that then what? He was sure he could do a lot of good with a ship like the Saratoga. And if Shawn and the others did make it back he would still be able to leave and shortly too, maybe find something out there he could throw himself into.

Either way, it was better than sitting in an interrogation room trying to recall and explain everything that had happened to a group that, he guessed, would not believe him.

"If I agree to help, and do as you ask," he started, "I'm free to go, either way, no strings attached, beyond helping your new friends find a home someplace?"

Shawn nodded, "That's all I'm asking of you."

"And the second favor?" James asked.

"My ship, the Ember-Rose," Shawn said, "I don't want anyone in my family to get dragged into some kind of corporate vendetta. If everything goes south, wipe the memory banks and destroy the ship in some remote place, it'll give them less to go on." While he had never seen it firsthand, he had heard stores where some corporations who had been betrayed by their employees, had gone out of the way to make examples out of the employee's family members in an act of revenge. Something he wanted to avoid at all cost.

James was quiet for a while, several minutes in fact as he thought everything over. Shawn and Shadow patiently waiting for his answer, neither one making a sound, "Alright," he finally said, "I'll do as you ask. If by chance you don't make it back and no one has come on board by the time the countdown is finished," James paused for a moment, as if the realization of what he was stepping into was finally coming across. "I'll see about getting them someplace safe and far away from any human settlements." His look suddenly changed, becoming very serious and even slightly cold. "Just fucking make sure they understand I'm not their enemy. And if they do decide to kill me; then please let them know they will be stuck on this ship until they die or are captured."

Shadow suddenly stepped right up to the front of the cell door and looked right at James. A moment later he gave a deep nod, almost a bow, and a quiet hiss.

"He gives you his word they will understand fully and that you are not to be harmed," Shawn told him. "And thank you, I know that none of us have any right to ask this of you, but I hope that you do understand why we need to do this."

"I get why **they** have to do this, I'm still not sure why you feel you need to go along. But regardless, it seems you've commented yourself to this fully." James told him.

Shawn just shrugged slightly, "I saw a bit of what happened to them on that station and it was more than I really cared for. Didn't sit too well with me, but you've probably figured out that it goes deeper than that, so this is something I have to see through to the end."

Standing up, James walked to the cell door and gripped the bars, "Believe it or not I do get it I really do. You have something you believe in, this whole fucked up situation got dropped right in your lap and instead of running away, you faced it and in some odd, weird way even managed to embrace it." James turned his head looking down the hall, not focusing on anything in particular. "That was me with wanting to get into the Marine Corps, be a part of something that was so much bigger than myself, something I could embrace and believe in. And now here I am, sitting in a cell, not sure what the future holds for me."

"Look, once we're done and have the Xenos on board we'll hit a Freeport station and drop you off. And then we'll be gone, from there you can make your way and do whatever you need to," Shawn told him trying to hold back the guilt of having the merc locked up for so long.

Waving a hand, James looked back at the two standing before him. "Just make sure you do come back, don't feel like staying in the cell any longer than I have to." He said in a slight half-hearted matter.

Shawn wasn't sure but it sounding like James was trying to make a joke about it, a very weak one. Reaching into his side pocked her pulled out a small data card and handed it to James, "A bit more entertainment, some more reading material, vids, music and a few games to pass the time by just in case." He said.

Taking the card, James nodded, "Thanks. You should probably be getting prepped and ready; time will either go by way too quickly or drag out."

Both Shawn and Shadow nodded and started to leave, "We'll be back soon," Shawn said leaving the area.

"I certainly hope so," James muttered to himself, eyeing the data card then putting it into the pad. For the time being all he could do was wait and see how things went, either they would succeed or they would fail. His stomach started to knot up with anxiety, the thought of finally getting out of this cell, he didn't want to get his hopes up just in case. But it was hard not to push that thought to the back of his mind. He flipped on the pad, maybe something to watch would help a bit, though he doubted it. He was going to be counting down the seconds from here on out. And he knew it was going to drive him crazy.

 _'I hope that we are able to let him go after this,'_ Shadow said, walking next to Shawn. _'Overall he is a good human, troubled and looking for something to believe in, but a good human nonetheless.'_

"I know," Shawn replied, "it would be nice if we could have him with us as an extra gun, but I'm not about to ask him to come along and I doubt that you would allow it. He may be a good man, but I would still worry that he would jump at the first chance he got, and to be honest, I wouldn't blame him in the least."

 _'Nor would I, though I would have to stop him and that is something I would have no desire to do.'_ Shadow replied, hoping that Shawn had caught on that he had said stop and not kill. And giving Shawn's emotional and mental reaction he had.

"So, any more progress in that communications barrier with our new guest?" Shawn asked as the three Xenos had been very quiet the last couple of days when it came to dealing with the now awaked hive mate. And while she was still very weak, her strength was starting to return, much faster than Shawn would have first thought. Her appetite had definitely returned as she was eating many pounds of food daily. He was thankful that he had the foresight to get several extra tones of the synthetic meat and food supplies tacked on to the original request, he had a feeling they were going to need it.

 _'We are making progress, it is very different than what we are used to, but it is becoming easier to communicate. And she is starting to pick up a little on the human language. However, I get the impression she is less than impressed by it.'_ Shadow answered him.

Shawn chuckled a bit at that last part, "Well, can't say I blame her for being less than impressed by our own language." He said, "At least not when your race communicates in such an efficient and effective manner."

 _'While that may be true, I do find the more creative aspects of your language very appealing. You have many ways to describe a single object or event and it is never seen the same way by others of your race. Yet for us, when we convey information about something it is as it is, nothing more, nothing less.'_ Shadow said, thinking back to how Shawn would verbally describe something like his home or where he had worked at in the past. Such aspects like art, music, writing, videos, even the process of cooking food in so many different ways and fashions was something that his own race had never once, at least to his knowledge, ever achieved on their own. In such respects, the concept was very alien to them as a whole.

It was right then he started to wonder if he and the others would even fit in a normal hive social structure, or would they be considered far too different and outside the norm, possibly outcasts even. He pushed that thought away as it would be something he would worry about later on.

"Well, maybe you can find a way to integrate the two somehow," Shawn suggested.

 _'Hmmm...Perhaps,'_ Shadow replied back at the suggestion.

"So I'm going to go and grab a few extra things then triple check on the equipment we have ready to go. Probably grab a quick shower afterward, you and the others feel like meeting me in the mess hall for a meal after I finish up?" Shawn asked.

 _'You know how I feel about you washing that wonderful scent of yours away.'_ Shadow mockingly pouted.

"Yea, the same as when I wear clothing, If you had it your way, I'll be naked twenty-four-seven and right underneath you being breed."

Shadow tilted his head, the corners of his lips curling up ever so slightly. _'And yet I do not see a downside to that at all.'_ He purred at the very recent memories of mating with Shawn came flowing back with vivid clarity.

"Yea, yea, yea," Shawn said, picking up on Shadow's memory bleed over, no doubt fully intentional on his part. "Just wait until we get planetside and get a home started."

 _'Have you ever been?'_ Shadow asked, looking down at Shawn.

"What, planetside? No." He answered back, "Never got the chance. Always wanted to visit earth to see what it was like, but my family and I, well stuff always seemed to come up."

 _'Even with your own ship and traversing the galaxy, you never once have been on actual ground or beneath sky?'_ Shawn asked somewhat surprised by the answer.

Shawn just shook his head, "Not unless you count moons or asteroid colonies. Besides you've seen my memories I figured that you would know that."

 _'Not all your memories, only the ones you chose to share with us, I believe the female drone is the only one that had seen all your memories.'_ Shadow stated.

Reliving his whole life in a matter of what seemed like minutes still left him reeling a bit. A lot of bad memories were now fresh in his mind, thankfully there was more good than bad now and it helped balance things out some. "So, food, yea or nay?" Shawn asked realizing that the conservation had gone off track slightly.

 _'Yes,'_ Answered Shadow, _'One last meal for the…what is the word that is used,'_ he paused for a second searching his memory, 'condemned.' He joked dryly, only to see a slight scowl coming from Shawn.

"Not funny my love, not funny," Shawn said, telling himself that he really needed to work on helping Shadow with his sense of humor. There were times he would hit it right on the mark, but other times, he just seemed to miss it completely. This was one of those times that he just wasn't sure.

 _'I apologize, it was in inferior flavor.'_ He said wondering if he had gotten the term correct. And at seeing the sudden bewildered look creep across Shawn's face he guessed that he had not.

"I think that you mean in poor or bad taste," Shawn corrected him.

 _'Do they not mean the same thing?'_ Shadow asked, while he did enjoy the creative aspect of human language, there were still many terms and idioms that he did not fully comprehend yet or simply did not get.

Shawn just shrugged slightly, "Technically the words can have the same meaning, but it's the way the correct words are expressed," he told Shadow.

 _'Well then, as you would say, it was in poor taste.'_ Shadow said, playfully ruffling his human's hair. 'When you are ready _I will meet you in the mess hall with Alese and Ghost and possibly our other sister if she is feeling adventurous. '_

"Sounds good, I found something nice I think that you'll all enjoy," he told Shadow.

 _'Which is?'_

Shawn just shook his head, "Now you know if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise now would it."

 _'I could simply read your mind and find,'_ He said jokingly.

Shawn tilted his head slightly and once again in a very Xeno like fashion, "Hmm, yea you could, but then you would ruin the surprise and I know how much you like surprises, especially when it comes to food."

 _'And sex, but very true nonetheless.'_ The Praetorian replied in a sly voice.

"Well, that last part goes without saying," Shawn said as he started to make his way toward one of the nearby elevators, "I'll contact you when I'm ready in the mess hall, shouldn't be more than an hour or so," He told Shadow as he headed off.

Shawn quickly made his way down to the ventral dock port through the now dim hallway to where the Ember-Rose was coupled at. As he boarded his ship and looked around, a slightly melancholy feeling in the pit of his stomach took hold. Sitting down in his seat in the now powered down cockpit he looked out the clear plexi-steel windows. While there was no way he could see the station from this distance he knew they were getting closer and closer by the second. And in a few short hours they would be on board, it seemed so long ago, yet he knew it was only a few months at most that he had agreed to help them. Agree to try and come up with a plan to rescue the Xenos and free them from the station. And now everything was coming to a head. He just hoped that the element of surprise would last long enough for them to get on board, make it to the labs, free the Xenos and then run as fast as they could and get off the station.

Giving himself a few more minutes, he swiveled the chair around, his eyes taking in the details of the forward section of the ship. One more look just in case things went south in a very bad way. Finally, he got up and headed back to the commons area and grabbed a large duffle bag and a pair of small data-pads, one that was set up with a wrist strap and a protective case. Just a few more surprises that he had been working on, hopefully, a bit of insurance in case things went really bad.

His gaze slowly made its way toward the doors that led into the shower area and then his own personal quarters. The last time he had spent any length of time in those areas was when Ghost had made love to him. The drone's desperate need for release and all those repressed feelings had come out in a blazing firestorm of lustful and carnal acts.

Of all three, Ghost had always had the most analytical mindset, yet when it came to mating, that logical mindset would instantly vanish and be replaced by raw, primal instinct, or something very close to it. Shawn had to wonder at least to himself if it was the damage that both Mason and Steffen had inflicted on the drone, both in body and mind, as well as a spirit that had, when he had first met the Xenos, been almost completely broken. While he didn't think that Ghost had a split personality or anything like that, he did question if maybe the primal part of the drone was overcompensating.

Hell, for all he knew maybe it was just some kind of desperation; they all knew what they were going to be walking into soon. Emotions were now high and very stressed, even more so now, maybe after...after this was over, they would find their own place and everything would settle down.

At least that was what he was hoping for.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder, and holding onto the two date-pads, he fully powered down the Ember-Rose and made his way off his ship and back onto the Saratoga.

About fifteen minutes later he found himself in one of the port side outer airlock chambers. Several large bags were already stacked along the wall, setting down the duffel bag next to the others, he quickly took stock again. Just to make sure there wasn't anything he had overlooked. His pulse rifle with several large capacity drum magazines and some extra clips for backup, a compact high powered stun rifle with a full belt of power packs attached, various grenades, and of course, the thermite charges and detonators. Another large bag of engineering equipment, with some food rations and water mixed in just in case they had an extended stay.

He remembered what James had told him about getting bogged down by carrying too much equipment. Thankfully he wouldn't be humping all the bags, Shadow, Ghost, and Alese had let him know they would be carrying a bag or even two if needed. For them, it wouldn't slow them down or restrict their movement that much. All they needed to do was get in, free the Xenos and get out. Simple, straight and to the point, there was no need to make things complicated or drawn out.

Powering on the two data-pads, Shawn tapped the synchronization command on both units. Right away the two pads initiated the handshake protocols and started syncing. A few minutes later the units showed that syncing had been completed. Slowly he started scrolling through a list of the preset commands that he had set up, hoping that he didn't have to make any last minute changes. Satisfied that everything looked good after a few minutes, he shut down both data-pads and placed them in the duffle bag.

As he started to leave the airlock, he cast a somewhat baneful look at the spacesuits that were hanging on the walls in the prep room. In a few hours he would be in one of the damn cloth coffins again, at least it would only be for a short period of time. He was just thankful that it wasn't in the middle of an asteroid field trying to shut down a homing beacon while being hunted down by a merc group.

Leaving the airlock he made his way to one of the shower areas. While Shadow never did like the fact that he bathed, washing away that wonderful scent, as he as often pouted about. He figured that a nice hot shower would do wonders right now, maybe even help him relax a bit. He flicked the switch on, only a single dim ceiling mounted light bar flickered on, due to the powered down procedures lighting in areas, including the washroom was at a minimum now.

"Great," he muttered to himself snidely, stepping inside. There was barely enough light in the large shower room to see and not trip over anything. The last thing he needed was to trip over something he couldn't see and break his arm or leg, or worse. What a cosmic joke that would have been.

Turning to his right, he took a few steps in finding a row of sinks and mirrors, each one complete with a small overhead light. Reaching up he pulled on a small hanging chain attached to a switch, with a click the overhead light flickered for a few seconds then slowly came on. Overall it didn't help that much, a bit more light in the general area and that was it. He was about to turn away and head to the shower when something caught his attention in the mirror, he wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light or not but the age and stress lines seemed to be much less prominent now. Sure he had lost weight and toned up some but age and stress lines didn't go away, at least not on their own.

And yet, now they seemed to be.

Looking closer at his face, neck and upper shoulder area, he was certain that it wasn't just a trick of the light and shadow. The age and stress lines had shrunk significantly, even some of the scaring and blemishes on his neck were almost gone. Right away his mind zoned in on the one thing that might be responsible for it, the Xeno's life-jelly. It had healed his injuries at an astounding rate, far quicker than anything he had ever heard of, and now it seemed to be having other effects as well.

He wondered if the scientists on Eclipse station knew about this, or at the very least suspected it in any way. If the memories he had seen were anything to go by then probably not, they seemed more intent on hurting the Xenos rather than actually studying them. It was something he still couldn't figure out, the reason for inflicting all that pain and cruelty on them. It wasn't any kind of scientific study, at least nothing that he would classify as. Unless they were studying just how much pain could be inflicted before the subjects broke. Perhaps testing their constitution and durability, seeing how much they could take as a whole, to what, form some kind of baseline maybe? From what he had read in the database the main thing that corps like W-Y seemed to care about was how to weaponries the Xenos for their own use. Ironic, since for all intentional purposes they were already living weapons to start with, just weapons that couldn't or wouldn't be tamed and controlled.

And if the scientists ever found out, if that organization or god forbid corporations like Weyland-Yutani found out about the healing properties of the life jelly. A cold chill deep in the pit of his stomach formed at that disastrous thought. The Xeno's race as a whole might be reduced to nothing more than livestock to be milked and disposed of. It was now just one more reason to take out that station.

"You can do this, get onboard, stay silent, make it to the labs and free them, then get the hell out, keep it simple and straight, no heroics, no grandstanding," Shawn told himself looking at his image in the mirror his stomach now starting to knot up from his thoughts. "Then just find someplace far, far away, and have a nice quiet life after this."

 _Provided anyone makes it out alive, you realize that you are all going to die._ The tiny voice in the back of his head spoke up, it had been quiet for the most part with the exception of the supply depot. _If you were smart, you would take what you have and run as far away as you can,_ it told him.

"Not now," Shawn muttered to himself, "can't you stay quiet until this is over, one way or another."

Hey jackass I'm t _rying to save your life, which just so happens to be my life as well,_ the tiny voice told him. _Not in too much of a hurry for it to end, if you don't mind that is._ It said in a sharp tone.

Averting his gaze from the mirror, Shawn looked down at the sink for a few moments, his hands coming to rest on the cold metal basin. "Alright, fine." He said, glancing back up into the mirror, "I don't want to die either, so how about this, you don't distract me when the shit is going down and I need to focus so I won't get shot to pieces and in turn you keep an eye out for anything that I might miss." Right at that point, he had to wonder if he was starting to go mad, actually making a deal with himself out loud of all things. Making a deal with that tiny, annoying voice that had cropped up after Darrius station went up, that voice that was always in the back of his mind, just waiting to come out. That had always somehow managed to drive a wedge between anyone he wanted to get close to or ward him off from any kind of potential danger no matter how small.

Thankfully it hadn't worked with the Xenomorphs.

 _Agreed,_ the tiny voice in the back of his head said, _you keep yourself alive and I'll make sure you don't miss anything interesting or important. Just make sure not to get yourself fucking killed, I like living too._ And with that, the tiny voice that had been given birth since Darrius stations destruction went silent, recessing back into the depths of his mind, silent but always watching and listening.

"So, any other surprises," Shawn muttered out loud, "because it's not like we haven't had enough of them already." He said, wondering if the universe was listening at all and if so, was it about to hit him with something else for having the audacity to ask. He stood there looking into the mirror for about another minute as if expecting some kind of answer or response, thankfully nothing ever came.

Stepping away from the sink area Shawn removed his clothing and placed them on one of the benches then went over to one of the larger stalls and turned on the water. The water, at first was cold, then warm, and then finally steaming hot, the powerful jets of water pelting his whole body relaxing the muscles. For a little while, he could relax and let everything fade away, even if it was just for another ten or fifteen minutes. It never failed him, a hot shower always seemed to drive all the worries away. Even on the worst days of his life, somehow it always made things seem better, even if it was just temporary. Taking a half-step forward, he reached up and angled the nozzle down. Lowering his head he let the intense spray wash over the back of his head and neck.

Letting his mind go blank and simply enjoying the hot water cascading down his body he never heard the door to the washroom slide open. Nor did he notice the tall, shadowy, black figure that slowly glided across the room toward him, the padded footsteps nearly silent.

It was only when clawed fingers gripped his waist and pulled him back slightly that he let out a slight yelp and jumped slightly at being taken by surprise. A yelp that was answered with a playful, feminine mental chuckle that slid across his mind. Turning around, he found himself gazing right into Alese's eyeless domed face; her elongated head tilted ever so slightly a slightly bemused look on her face.

"Sneak," Shawn muttered slyly, affectionately rubbing the front of her dome.

Reaching up she cupped his face with her hands, her long fingers gently coming around to grip around at the back of his head. Leaning in she softly began to rub the front of her done up against his forehead. The deep rumbling, a sound that he had grown so accustomed to, reverberated throughout the shower stall and into the washroom.

Lowering herself down slightly to be more or less level with his height. She reached around, her arms crisscrossing across his back, lowering her head her chin came down to rest on the middle part of his back, just below the nap of his neck as she drew him in close to her.

Returning her embrace, Shawn reached around her midriff, his own hands coming to rest just above the base of her tail, his fingers gently rubbing up and down the sensitive area in a slow deliberate pattern. Her embrace tightening slightly as she gave him a low drawn-out hiss of delight. Thin strings of warm drool mixed in with the hot water and ran down his back.

Without even thinking about it, a moment later he slowly pushed himself deep inside of her. Alese let out another low toned hiss of pleasure that echoed throughout the room at feeling his warm flesh enter her. The two slowly swayed back and forth in their embrace, this time, unlike the many times over the last day and a half between all four of them, which had been vigorous, desperate and drawn out, was soft, slow and very gentle. And over all too quickly as far as the two were concerned, a little over twenty minutes and several climaxes later the two finished their coupling. Another minute later, still being held tightly in her embrace, he slipped out of her.

For a while, neither one moved each of them enjoying the embrace of the other and the warm, blissful afterglow. Alese slowly moved her hands up and down Shawn's back, the back of her claws rubbing against his skin. Both of them wishing now that they could somehow stop time and stay like this for as long as time would allow, as each second that ticked by was a second that they could never get back.

"We should probably get up to the mess hall soon, I asked Shadow if we all wanted to have one more meal together before we make our move onto that station," Shawn told Alese, with some reluctance not wanting to break out of her embrace.

 _'Neither one of us wants to leave right now,'_ she answered back, easily reading his thoughts and emotions, not particularly wanting to separate either. _'But I am getting hungry and we all need to maintain our strength.'_

"Yea," he replied back somewhat halfheartedly. In a few hours they would be onboard Eclipse station, and from that point on, none of them truly knew what would happen. If he could have stayed like this with Alese, Shadow, and Ghost for the remaining time he would have been just fine with that.

Lingering for just another minute, Shawn finally reached over and turned the water off. The high powered jets ebbed then stopped leaving only a small trickle that turned into a rapped secession of drips then after a few seconds nothing.

Stepping out of the shower with Alese following behind, Shawn grabbed a towel and started to dry himself off. He paused as Alese ran her long, slim clawed fingers through his wet hair, a moment later she reached out and brought her arms across his chest and drew him in again.

 _'We will succeed,' s_ he told him, _'we will rescue our hive mates and we will find someplace that is far away where no humans will ever find us.'_ Despite how confident she sounded, Shawn could still pick up a lingering hint of doubt from her.

"And then it will be just us, free to be what we want to be, free rest and to heal; no more bullshit to deal with." He wondered if such a thing was even possible, would they ever be able to get far enough away that no one would ever pursue them. Part of him wanted to believe that it was possible, to disappear and stay hidden away in the distant recesses of the outer rim worlds. Some worlds that while were known had yet to be explored, and many that were still unknown. Somewhere out there might be a world that would be safe and habitable for all of them, someplace they could call their own.

However, he knew the mentality of corporations, knew just how badly any of them hated to lose and what lengths they would go to make an example of someone and reclaim their property. The only time most of them would cut their losses was when it was affecting their bottom line. No, he suspected they would be hunted down, and hounded, made an example if at all possible. The one major factor might be the simple and obvious fact that they could defend themselves and defend themselves well. No one in their right mind would take on a heavy warship, not without having some serious backup.

Of course, that would be another bridge they would have to cross when or if the time ever came.

 _'Yes, just the four of us,'_ Alese said, her voice, calm and soothing as it glided across his mind. _'To do whatever we so desire, and as you said, no more bullshit.'_ The last part another human idiom that she didn't fully understand, but got the overall meaning well enough. Releasing Shawn from her embrace she took a step back to let him finish drying and dressing. Once he had finished the two left the shower area, it took only about ten minutes to make their way to the mess hall.

Right away Shawn headed to the kitchen area in the back, with Alese staying in the front waiting for Shadow and Ghost to arrive, with possibly the newly awakened drone female. It was another ten maybe fifteen minutes later when an odd but very pleasant scent started to waft through the large area followed by the distant sound of something crinkling or rapidly popping. She cocked her head slightly with her tongue coming out to scent tasting the air. The smell was vaguely familiar, a meat of some kind with a heavy salty scent to it. Her diet along with the others had been little more than the protein bars, dry rations, and the synthetic meat, and none of it had ever smelled like this. Familiar, yet for the life of her, she couldn't remember where she had encountered this scent at.

Before she could dwell on it, the main double doors slid open. Shadow, Ghost and much to her surprise the female drone walked in. The drone slowly panned her head around, seemingly trying to examine everything in the area. While she didn't seem skittish, Alese could easily pick up that she was slightly uncomfortable, no doubt still trying to get used to her new surroundings. The human-built structures were a very far cry from the hive. Cold metal with sharp, hard angles and the false white energies coursing through the walls, floors, and ceiling compared to the warm, humid, darkness of the organic hive with its slick and moist structures. Yes, it would take not only her but the others when they woke up a while to adapt to the new environment.

' _No, it couldn't be,'_ Shadow blurted out suddenly, ' _he couldn't have..'_ the Praetorian's voice trailed off as his tongue came out scent tasting the air as Alese had done so a few moments ago. Right away he recognized the slightly burnt salty scent that was now very heavy in the air.

"Good timing, I just finished up," Shawn said, pulling a cart that had several large metal trays with lids on them through a set of steel colored swinging double doors. "And I see that our guest decided to join us as well." He pulled the cart right up to the table that the four Xenomorphs were standing at and started to put the trays on the table. He glanced over at the female drone who was cautiously eyeing both him and the covered treys.

Walking right up to Shawn, Shadow leaned in, damn near glaring right down at the much smaller human, who was smiling up at the far large Xeno. _'Where did you get it, and how long have you been keeping it hidden?'_ Shadow asked trying to sound serious but the anticipation and amusement in his voice were betraying any serious undertones he might have had.

"A couple of days before we boarded the supply depot, I was thinking it would have made a nice treat after we got back. Then well, all that shit went down over there, but don't think I hadn't forgotten my promise on it." Shawn said his hand reaching toward one of the covers.

 _'What are you two referring too, what promise?'_ Ghost asked, lost as to what was going on between the two.

Shawn looked over at Ghost, "You remember the night that we were all in here and the mercs stopped this ship?"

 _'Vividly,'_ Ghost replied back dryly as he hadn't enjoyed being flung halfway across the room when the ship had made its all too sudden stop.

"Then you should remember the reason Shadow had me pinned to the ground right before it happened."

 _'You mean the fact that you were being an unrelenting tease to him if I remember correctly, or the...'_ Ghost stopped mid-sentence and looked right at the tray that Shawn's hand was resting on, his mind now replaying the whole event over, and right then he understood what was about to happen.

"Ok, there is that too, but yes, that promise," Shawn said lifting the lid up off the tray. Right away steam along with the heavy salty scent of black pepper mixed with meat filled the air.

 _'Is that...'_ Alese was about to ask.

"Yep, bacon, thick cut, pepper bacon, the real thing too. Not the synthetic crap we've been eating either, but real honest to god meat. Found it in the storage freezers for the officers dining area, along with a ton of other stuff, including this." He reached over and lifted the lids off the other two trays. Each tray had a heaping pile of meat. Shadow cocked his head looking at the pile of meat; it wasn't the normal uniform bars that they were used to eating as each slab was a different shape, size, and thickness.

"Found this stuff too, heated it up a bit to room temperature, it's the real deal. Mostly beef and pork I believe, stuff had been vacuumed sealed and flash frozen, so should be good for years." He told them putting the lids on the cart and pushed it out of the way, grabbing a plate of cooked beef with several rolls on it that were sitting on the bottom of the cart. "Shall we?" He asked, nodding toward the trays of food.

 _'Thank you,'_ Shadow said, ruffling Shawn's hair in his usual playful fashion.

Setting his plate down on the table, Shawn took a seat as Shadow squatted right down next to him with Ghost and Alese taking their places right across from them. The female drone's head slowly paned to the four of them unsure what to do or if she was even welcomed to join them or not. Shadow looked right at her and let her know that she was welcomed to join them to eat. Easing herself down next to Ghost she reached out a grabbed several slabs of meat and started to eat them, her inner jaw whipping out and ripping out chunks of flesh.

"Here try this," Shawn said, grabbing a few strips of bacon and offering one of them to Shadow. The Xeno leaned in, his tongue coming out slowly clamping onto the end of the strip breaking it off and swallowing it.

 _'Reliving memories does have its advantages, but sometimes it can be a poor substitute for the real thing,'_ he said his voice almost dreamy as he remembered the first time he had gotten a glimpse to this particular kind of food. And now he was eating the real thing, the crispness, the perfect balance of cooked fat and salt, the hint of spiciness from the black pepper, the wait as far as he was concerned was well worth it. His tongue darted out a few more times taking off pieces from the strip Shawn was still holding for him. The last piece he slowly and gently took from Shawn's pinched fingers and swallowed it.

"See I told you I would get you some," Shawn told him taking a few bites out of his own strip then started to dig into his cooked beef. While it wasn't as good as some of the stuff he had on Lunar city it was far better than the synthetic meat he had been eating. Even flash frozen and vacuumed packed, it was still fairly tender and juicy, seemed like the officers of ships always got the better deal than the standard crew.

Shadow reached over a grabbed a few more strips along with a couple of slabs of beef and started to rip into them. _'And never once did I ever doubt you,'_ he said, pulling the slabs of meet apart and devouring them almost at a frantic pace. _'I never thought the real thing would taste this good.'_ Shadow commented as blood and juice dripped off his chin and into the table and floor. As far as eaters went, Xenos were the furthest thing away from being dainty.

Shawn nodded as he watched the other three Xenos across the table rip and tear into the beef and pork slabs, occasionally taking a few strips of the bacon and eating them. "I know, the synthetic meat is alright if you can't get the real stuff, but let's face facts, the real stuff is the best."

 _'I am glad we could share one more meal together.'_ Ghost said, his inner jaw jetting out and tearing a piece off a slab of beef.

"Me too," Shawn said, the others also agreeing with Ghost. It was then the realization hit him that as soon as they got back from the station with the rest of the Xenos things would once again be very different. As it would no longer be just the four of them as it had been for the last few months but soon there would perhaps be dozens of Xenos on the ship. It had taken him a while to get used to their little group of four, each one being able to share themselves with the others, but he had accepted it and even grown to love being a part of something that he considered special. And maybe he was being selfish but a part of him didn't want that to change, didn't want to share their affections with anyone else. But that was not their way; it would be possible that one or several others might find their way into their little intimate circle. And for better or worse it would be something he would simply have to accept and go with.

That was IF they managed to make it off the station.

Trying his best to ignoring the sudden negative thoughts, Shawn continued to eat and watched as the other made a grizzly affair of the slabs of meat. Within a few short minutes the tray of bacon had all but disappeared and shortly after that the two trays of beef mixed with pork were polished off. Each of them now full and content, even the female drone seemed to be far more at ease now than she had since waking up. Perhaps she was finally starting to relax and become accustomed to what she no doubt considered very strange surrounds.

"So what's on everyone's list of firsts?" Shawn asked looking around the table.

Alese cocked her head, each on not sure by the looks of it as to what their human was asking. _'List of firsts?'_ She asked him, needing some clarification.

"You know the first things you're planning to do when we find a home. Most people have a list of stuff they want to do when they first get to someplace new. Figured that you all might have something that you were looking forward to doing," Shawn told them.

There were a few moments of quiet before Ghost spoke up. _'Swim,_ he said, _'I would like to find someplace to swim, the pool is nice but I want to find someplace large and deep and explore it. A lake or even a river as you call it.'_

' _I want to feel the sun on my back, tubes, and tail, to lay on some warm boulders and feel the sun all over me,'_ Alese said, a slight rumbling coming from her chest at the age-old hive memories of her kind sunning themselves outside a massive hive.

Shawn turned to look at Shadow, "And what about you big boy, what's the very first thing you want to do?"

Shadow cocked his head slightly and opened his mouth some, a small hiss came out, _'To take you into a forest next to a stream and mate with you in every position that we can possibly think of until we pass out in each other's arms from absolute exhaustion.'_ He said rubbing his hands together with a mischievous grin plastered across his face.

Shawn could only shake his head, when it came to sex Shadow could have a very one-track mind. Not that he could blame him, he had a feeling that once they found someplace to set down and settle, all of them would be doing that a lot.

 _'And what about you, what is the first thing you wish to do.'_ Shadow asked.

"The very first thing I want to do is walk under a real sky for once," Shawn told him, "to breath in air that's not recycled and filtered. To sit next to a body of water that doesn't have to be moved around with a pump and blowers. And it would be really nice not to have to wear a pressure suit to go outside or worry about decompression, beyond that I don't know."

 _'You will and soon,'_ Alese said, _'and more,'_ none of them had ever experienced the wonders of an open world. Of the four of them, Shawn was the closest one to have come close to experiencing any of these things and even he had spent most of his life in an enclosed dome. Not too dissimilar from her and her brothers in that little detail.

"I hope so," he told her, right at that moment a beeping went off. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small datapad and looked at it. The expression on his face in an instant went from hopeful even wishful to a solemn and very serious look. Looking up at the Xenos, he slid the pad back into his pocket wishing that he could drag this moment out just a bit longer and stay here, but there was no way he or any of them could do that.

"It's time," he said.


	35. Eclipse Base

**Just wanted to apologize for the long delay in getting this next chapter out, between being a little burnt out in writing and very busy in July and August, it's been a struggle to get this next chapter ready to go. But here it is so please enjoy.**

xxxxx

CHAPTER 34: Eclipse Base

xxxxx

Drifting silently toward its first waypoint, the Saratoga was nothing more than a specter in the endless ocean of cold nothingness. At first one then two, then finally dozens of the small docking and maneuvering thrusters lit up, the ship's momentum slowing and then stopping. A bust of air emanated from the ship as a small hatch opened up, then closed after several seconds. A minute later several of the ventral thrusters powered up, the blue thrust brightly glowing as the massive ship pushed upward. After another minute the engines roared to life for a few brief seconds pushing the ship onward then going cold. Now a few hundred kilometers away from the massive station, the ship glided past unnoticed, only a small number of maneuvering thrusters fired to adjust the ship's vector to it's next and final waypoint.

Neither Shawn nor the trio of Xenomorphs said anything while the ship slowly closed in on the station. His eyes kept shifting between the sensor readout on the large holo-monitor and the control station he was manning

"So far we're in the clear, no ships in the area and I'm not detecting any active sensors or scans coming from the station," Shawn said to the three Xenos clustered around his station. The fourth Xeno, who seemed far more interested in looking around CIC and examining the stations and equipment than the goings-on that was currently happening.

 _'How much longer?'_ Shadow asked heavy tension laced his mental voice. His stomach was becoming knotted with more anxiety than he could remember since being imprisoned on the station. They had all wanted to get away from this place and at that time would have given anything to do so. And now here they were back on its doorstep, ready to breach and return to a place they all wanted to forget.

Shawn looked back down to the tactical readout that was up on one of the station's monitors, "Not long," he said, and it was right then something on the short-range sensor readout from the station caught his eye, no ships were departing, and none of the heavy weapons systems were coming online. But there was something off about the power output to the station, mainly the third pod, which happened to be their target. Boosting power to the sensors by just a bit, he narrowed the beam in slightly, hopefully not enough to alert anyone but just enough to get a glimpse of what might be going on. "Alright this is odd," he said, "I'm getting power fluctuations throughout the third pod, intense but small heat blooms on different levels, possibly fires. Some sections are even registering zero power, looks like somethings going on over there."

 _'Perhaps luck is on our side for this.'_ Ghost said as he tilted his head looking at the Shawn's console panel.

 _'Let us hope so; we will need every advantage we can get.'_ Shadow told his brother, _'But I do wonder what is causing the damage over there.'_

"Whatever it is we'll find out soon enough," Shawn told them, glancing up at Shadow. There was still a small part of him that wondered if what was happening to him was real or maybe he was still back on the Ember-Rose. Strapped into the pilot's seat, oxygen-starved and nearing death, experiencing some lucid dream in his last few moments of life, it all seemed too surreal, too farfetched, and yet despite that he knew that it was real.

The countdown continued as the ship silently glided past the metal behemoth, a couple of hundred kilometers quickly became a hundred and then fifty. Right then at the final predetermined spot, the aft starboard maneuvering thrusters lit up, the ship's backside started to sharply swing around, like a massive metal club bearing down on its target. The forward port thrusters fired up a few seconds later countering the sudden momentum, sending everyone in CIC listing to the right.

Shadow, Ghost, and Alese had the good sense to grab onto the nearby computer consuls to keep themselves from falling over. The other female drone toppled into a nearby wall, while unhurt she suddenly let out a panicked screech that echoed throughout the large room, followed by a look of distress mixed with annoyance. A second later she had pushed herself off the wall and was fighting against the increased g-forces. Another twenty seconds and the ship came to a complete stop, the nose of the ship pointed in the direction of the massive station.

"Just under twenty kilometers out from the station, on the side of pod three, right on target," Shawn said, looking at the scanners, still no indication the station had discovered them. "So...last change for us to pull out, in case any of us are having second thoughts about this plan."

Shadow placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder, giving the human a reassuring squeeze, _'We are all having uncertain thoughts about this, but it is something we need to do, you still do not have to comment yourself to this battle. You can stay behind; none of us will think any less of you if you do.'_ He told Shawn, giving him a last-second way out, a way out that part of him was hoping that their human would take.

"No," Shawn told him, "…no, you need me on board with you for this. Not unless the three of you have managed to develop the ability to see what's on terminal screens or hack in systems within the last few days and didn't bother to mention it to me."

 _'Sadly, we have not,'_ Ghost replied to him.

"Then it's settled, for better or worse I'm with you all in this until the end." He said standing up; his eyes fixed to the control panel. "So I guess that we are going through with this." His voice was little more than a whisper, but the three Xenos had heard him.

 _'Yes,'_ Shadow replied, offering whatever support and strength he could to Shawn. It was easy to pick up the increased heart rate, the rise in body temperature, his breathing picking up even if it was just slightly. Fear, tension, anxiety and all the doubt that went with it permeated from their human. At this moment it wasn't about boarding the station, it was what was about to come next that had him so nervous. Shadow had watched Shawn run calculation after calculation on the computers, go through simulation after simulation, question and compile the computer for information for endless hours. Even he had to admit given what they were about to do, that even he was more than a little nervous about this part.

Shawn turned and looked at each one of the Xenos, each one he had come to love and formed a bond that was unlike anything he could have ever imagined. He was hoping and praying that it all wouldn't be wiped away in the next few seconds. "In case this goes south in a bad way, thank you for everything," he told them, "I'm glad that we had the chance to meet and become what we did."

Each one returned his thanks, and let him know they too felt the same way and would not have changed anything.

"You all might want to hang on to something, just in case." Shawn looked over at the other drone who was still examining the consoles and even the holo-display. "That goes for you too," He told the drone who looked right at him, her head tilting in slight confusion. A quick mental message from Shadow informed her, and she latched onto one of the stations.

Turning back to his station, he punched in a few quick commands; picking up one of the coms devices, "James, you'll want to hang onto something, it's going to get bumpy here real quick," he said, speaking into the mic, the set it down. "Blast shields in place, all sections fully secured, please let this work." He muttered to himself. Looking up toward the large image of Eclipse base that filled up most of the screen, his index finger hovering right over a single button on the terminal, and with a slow exhale and a final prayer he pressed it.

For the first few seconds, nothing happened, and then a small intense pinprick of light could be seen off to the side of the station, it brightly flared and grew bigger and bigger for a few seconds. And at that moment loud klaxons blared, followed by red and yellow emergency lights that brightly started to flash and strobe.

 **"ALERT, THERMAL NUCLEAR DETONATION DETECTED, EMP SHOCKWAVE INBOUND, INCREASED RADIATION LEVELS DETECTED."** The computer's monotone voice announced, **"IMPACT IN TWENTY-SIX SECONDS."**

The Saratoga was still positioned just under twenty kilometers behind pod three. Even though the city busting nuke had been placed right in line with pod one a few hundred kilometers out, it had somehow differed out of it position offsetting it just enough that the explosion was visible on the monitor. Pod one would take the brunt of the shockwave, while pods two and four would still take some of the force but to a lesser degree, while hopefully leaving pod three untouched. The Saratoga would use the station as a shield from the bulk of the shockwave and EMP, at least which had been the plan.

Shawn's eyes locked onto the tactical display, an icon of the station set in the center of the display with the Saratoga positioned behind it. And increasing in size was the shockwave, getting larger by the second. On the tactical display, it showed up as nothing more than a red ring that grew, expanding out toward the ship and the station. The shockwave was also getting weaker by the moment as it expanded in size; if his calculations were correct, the shockwave and EMP would damage the station and throw it into chaos, but not tear it apart at the seams. It would be just enough of a distraction to get onboard, free the Xenos and get out without being noticed until it was too late.

Ten seconds, then five and finally one, gritting his teeth on that final second Shawn gripped the console and hung on. If anything was off and the calculations were wrong, the station would tear apart at the seams and the Saratoga along with it.

The ship lunged and buckled as the shockwave violently slammed into the ship. Lights and computer consoles flickered and dimmed then went dark, throwing all of CIC into pitch blackness, even the blaring klaxons went silent. Slightly loosening his grip slightly, Shawn found himself being thrown back as a second shockwave pounded into the ship. Harden and slick arms wrapped around his torso gripping him tightly.

 _'I have you!'_ Shadow's voice boomed in his head as the large Xeno firmly held onto Shawn, keeping him from falling back.

As suddenly has it had happened, the ship went still, CIC remained bathed in pitch blackness along with an eerie silence. The only sound cutting through the dark was the tense and steady breathing of the five occupants in the large room, each one waiting for another shockwave to hit the ship.

Endless minutes seemed to pass by as each of them waited, the silence finally breaking as the hum of power started to course through the room. Lights flickered on cutting through the darkness, computers blinked, clicked and beeped as they came back to life. In another minute everything was almost as it had been before the powerful nuke went off.

"Is everyone alright?" Shawn finally asked, looking around. Nothing in CIC look damaged, and even though the power was back online, the warning klaxons and lights remained silent.

 _'We are all fine,'_ Ghost answered him, _'that was not as bad as I believed it would be.'_ He said, with an undertone of relief in his voice.

Shawn let out a nervous chuckle, the tension draining from him leaving him slightly lightheaded and even a bit nauseous, "It was bad enough, though I guess we should all be thankful those shockwaves didn't rip the ship apart." He said, petting Shadow's arm, grateful that the Praetorian had quick lighting reflexes. "Thanks for the catch, guess that's what I get for not strapping my ass into the chair."

 _'I will always be there for you, no matter what happens._ ' Shadow said, reluctantly releasing his grip on Shawn so the human could get back to what he needed to do.

"As will I," Shawn told him reaching up and rubbing the Xeno's jaw line. Right now all he wanted to do was finish this task and disappear deep into the void with Shadow and the others and start what would be a new and clean chapter in their lives. "Let's see how bad things are," he said, sitting back down to look over the computer readout on what damage the Saratoga had sustained. Some blown relays and conduits with some minor power fluctuations came up, but no indications of any hull breaches or major damage. It appeared to be superficial damage at most. "Ok, well that's good news," Shawn stammered, "looks like we got lucky...again. No severe damage, I'll send the maintenance androids to start fixing the blown out conduits and relays and whatever else might crop up."

Reactivating the view screens, a few seconds later the image of Eclipse station was once again plastered on one of the main monitors. The station looked to be tilting slightly from its original orientation; white plumes, possibly air or even water, spewed off into space from numerous spots over the station.

A sickening, frigid chill suddenly gripped Shawn's whole being; the station looked to be far more damaged than what he had intended. The image of bulkheads blowing in and then violently decompressing out, brutally venting people out into space, their bodies tumbling end over end into the cold void, each one trying to gasp for air that was not there, filled his minds-eye. "Oh fuck, I wonder how many people just died." He muttered to himself numbly, trying to push the image from his mind.

 _'Do not think about such things,'_ Shadow told Shawn, resting his hands on Shawn's shoulders, ' _it will serve no purpose and only acts as a distraction. It is very unlikely that anyone died in such a manner, that station was built to hold beings such as us and far worse, I doubt that a well-placed explosion like what you did would damage the hull that much.'_ While it was a lie and both of them knew it, if it would help ease his human's conscience on the manner then so be it. If necessary, he would lie about such things as much as he needed to, until his kin had been set free and were safe on board the ship.

"Yea, ok." Shawn said in a hushed tone, not believing it either. But if he could focus on Shadow's words, maybe he could stave off the guilt until they had finished. After that, he could grieve and feel guilty for his actions and maybe in time find some way to come to terms with them. In the meantime, all he could do was push past the guilt and set his personal feeling aside and focus on the task at hand.

Shawn switched over to the primary scanners, an outline of the station appeared, showing more heat blooms inside the station, as well as massive power fluctuations. "Well, it looks like there are fires all over the place; power systems are seriously screwed up, and it looks like whole sections are shutting down or having brownouts. Pod one took a lot more damage than I thought it would, same goes for pods two and four. Pod three is still in good condition, but the shockwave and EMP blast didn't do it any favors. It looks like the main hub is having problems too, that may give us cover while we get onboard."

 _'I truly did not believe we would ever come back to this place.'_ Alese said, a sense of heightened aggression and fear starting to worm its way into her mind and soul. Everything they all had to endure and for what, the whims of a man that felt nothing and an organization that only wanted to use them for still yet unknown reasons. And now, in a very short time, they would be back on board to confront everything they had run away from. At least now it would be on their terms.

A series of soft hisses and chirps a few feet away from Alese broke the silence. The female drone slowly padded up to Alese, her head slightly lowered, pressed the front of her dome into Alese's neck area. Gently she began to rub up and down; a low purr started to reverberate throughout the room.

"Act of comfort?" Shawn asked quietly observing the interaction going on between the two as he had picked up what he thought was feeling of concern coming from the drone.

 _'Yes, correct,'_ Shadow answered, ' _this serves as a way to help relax those that are in distress and put them at ease.'_ It was almost exactly like how Shadow and the others had tried to comfort Shawn in his times of distress. The deep chest rumbling, mixed with physical contact and waves of mental reassurance.

Shawn nodded in understanding; he was a little surprised that all three weren't starting to lose their composures, even a little. And while Shadow at least on the outside was the best composed so far, he could sense that the Praetorian was very nervous. "Well, let's get this over with, every second we sit here is a second we're losing and not taking advantage of the chaos onboard." He told Shadow turning his attention back to the console.

Engaging a low burn on the engines for few seconds, the Saratoga slowly pushed forward. Quickly covering the distance in a few minutes, the ship slowed to a halt then started to roll and yaw aligning itself with the lowermost part of the massive center spire. Maneuvering jets lit up pushing the ship into its final position. A warning alarm blared, followed by the computer's monotone voice indicating a possible collision alert; a quick glance showed that they were less than five hundred meters away from the station and slowly closing in.

Four hundred meters, then three hundred, then two hundred, a few seconds later a hundred meters. "Target aperture locked on, computer, engage maneuvering thrusters, full stop." With a few quick and well-timed burns, the Saratoga came to a gentle stop, the massive black vessel nestled right up against the station.

"Little over seventy-five meters out, that's as close as I can get her in without risking a collision," Shawn said, looking down at one of the monitors, a wall of grey metal filled the screen with a single airlock centered in the view.

Shadow turned to look at Ghost and Alese, _'let us go and release our brothers and sisters and leave this place forever.'_ Shadow said, an unexpected hardness now in his voice.

The walk to the airlock was uncomfortably silent, each one mentally trying to prepare for the return to what had been a brutal home. Raw, unfiltered memories started to flow between the three Xenos. Their births, the hard, coldness of being ripped from their host mothers, the emptiness that gripped even consumed them following their host's deaths. And then there was Mason and all those that followed him and everything that they had done. None of them had any doubt that there would be blood and slaughter; that was something that could not avoid.

The female drone followed behind her gaze shifting back and forth between them all. While she had linked with them, seen their memories, the evilness and unnecessary cruelty of what they had all endured, she had not lived through any of it. Those humans had taken something from her hive mates, her brothers, and sisters, and even now those soft, fleshy things still had power over them. It was a power that each one of them would need to take back or be forever tied to their pasts.

"Let's keep focused on what we need to do, and that means getting your kin off that station, not go off half-cocked seeking revenge," Shawn reminded all three of them, stepping into the airlock sub-room and opening one of the lockers that stored the space suits. "I know what's going through your minds, and I get it, they hurt you, and there's still a part deep down that wants to hurt them in return. But if it comes to choosing to either free your brothers and sisters or get revenge, what are you going to choose?"

 _'You can't expect us not to have these thoughts,'_ Shadow said, _'we came to free our hive mates, to have the chance to be free and make a better future for our race. We all know what is at stake; if it comes to choosing between revenge or freeing our hive mates, then we will choose to free those that are in that metal monstrosity. We did not come all this way to give in to our base instincts, no matter how satisfying it would be.'_ He understood Shawn's concerns, if there was not so much as stake then he and the others might go in, claws and teeth bared ready to rip apart all who stood in their way and hurt those that had hurt them.

"Just making sure you don't get distracted," Shawn said, starting to suit up as the Praetorian ruffled his hair in return. Letting him know that he did understand what was at stake and that despite all their personal feeling, they would not become distracted and waste the chance afforded to them on revenge.

Shawn had almost finished suiting up, minus putting on the helmet when the female drone stepped up to him. The last time she had been this close to him she had been ready to punch a hole through his skull. And while he wasn't picking up any aggression coming from her, he did take a tentative half step back, just in case.

The drone stopped, sensing his apprehension, which was understandable. Only a short time ago the female drone was convinced Shawn was an agent for their creators, ready to help re-enslave her race and deliver them back to their cruel masters. She had been wrong on that assumption, and it had nearly cost her her life. Slowly, making sure the human knew that she meant him no harm, she raised her hands and gently gripped his head and leaned forward, touching her forehead to his. While she had no words for him in his language, the emotions and images she sent to him were very clear.

 _Bring them all back._

"We will, all of them," he told her, hoping that she could at least understand what he was saying. Releasing his head, she stepped back, something telling him that she did understand and that she would be waiting for them to return. Reaching over, he tapped a button; the door slid shut with a hiss leaving her on the other side, looking in. "Let's get this over with," he said, putting the helmet on and securing it. Check lights came on, giving the green that the suit was secure.

Opening the hatch to the main airlock, Shawn walked into the airtight room, the Xenos following behind, each one grabbing one of the packed duffle bags that set next to the far wall. "Computer began decompression procedures," Shawn said, walking over to another locker and retrieving a long tube with a handle and a large scope with a large bundle of slick looking rope. A loud hissing sound filled the room, moments later quickly died out leaving the room in complete silence.

 _'What is that?'_ Alese asked, observing what looked like a weapon in Shawn's hand. He couldn't possibly be thinking of using that as a weapon to fight with, not something that seemed so pathetic and clumsy looking.

 _'Harpoon gun, it fires a spear with an electromagnetic disk that will attach to the station,'_ Shawn answered, holding up the rope, _'I'll attach this carbon nanotube rope to the spear then fire it, once that's done I'll tie it off and that will give us a safety hold while we cross.'_ Taking the rope, Shawn tied it off on to a loop attached to the back of the spear, then loaded the spear into the gun. _'Let's just hope they don't realign the station while we're crossing over or we're going to be seriously screwed.'_ He said, opening the outer hatch.

Looming in front of them was a wall of grey and off-white metal that seemed to stretch upward forever. _'Shit and I thought the Saratoga was huge; this station dwarfs it.'_ Shawn said somewhat awestruck. It was one thing to see a ship or station on a monitor or out of a window at a distance, but to be so close and see it first hand, that always gave perception on how large things could be. Though as large as this station was, Darrius station had been far bigger, not that there had been anything to admire about that cheaply built death trap, other than the sheer size and scope of it.

Activating the magnetic disk and taking aim with the harpoon gun, he found the mark he was looking for and pulled the trigger. A brief puff of gas erupted from the barrel as the harpoon shot out, the rope uncoiling behind as it traveled it a straight line toward the station.

The harpoon sailed through the airless void for several seconds before hitting its target; the flat disk attached firmly onto the wall of grey metal. Pulling the rope until it was taut; Shawn secured it on a double hook just a foot outside the airlock door. _'I'll go first, you follow behind, keep your spacing around fifteen feet apart it'll be easier to maneuver if we're not all bunching up together.'_ Shawn told them picking up the last large duffle bag on the floor and slinging it over his shoulder before grabbing onto the rope, _'However, you'll need to come out onto the hull so that I can close the airlock. Just make damn sure you have a firm grip onto something.'_

 _'Will this hold us?'_ Ghost asked, crawling out onto the hull, rather uncertain that such a flimsy looking line would be safe to use, not to mention the small disk that was now attached to the station.

 _'The line and disk may not look that strong but the line and magnetic disk can hold several dozen tons easily, crossing with it won't be a problem.'_ Shawn answered, closing the outer airlock door now that all three Xenos were outside. _'Just don't cut the line by accident and we'll be fine.'_ With that, he grabbed the rope and slowly started to cross over. A few moments later he felt the line wiggle and jerk some, glancing back he saw that Ghost was about twenty feet behind and slowly moving in pace as not to get too close, moments later Alese and then Shadow bringing up the rear.

Minutes later, Shawn made contact with the metal wall of the station, grabbing onto one of the handholds he quickly secured himself. _'See, no problem.'_ He said sliding over to where the outer airlock door was at and quickly peeked inside through the small window. Yellow caution lights brightly flashed in the distance and from what he could see, there was no one in the area. He hoped that it would stay that way for a while, and once inside, they would remain undetected.

A second later Alese was over and clinging to the station wall, seconds later Ghost and Shadow next to them. Scooting back over, Shawn deactivated the electromagnetic disk and with a hefty pull detached the disk from the station then clumsily threw it back toward the ship.

 _'So far it looks clear inside,'_ Shawn told them, reaching over to the manual override box just a foot away to his right. Flipping open the clear protective panel, he gripped the handle and pulled down. Immediately the outer door flung up, the air inside the small sub-chamber vented out in a gust of white fog that disappeared moments later.

Shawn pulled himself inside, his three Xenomorphs companions quickly followed him into the small sub-room. Setting the large duffle bag down, he opened it up and looked through it, grabbing a small silver cylinder about the size of his fist with a slightly larger base to it.

 _'What is that?'_ Shadow asked observing the curious object Shawn had in his hand.

Rotating a ring on the top of the cylinder a red light at the top started to blink. _'Signal amplifier and transmitter,'_ he told Shadow leaning back outside placing the object on the hull. _'It'll help boost the signal and maintain a link with the Saratoga's computers.'_

 _'For what purpose?'_ Ghost asked, wondering what exactly Shawn had in mind.

 _'I'm going on the assumption that the station's heavily shielded, plus with the inner workings, getting a signal out with the data pads and port-computers I brought is going to be next to impossible, or it would be if it weren't for these amplifiers. Place one down every so often will help boost the signal back to the Saratoga.'_ He said closing the airlock door; seconds later the air rushed back in as the chamber pressurized and warmed to a normal temperature.

Unlatching the helmet, Shawn removed it setting it down, "Came up with a few surprises that might help us if we get into a tight spot. Hope that we won't have to use them, but they might give an edge if we need them," he said, getting out of the spacesuit. Kneeling down, he began to go through the large duffle bag, bringing out a data-pad that was attached to an arm strap.

Shadow cocked his head wondering what surprises Shawn brought with him. _'And these surprises are what exactly?_

"Well," Shawn started strapping the computer on his arm and opening the cover case and powering on the unit. "The particle cannons, if they are at low power with a wide dispersion field the beams won't damage the hull of a ship or station, but it will short everything out, kind of like an E.M.P. blast but it's far more controlled and precise. It's a common tactic that the Navy has used for centuries for capturing ships and stations; it can even take out missiles, fighters, or drones that are clustered to close together. It's also a tactic that pirates, slavers, and raiders have come to use as well."

 _'And you foresee that you may need to use this kind of attack to disable a portion of the station.'_ Ghost asked.

"Well, in theory, it should disable any local defense systems and maybe even combat androids, that's if they are close enough to the blast," He tapped a few buttons on the pad and then looked out the small window. "And there goes our ride," Shawn muttered watching the Saratoga fire its maneuvering thrusters and slowly drift away.

Alese came up to the window and looked out, _'The ship...'_ She started, swinging her elongated head toward Shawn.

"It's only going out about fifteen kilometers, and that's it, didn't want anyone looking out a window and notice their ship was back and try to recapture it." Shawn said, closing the protective cover, "Once we free the others we'll head to one of the lower docking ports, and I'll summon the Saratoga back. After that, we haul ass on board and get the hell out of here."

Shadow turned to look through the window at the inner door leading into the sub-air-lock room. _'Speaking of getting the hell out of here, we should move and hide. I don't any see humans yet, but it may be only a matter of time before someone shows up.'_

Slinging the duffel bag over his shoulder, Shawn picked up the space-suit and helmet and jammed his elbow into the open door button. "Sound advice, if I remember the layout correctly there's a T-junction up ahead; there should be some maintenance and air vent access covers to the right that's down the hall a few dozen meters, those vents should take us to a small maintenance room. And from there we should be able to get to the central support column of the station."

The door hissed open, and all four quickly departed the air-lock area. Exiting the air-lock sub room the doors closed behind the four leaving them standing in a darkened gun-metal hallway. In the distance, emergency klaxon wailed, the alarms echoing down the hallway as yellow emergency lights rotated, while overhead lights flickered off and on.

Shawn adjusted the heavy duffle bag to where it was slightly more manageable as the four swiftly made their way forward with as little noise as possible. Coming around the corner, Ghost caught sight of the large maintenance and air vent Shawn had mentioned. "That once should lead us to the maintenance room, just a few hundred meters in," Shawn whispered as they approached the vent cover. "Give me a minute or two to get these bolts off."

Opening the duffle bag that Shadow had slung over his shoulder, Shawn started to rummage through it until he found a small tool satchel and yanked it out. Flanking the two on either side a few meters away, Ghost and Alese took up defensive positions, their heads panning back and forth actively searching for anyone that might be coming toward them.

Pulling out a pair of pliers from the satchel, Shawn quickly started to work on loosening up the bolts. A minute later, one bolt then two, quickly working on the third one, Ghost suddenly snapped his head toward Shawn.

 _'Humans are approaching us!'_ Ghost hissed, his clawed fingers curling reflexively, not even a few minutes back to the place of their birth and already it looked like they would have to spill blood. At this point, Ghost was wanting fate to make up its accursed mind and stop toying with them, either be on their side or not.

The Praetorian swung his head in Ghost's direction; the long corridor, now bathed in a mix of flicking overhead lights and rotating yellow caution lights. Shadows danced and darted warping and twisting the normally drab and bleak metal hallway. While a human might have trouble seeing anything through the distortion of light and shadow, the Xenos had no trouble with such things. The sound of approaching footsteps, as silent as they might have been was the first give away, the second the all too familiar pheromone signature, that in their vision lit up like a beacon. Still a ways away, it wouldn't be long before the approaching humans caught sight of the Xenos and once that happened, there would be no choice, they would need to strike and quickly before their presence was given away.

 _'Shawn, how much longer?'_ Shadow asked, the heavy tension thick like syrup in his voice, his heart speeding up, as the predatory killing instincts started to rise to the surface.

Rotating the bolt with the pliers as fast as he could, it was almost halfway out, "just a few more seconds," he whispered back in a hushed but tense tone. His heart pounded away in his chest; his fingers trembled. If he didn't get the cover off and get everyone into the maintenance shaft, whoever was coming would die very shortly, and that would be on him.

A second later the bolt was out and stuffed into his pocket, grabbing the grate, Shawn started to pull it out. An inch of metal lip slid out, and with it, a slight metallic scrape that echoed slightly but was drowned out by the warning klaxon as the grate cover slid free. Glancing down the hallway, he could see the beams of light from handheld flashlights, three-hundred feet away maybe a little more. If the lighting were normal, they would have easily been spotted, but anything now would appear to be a trick of the light.

"Go, get inside," Shawn whispered, nodding his head at the now open hatchway. In a second Shadow slipped in, quickly followed by Alese and Ghost, quickly stuffing the space-suit and helmet Shawn backed in feet first, grabbing the grate and quickly tried to reattach it, a few moments later the metal lip slid back into the slot, securing it in place.

Shawn scooted back into the vent a few meters; his whole body froze as he could now hear voices. The voices were distant, to the point he couldn't fully make out the words, only bits, and pieces. _'Don't anyone move,'_ he mentally said, as he turned his head back. Shadow was the furthest away, now lying completely flat on his stomach, with Ghost and Alese only a foot or two back from him. None of them moved, only a few small and dimly lit ceiling mounted guide lights that flickered gave any indication that they were there.

As the people in the hallway approached, their voices became clearer, and the footsteps louder. Shawn covered his mouth and nose to muffle his breathing, his free hand curled tightly into a tense fist. All they would need to do would be to shine a light right into the vent to see them, at that point, it would be all over. Shawn cursed himself for not having the foresight to unpack his pistol or at least the stun rifle. The footsteps only a few meters away now, light from the flashlight was shining and dancing all over the floor and walls. Voices echoed down into the vent shaft, complaining about blown energy conduits, sporadic gravity on the levels, a large number of injuries and now a fucked up airlock signal.

A couple of pairs of legs passed in front of the grate, mechanical garbs from what Shawn could see, not guards or combat androids, a bit of relief with that. The two men passed, each one wondering what happened, once speculating that maybe a freighter or transport reactor had gone critical and blown up. The other disagreeing but not sure what exactly it was, a minute later the voices faded away as the two men went around the corner and into the air-lock sub-room.

 _'We go now, move with silence and stealth.'_ Shadow commanded as he started to glide forward, his bulk barley making a sound in the metal vent shaft. Alese and Ghost followed closely behind, the two drones making even less noise that Shadow. Shawn however as slow and carefully as he tried to move, did little to match the stealth capability of his Xenomorph hive mates. Thankfully there were no rooms or hallways under the vent shaft that had personal to hear him.

Bringing up the map on his wrist-mounted data-pad every so often to check their location and distance, several turns and a few hundred meters in, they found the maintenance room. The room was empty and slightly smaller than what he had thought it would be, perhaps it was a sub-maintenance room of some kind. Bringing out a plasma cutter, Shawn quickly cut through the bolts locking the grate in pace. A swift kick and a few seconds later the four were inside the small room.

Only a few small lights lined the room on the ceiling and walls to dimly illuminate the area. The air was damp and warm, reminding the four almost immediately of a hive. Water pipes both intake and outtake ran vertically along the wall as well as along the ceiling. And just opposite of the pipes, what looked to be power conduits of varying sizes ran along the wall and ceiling.

"That door will take us into a maintenance hallway, and from there we can make it to the center shaft area, we should come out just on the lowermost levels. According to the schematics, there's not a lot in the bottom levels, just some maintenance and mechanical rooms like this, large junction areas and the like, so there shouldn't be too many personal if any around." Shawn said, dumping the spacesuit and helmet on the floor, closing the protective case to his data-pad; then set the duffle bag he was hauling around down on the ground and opened it up.

 _'And from there we ascend until we find an opening to pod three.'_ Shadow said, placing the bag down he had been carrying around so Shawn could have access to the contents inside.

Shawn nodded, "Yea, then we hit the science lab." He said, placing the items from both bags in front of him and begin to organize and ready what he needed.

Shadow's gaze went back and forth as he observed what Shawn had taken out of the bags. _'Where is your armor at?'_ He asked, not seeing it, instead of the highly protective armor what looked to be a workman's vest with a large number of pockets and small cloth loops sworn in was laid out instead.

"I didn't bring it," Shawn answered stuffing several tools and devices into the various pockets and pouches of the vest.

 _'WHAT!?'_ Shadow's voice boomed in his head, causing Alese and Ghost to flinch slightly at the sudden outburst. _'You know what we are going up against, and you did not bring it!'_ While not truly angry, he found himself more than a little upset. What had Shawn been thinking? The human knew what they were walking into and what dangers they were facing. And he was doing nothing to protect himself, Shadow had half a mind to drag the human, their human back to the airlock, force him to put on the spacesuit and call the Saratoga back to get his armor.

Shawn's hands flew up covering his ears winching slightly at the sudden and sharp pain in his head as if that would help to keep Shadow's booming mental voice out of his mind. "Look, we're carrying around more than enough stuff as it is and we need to keep it light and fast." He said as the sudden pain eased up, trying to rationalize and justify his reason for not hauling around an extra twenty plus pounds of armor on top of everything else. "I can't haul around all the equipment I need as well as the weapons and ammo and wear that armor without slowing myself down. That stuff sure as hell ain't what you would call stealthy or light, besides I'm not a soldier or a warrior, I'm a tech, more or less, and I need to use what will best suit us here. You've said it before many times if this is too have any chance of success we all need to remain unheard and unseen for as long as possible."

A long drawn out displeased hiss from Shadow hung tightly in the air, while he understood Shawn's reasoning behind it and logically it did make sense, it did nothing to ease the slowly building flood of anxiety. The human-made armor might be the only thing stopping a stray pulse round or several from harming or even killing him. _'I don't like it, I understand what you are saying, but I do not like it. You have needlessly put yourself at risk by shedding your defenses like this.'_

"Then I'll make damn sure to stay low and out of sight," Shawn replied as he finished up pocketing everything he needed into the vest and then proceeded to load up one of the large drum magazines into the pulse rifle followed by several grenades.

 _'Make sure you do and make sure you do not get shot.'_ Shadow said to him flatly, ' _none of us wish to see you injured again. You have had too many brushes with injury and death.'_

"Considering everything that has happened, I think that pretty much goes for all of us," Shawn told him, as he finished loading and engaging the safeties on all the weapons.

 _'We should not stay in this area much longer, the more we delay, the quicker the element of surprise fades away.'_ Ghost said as he walked up to the two.

"Just a few more minutes," Shawn said, strapping on the pistol holster across his chest followed by the workman's maintenance vest, and finally the belt with the three spare ammo drums fastened to it. "Fucking hell," Shawn muttered more to himself than to the three Xenos, slinging the stun rifle over his back and picking up the pulse rifle, "feel like I'm carrying around a ton of crap already."

 _'If you become fatigued we will carry what you need us to.'_ Alese told him in no uncertain terms.

Nodding that he understood, he stuffed one of the now empty bags into the partial empty equipment bag. Retrieving another one of the signal amplifiers, he activated it and placed it in a small nook between a pair of pipes. "Signal is good," He said checking the small computer attached to his arm.

 _'How will you know where to place another of those devices?'_ Ghost asked, his curiosity kicking in again.

"If the signal strength drops below twenty percent I'll get a subtle warning from the computer; a small light will blink a few times and continue to repeat until I activate another booster and place it." Answered Shawn, "But as long as we're not fighting anyone, I'll check it frequently. I tried to map our path out and have the computer calculate how many I'll need, plus I brought some extras just in case." He said, zipping the bag up.

Reaching down and clutching the bag with his long fingers, grasping it tightly, Shadow turned and headed toward the door. _'We need cover as much distance as quickly as we can.'_ He said, slowly pulling the heavy metal door open revealing a long maintenance hallway. Light from rotating red and yellow caution lamps flooded into the dark room in an oscillating duel colored kaleidoscope.

Silently the four moved forward through the twisting mazelike hallway. Shadow crept down on all fours, avoiding hitting his crested head on the pipes and conduits that ran adjacent along the walls and ceiling. Shawn followed closely behind, with Ghost and Alese trailing only a few meters back, all of them on guard for anyone that might be in the tunnels with them. Distant voices drifted down into the maintenance hallway, some seeming to come from above others off from the side. None of them could make out the distorted words that filtered through the surrounding grates and ducts.

Following the map on his wrist computer, Shawn guided the party through what seemed to be a never-ending labyrinth of twists, turns and splits. Some areas almost completely blacked out, with only a small ceiling light occasionally flicking off and on. The hallway finally ended, leaving them before a large heavy metal door, similar to the one in the small sub-maintenance room they had exited a short time ago.

Disengaging the safety on the pulse rifle, Shawn raised the weapon, pointing it at the door. Without needing to utter a single word, Shadow grabbed the heavy set door handle and slowly pulled it open. White light beamed into the dark hallway causing Shawn to wince in pain slightly, the dark hallway no longer concealing their presence. All of them cautiously moved forward through the doorway.

The room, if that's what anyone could have called it, was beyond massive in scope and size. From left to right, the wall that the four just emerged from gradually curved until it disappeared into the horizon. And looming in front of the four, maybe forty to fifty meters away was a colossal tower of gunmetal colored metal that extended up until it disappeared far beyond their view. Intense white lights perfectly spaced out every ten meters went up and across, endlessly ran along both walls giving the area a bright but cold atmosphere.

Or at least that was the design, many of the lights now flickered, dimmed and strobbed, some flashing then going out in a small but brilliant explosion of fire and sparks. The low hum of machinery reverberated from the wall and floor. What should have been a constant and even hum, now rose and fell in pitch and speed. The sound was a clear indication of either damage or uneven power flow to the machinery.

Ghost hissed with a mix of awe and nervous tension, _'What is this?'_ He asked, looking up. Even with his excellent vision, he was unable to see just how far the mammoth column extended up. The flickering lights that danced along the walls doing little to help with his sight.

"This area should be part of the coolant reservoir and filtration system if what I saw on the layout is anything to go by. Old coolant gets pumped down, cleaned, purified and then sent back up to the primary reactor and heat exchangers." Shawn answered, removing a small pair of electrical binoculars from one of the many pockets and pouches on his vest.

Even with the powerful binoculars, it was impossible to see all the way to the top, catwalks, and walkways set at what looked like every few hundred meters. Several what looked like cubes with doors and windows jutted out from the outer circle wall along the catwalks and walkways. Possibly monitoring stations or maintenance areas for all he knew.

"Okay, I'm starting to have regrets about coming this way; I may have seriously misjudged just how high the central shaft goes up. I can't even see the top, but some walkways look like they go around the perimeter of both the inner column and outer wall." Shawn said, bringing up some info on his wrist computer. "Now, there should be a service lift a few hundred meters away along the right side of the main shaft that will take us up."

 _'Will it take us up all the way to where we need to go?'_ Ghost asked, panning his head, looking for any other signs that humans were in the area, so far nothing.

"No, it looks like the lifts are staggered to go only between the individual walkway levels, so we'll need to foot it from one lift to another to make it up to where we need to go." Shawn put the binoculars back into the vest pouch, only a little way in and already their first major hurdle had reared its ugly head. Mentally he kicked himself as he thought he had taken into account the height of the entire column, but then again the basic schematics didn't show every little detail about the station.

It was too late to worry about such things now; they were inside and needed to go forward not back. Whatever mistakes or walls they would hit, they would overcome and press onward. Anything beyond keeping focused on the mission was a distraction, a distraction that none of them could afford.

Pressing on, the four kept to the outer wall trying to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible. The patterns of light and dark that bathed the whole central area easily masked the four's movements. Anyone who looked down and saw the movement might brush it off as an illusion caused by the strobing lights and nothing more.

Each one of them was alert and looking around, waiting for alarms to start blaring, or shouts of panicked humans to fill the air or even the deadly roar of pulse rifle rounds to start raining down on them. None of that ever came to past, even when they crossed the vast open area between the outer wall to the lift on the inner column nothing happened. The ground area as far as they could tell looked to be completely void of any life.

Seeing that the lift was not on the ground level; not wanting to waste a single second more than they needed to, Shawn slammed his hand on the call button. In a few moments the lift would come down, they would all board and go up to the first tire of walkways, make their way to the next lift and so on until they were they needed to be to head over to the third pod.

Only nothing. Nothing but a small mechanical click from the button, no hum of motors engaging or the sound of gears kicking on, just silence.

Glancing up, Shawn quickly hit the button a few more times hoping to get the cab to engage and come down; only the results were the same, nothing. "You've got to be kidding me." He muttered to himself, maybe the lift had been shorted out by the EMP, or maybe it was on lockdown, either way, it now presented a new set of problems.

 _'It will not work?'_ Alese asked as her tail nervously twitched back and forth. Being back in this place was bringing back memories that she, Ghost and Shadow would have rather not have resurfaced. Memories of Mason, Steffen so many that had caused them pain and harm.

Shawn shook his head, "No, not this one, maybe the others will, but it looks like this one is either dead or has been locked down." Looking over, he saw a ladder with a safety cage a few meters over that ran from the ground and stretched up as far as he could see. Now more than ever he was glad he had lost a fair amount of weight and had gained all that stamina from training. It was going to be the first real physical test of his new found endurance, especially if it involved climbing the full length of the column, something he was hoping and praying wouldn't be the case.

"Looks like we're climbing," He said, slinging the rifle across his back and walking over to the ladder and grabbing one of the rungs.

 _'One of us can carry you; your weight would not hinder any of us.'_ Shadow told him, as the Praetorian followed close behind.

The idea was more than a little tempting, with the Xenos speed and stealth they could skirt up the column with little difficulty. And as strong and large as Shadow was, Shawn's weight wouldn't slow him down at all. But if someone just happened to spot them at the wrong time? "Maybe, but what happens if you come under fire while you're carrying me? You won't be able to maneuver and protect me at the same time. I'd be a liability at that point, which might get two of us killed instead of one." Shawn told him, taking his first step up the long ladder.

 _'Then let me carry the rest of your equipment. The less weight you have to carry the easier it will be to ascend.'_ Shadow said, holding out an open hand, refusing to take "no" for an answer.

Yielding to Shadow's wish, Shawn stepped off the ladder and grabbed the strap pulling the bag off his shoulder. "If you don't mind, let me secure this to one of your dorsal pipes. It won't be in your way if something happens and you need to go on the attack."

 _'Agreed,'_ Shadow said truing around and squatting down to give Shawn easy access to his dorsal pipes.

In a few seconds, the bag strap was looped several times around one of the upper dorsal pipes, securing it in place between both the upper and lower pipes. The slight bit of extra weight and mass of the bag would add no hindrance in Shadow's ability to move or fight.

Checking the safety on his sidearm one last time; Shawn then secured it back into his holster. "See you at the top," he said starting his climb.

A few seconds later, Shadow and Ghost were crawling up the vertical metal column taking positions on the left side of the ladder, Shadow only a meter away from Shawn, with Alese flanking their human's right side.

As they made the ascent up, Shawn kept glancing over at the three Xenos, each time he thought he had seen everything they could do; they showed him something new. Their bodies seemed to adhere to the metal surface with no problem. Sleek, graceful, and totally silent, each one moving more like liquid smoke flowing upwards than an actual living being crawling up a metal wall. The three keeping a slow and steady pace with him as he continued to pull himself up one rung at a time toward the top. Even as quiet as he tried to be, with all that he was carrying, with as little noise as he made, Shawn could swear that each step he took, each breath he inhaled and exhaled echoed throughout the massive chamber.

 _'You are doing well and are making very little noise,'_ Alese assured him, _'even if someone is up there they will not hear you coming.'_ While she could hear the small and subtle steps of the padded food ware make contact with the metal rungs on the ladder, it was something that no one would pick up, especially this far away.

Keeping his mind focused, Shawn continued up, how far the climb was he didn't know, a hundred meters, two hundred, maybe three for all he knew. Eyes forward and up, he didn't dare glance down, while he didn't have a fear of heights, this right now, might be the exception, and they had a long way to go before reaching the level that would take them into pod three.

As the catwalk drew closer with each step, Shawn realized that from his position in the safety cage he wasn't able to see anyone while making his way up. And while the Xenos had not detected anyone further up, for all any of them knew, there might be dozens or possibly hundred of personnel up there. And whether or not they were armed, it would make things very difficult.

Reaching the first walkway, Shawn slowly pulled himself to through the hatchway, and onto the walkway. No one was around, and even the other side of the outer wall seemed to be void of life. None of them knew if this area was supposed to be manned or not, or maybe everyone that could repair something had been called away to make emergency fixes.

Rubbing the slight ache out his arms and shoulders; then pulling them in, several joints popped loudly giving him a slight bit of relief. Bringing up the wrist-mounted data-pad he quickly checked the signal strength; it was still showing a strong signal, _good_ , he thought to himself as he wouldn't need to deploy a signal amplifier here. Switching back over to the map, it showed that the next lift was about a hundred feet to their right, and probably along with another ladder. He was hoping that the lifts would be working from here on out. The last thing they needed was to do a slow climb which would eat up a lot of time, time that they could not afford to waste.

"Anything?" Shawn whispered.

Panning their heads around, a few seconds later all three Xenos gave him a negative that no one was around.

Taking point, silently Shadow began to move on, _'Let us go.'_ He said.

It took under a minute to reach the next lift, hitting the button to call the lift down, all four of them found that it was like the other one. It was dead or on lockdown, either way, it wasn't moving. Shawn was about to let out a flurry of expletive words and possibly made up a few new ones on the spot when what sounded like footsteps caught their attention.

Pressing his body against the metal wall, he brought the pulse rifle up. And right then a whirlwind of thought stormed into his mind. Was this it, was he finally going to have to pull the trigger and kill someone. He had gotten lucky with the mercs, and while he hadn't killed anyone directly, he had helped the Xenos so in that regards he was at the very least partly responsible for those deaths. But that had been in defense, defense of his new found home and family. Now it seemed the four of them were playing the part of aggressors instead of defenders.

The footsteps stopped, and for a few seconds, silence. Then the steps started up again, only now they were fading away.

Shadow was gazing intently at the direction the steps had come from as his inner jaw fully extended out as he scent tasted the air. _'No fresh human scent,'_ he told them.

"Androids?" Shawn quietly asked, carefully laying down the pulse rifle on the metal grate then unshouldering the stun-rifle; activating the weapon. It hummed to life for a moment as power coursed through the rifle and then went silent. Setting the power to max, he picked up the pulse rifle slung it over his shoulder, the heavy rifle hanging in front of him.

 _'Possibly,'_ Shadow answered, then turned to look at Ghost and Alese, right away the two drones started to climb up the metal wall and stopped when they were about forty feet in the air. _'Ambush, drop and tear,'_ he told Shawn with a deadly coldness in his mental voice, as the more predatory aspects once again rose to the surface.

Cautiously the four advanced, Shadow and Shawn on the catwalk with Alese and Ghost trailing far above them. Shadow stopped without warning as Ghost who had advanced slightly ahead of them, told the two that there was a pair what looked like androids stationed only a dozen meters away from them. The bend didn't allow Shadow or Shawn to see them just yet, but they were there.

Leveling the stun-rifle up, Shawn slowly started to ease forward, pressing himself up against the metal wall, the hulking Xeno towering just next to him. ' _Let me take first shot, I can drop one while Alese or Ghost tackle the other,'_ Shawn suggested to the three.

 _'Do not miss,'_ Shadow told him, as they agreed on the hastily made plan.

After another four to five meters Shawn stopped as he could barely see the side of an arm holding what might have been a weapon Taking another couple of steps, stopping he knelt down and leaned over to the right slightly, looking through the rifle's scope. Right in the crosshairs, the side profile of an artificial, pasty white face with white glowing eyes filled his vision. He had only seen these androids on the Saratoga and other than what he had read he knew nothing about their combat abilities. He just hoped that their peripheral vision wasn't that good or that the android wouldn't turn to face their direction in the next few seconds. Putting his finger on the trigger, he took a deep breath and slowly let it out. _'Ready,'_ he mentally told them.

' _As am I,'_ Alese's voice came back, _'I will tell you when to fire.'_

Steadying his arm, he could have sworn that he felt a mental _woosh_ whip through his mind, almost as if he was in freefall for a split second. It was right then that Alese told him to pull the trigger.

A single bright bluish, white electrical discharge burst from the rifle, fraction of a second later the burst hit the android dead center in the head, instantly it fell, the body uncontrollably twitching. Half second after that the sound of something heavy hitting something soft with a slight metal clank echoed out. And then silence.

Making their way around the bend, Shawn and Shadow saw Alese hunkered down on top of the combat android's chest, her tail blade embedded right in the top of its skull, white nutritional fluid leaking from its nostril and mouth.

"Nice going," Shawn said, kneeling down next to the androids and started to remove the pulse rifle and sidearm magazines.

 _'And to you,'_ Alese replied to Shawn, rather proud of her precision strike against the android warrior. Slowly standing up she yanked her tail blade out of the android's head, a trail of white fluid dripping down from the black blade. In a single, swift strike, she repeated the motion on the other android. With an odd, meaty, wet _thunk_ that didn't sound entirely normal, the blade embedded itself halfway into the front of its skull. _'To make sure that it does some come back on,' s_ he said.

"Damn it, no coms devices, androids are probably communicating with their internal coms units," Shawn muttered to himself, hoping that he could have snagged one of the station's communication units to hear what was going on to help keep their group out of trouble. With no luck on that, he picked up the ammo magazines, went over to Shadow and stored the extra ammo in the bag hanging from the Xeno's dorsal tube. Heading back to the two androids and tried to pick one of them up to dispose of it. "Help me toss these guys over the side," he said, trying to heave it over the safety rail, the weight of the android far more than what he had first thought.

 _'Please, allow me.'_ Shadow said, grabbing the android by its combat vest, hauled the droid back, and with a full body swing sent the combat android sailing out into the empty air, ten feet at first then twenty and finally thirty before it finally started to fall.

 _'Showoff,'_ Alese told him, as she simply pushed the remaining android over the rails and watched it fall until it was nothing more than a speck that finally disappeared.

Shawn turned to the two Xenos that were only a meter or so away, not even noticing that Ghost was still high above them, something grabbing his attention. "I think that we took them out quick enough, but I wouldn't be surprised if the main system registers them as going offline and someone gets sent down here to investigate. Need to continue..." Ghost suddenly cut him off, his voice while not panicking was tense and on edge.

 _'More android warriors are coming, '_ He broadcasted to them, sending a mental image of what he saw from high up _' four of them, two by two group, weapons are still facing down. You have less than twenty seconds.'_

"Shit," Shawn whispered kneeling back down, leveling the stun rifle. Ghost had said that their weapons were still facing down, maybe it was just a random patrol that they had just barely missed on their assent, and they were coming to investigate why two androids were no longer online transmitting. If that was the case, it meant they still might have the element of surprise on their side. If he could score another direct hit, disabling the android with a first shot, then have Ghost and Alese drop down at the same time. That would leave just one, one that could easily be dispatched in mere seconds, though those were seconds that it could transmit a signal back to the command station and call for help or at the very least alert the command staff to their presence.

Alese climbed up the wall as fast as she could to get in position with Ghost without giving herself away. Shadow dropped down on all fours, his aggression ramping up, ready to pounce and rend at whatever was going to come around the bin in the next few seconds.

They all heard it now, the sound of heavy uniform footsteps on the metal grate quickly approaching them.

Looking through the scope, he took another breath and slowly let it out, his finger beginning to squeeze the trigger slowly. Another moment or two and the four synthetics would be in sight.

A pale white face with blank white eyes that shone no emotion, only a slight glow, came into the crosshairs. And in that second, Shawn fired the weapon. A burst of blue energy hit and enveloped the pale white face, causing the unit to jerk and twitch, then collapse moments later. Shiny black filled his scope sights a second later as Shadow charged in, his massive hand gripping around the droids head and with a single quick motion ripped it off.

Shawn never heard Alese or Ghost attack, and for a few seconds, as he kept his rifle trained on whatever else was going to come around the bin, he wondered if they had been unable to. It was only when the two drones came into view a few seconds after, each one dragging a mauled android behind then that he knew the attack had worked. The hard training they had all undergone looked to be paying off, and while it was far from perfect, the timing and coordination of the attacks were much better than he would have expected.

There was the question, however, did any of the androids had had any time to transmit a signal back to the command center? And should they be expecting more reinforcements to show up soon, a question that none of them were going to wait around for an answer.

Shawn quickly checked the androids for any coms devices, the results being the same as before, nothing. Grabbing several more of the pulse and side arms magazines, he saw and commandeered a belt of flash and stun grenades that one of the androids was wearing. Something that he figured would most definitely come in handily later on. At the very least would add to the small cache he bought with him. If he had the time, he would have continued to rifle through the android's gear hoping to find anything of further use.

Shadow, on the other hand, had decided they were out of time and needed to move. _'We need to leave and now.'_ He said, gripping Shawn by the shoulder. They had just taken out six android warriors, and all the Xenos knew that where one android warrior was, many more were soon to follow.

"Right," Shawn said, throwing the magazines and grenades into the bag, "let's go." He was about to turn around to head to the ladder to start his climb when the Praetorian stopped him.

 _'No, no more climbing like that, get on my back, I will carry you the rest of the way.'_ Shadow's voice, while not harsh was stern, the tension building in it. He was letting Shawn know that this was not a debate or an option and that he was carrying the human all the way up and that was final. He had only been back to this place a very short time, and the weight of all that had happened was beginning to feel like an oppressive weight pressing down on him. And not just him, but Alese and especially Ghost as well. They had wasted too much time had already; they needed to hurry, free the others and escape.

"Okay," Shawn said, not entirely sure if this idea was a good one or not, but he wasn't about to try and argue the point. As soon as Shadow had knelt down in front of him, back turned, Shawn hoisted himself up wrapping his legs over the lower dorsal pipes and grabbing onto both of the upper pipes. So far it felt alright, but he suspected that as soon as Shadow was up and crawling, it was going to be a very interesting ride. "I'm on and ready," he told Shadow as he moved his head out of the way of the protruding boney spike that was nestled just above the two upper dorsal pipes.

Alese and Ghost quickly flung the androids off the walkway; a moment later the three were rapidly crawling up the sheer wall face going far quicker than they had before. While the ride was not completely uncomfortable, Shawn did find himself wishing that he could have wrapped his legs around Shadow's torso at least a little to help give himself better support. Instead, he was more or less sitting and hanging there, the bag of ammo and equipment constantly bumbling him in the face.

Closing his eyes, all Shawn could do was wait until they arrived on the next walkway, and judging from the speed the Xenos were going, that would not be long at all. He didn't know how far the center column extended up, but judging from the layout and what he had seen, he would not have been surprised it if was well over a kilometer or even two. Thankfully they wouldn't have to go that far to get to the access area that would take them into the pod.

 _'We are almost there,'_ Shadow's voice slipped into his mind, _'no movement from what I can see.'_

Opening his eyes, Shawn tried to look up, but Shadow's head crest completely obstructed his view. Looking over to the right and then to the left, he saw the walkway bridges that extended between the inner column and the outer wall that had a massive walkway ring going around. "Crap," Shawn whispered in a hushed tone as they were now only a few meters right below the metal grating walkway. Several figures were coming across one of the bridges toward the inner walkway circle. At this point, he couldn't tell if they were human or androids. But the footfalls from what he now picked up as they drew closer were not uniformed and in sync, _possibly human_ he thought to himself. _'We've got someone coming toward us on the bridge.'_ He mentally sent the group, who were well aware of the predicament they might soon be facing.

All three slowly made their way until they were just underneath the bridge, a small group of five or six, was just above them. Quiet chattering came from the group. However, Shawn couldn't pick up what was anyone was saying, the tone sounded distraught possibly fearful. He thought that he saw a few of them wearing what might be maintenance suits and gear, workers no doubt. No guards, from what he could see were mixed in with the group. Good, that would make passing through much easier.

The footfalls faded until there was nothing, Shawn didn't even realize he had been holding his breath the whole time. All it would have taken was for one of them to look down and see right through the grates, and that would have been it. He wasn't sure how they would have handled a group of unarmed personal at this point, a bloodbath was unlikely, more than likely the people would have been subdued and restrained. At least that was what he kept telling himself.

 _'We are clear.'_ Ghost informed them, as he continued to scan the area for anyone else that might be approaching. In seconds they were over the safety rails and continued to make their way up, their assent now faster than before, and with the increased speed, the ride became bumpier.

Trying to take his mind off just how high up they were now, he tried to look at his wrist-mounted computer. They had passed two of the catwalk rings, and if he were right, the access way to pod three would be around the fourth ring. Out of morbid curiously he checked the status on just how high they had gone up, and right then wished that he hadn't. Over six hundred meters and going, he knew that the station was huge, dwarfing the Saratoga, but the length from the ground to where they needed to go was around the same length as the ship itself. Flipping the case closed all he could do now was hold on and wait until they reached the third ring to see what kind of trouble awaited them there.

The three Xeno continued to climb, their muscles never once tiring or getting sore, their bodies had been designed for activities such as this, to go days on end with no rest. Climbing up a kilometer long metal wall presented very little if any challenge for them.

Lights flickered, and then darkness enveloped them, even the low humming of the machines went silent. And for a few moments, an eerie sense of weightlessness gripped him.

"Oh shit," Shawn muttered, the darkness surrounding, enclosing on him, its presence tightly gripping his whole being squeezing the air of out him. He never had any problem with total darkness before, but somehow being here in this place, this sold vertical tunnel of metal, being over half a kilometer high, somehow that made being in here almost unbearable. He swore he could hear panicked shouts, people barking orders, small flashlights and emergency lights activating.

 _'We are approaching the third catwalk ring,'_ Shadow told him, hoping the news would help rest Shawn's fears. It did, but only a little.

Silently Shawn acknowledged him, closing his eyes, it was a very unusual sensation, the lack of gravity surrounded him but the constant force of being propelled upward on the back of a living creature pushing him down ever so slightly. "Wonder if the nuke did more damage than what I calculated? The shockwave was slightly stronger than what I was expecting, but it shouldn't have done this kind of damage." He quietly asked, more to himself than to Shadow. It was odd, a station this size should have been able to withstand a blast like what the nuke had produced easily enough. Power fluctuations would have happened, damage to the outer hull, and as it had happened the station had been thrown off by a few degrees from its original position, but nothing like this should have happened.

 _'It is possible; it is also all the more reason to get to the lab as quick as we can and leave this place.'_ Shadow told him, his mind staying focused on the single task at hand. And right now that was to get back into the third pod.

"Agreed," Shawn told him, wanting to get away from this place as fast as he could also. "You can see alright like, can't you?" It was a dumb question, he knew that the Xenos vision was far beyond and very different from that of a human's normal eyesight and that seeing in both low light and complete darkness wasn't normally a problem, as he had seen through Ghost's memories first hand. It was a question that just cropped up out of nervousness tension.

 _'We see everything.'_ Shadow replied, to him the area was far from dark, slight tendrils of power snaked all over the walls, illuminating the surface ever so slightly. The humans that were just above them on the catwalk, their bodies glowed with a slight blue from their living energy. And the androids that were next to them, the same false white energies, only to a much lesser extent.

Just a couple of meters below the catwalk they stopped. Then slowly started to creep along underneath the perimeter of the catwalk, voices of personal, possibly techs were talking, trying to figure out what was going on with the power and gravity. Was it isolated to the main hub, were the pods compromised, had they been attacked or had it been some freak accident? From what Shawn heard and what the Xenos saw, dozens of humans and androids were carefully making their way along the walkways.

The shallow pull of gravity slowly started to take hold, as a few lights in the distance started to glow back to life. Shadow was carefully observing a pair of androids just above them, each one looking around; the two didn't seem to be carrying weapons and instead looked to be wearing tool vests. A human was just behind them working on a wall panel, the bright glow of a small handheld welder lighting the area around him. Several more humans passed slowly by, each one with similar questions and speculations as the others had.

Shadow tilted his head to the working android on his right; Ghost quickly moved over just underneath it, his body tensing up poised to strike. He continued to observe the way the synthetics were looking around as if they were themselves were observing the progress of what was going on around them. If for just a second they would turn their heads away from each other.

A few turns of their heads later, the androids had done what he hoped they would. _'NOW!'_ Shadow ordered, and in a flash of black movement, both Xenomorphs shot out from underneath the catwalk, hanging on the edge of the safety rail, each one grabbing an android by the head and yanking it off the catwalk. The quick momentum sent the pair of androids hurling down toward the bottom of the dark shaft. For a second a faint synthetic voice could be heard then nothing.

"You guys say something?" The maintenance tech muttered completely oblivious to the two Xenos looking right at him from behind.

Ghost and Shadow glanced over to each other for a moment, shrugged, and in another quick blur of movement propelled themselves up. The microgravity did little to hinder their movement as they shot up several dozen feet before coming in contact with the metal surface of the column. Alese was only a second behind them, launching herself up, the tip of her bladed tail hitting the safety rail with a loud metallic _clang_.

"What the hell?" The maintenance worker asked wondering what had caused the sound. As he took off the dark welding goggles that he had been wearing, he saw that both of the androids were nowhere to in the area. Looking over to the left and then to the right, he peered over the edge of catwalk but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Never even thinking to look up, only a few dozen feet straight above him the three serpentine figures started their assent.

Shadow had to mentally chuckle to himself, as he could only imagine the complete bewilderment that that poor human tech was going through at the moment. While it was a small thing, it was good that he could find a bit of amusement to help break the tension, given their predicament and what they were about to do.

Now a few hundred meters away from the fourth catwalk ring. Only a few hundred meters away from the where they would be able to gain access to the lower area of pod three. From there the labs, Shadow wondered to himself if **he** would be there, if that horrible man-thing, Mason, the one that had caused them all so much pain and suffering. And if he was, what would he or any of them do, if they came face to face with him. Each one had dreamed of hundreds of ways to kill that human, none of them quick or painless. Perhaps they could spare of a few minutes to make sure that he would meet a slow and grizzly end.

 _'You need to focus on what's important, what we ALL came here for,'_ Shawn's mental voice slipped into his head, snapping him back to reality. Shadow had let his thoughts drift, and of course, Shawn being in physical contact had picked up on them right away. Their human was right, as much as revenge would satisfy him and the others, it was not the reason they were here. Continuing to climb, Shadow kept his thoughts in check and focused on their plain.

They had climbed another hundred meters up from the last catwalk when more lights started to glow, illuminating the area. What had only been a slight tug of gravity, suddenly became a full downward grip as gravity fully took hold of each one. The weightlessness and then low gravity had been pleasant enough, even an assist as it helped conserve their strength. And now it was gone.

Fortifying their grip on the column, the three Xenos dug their claws into the hardened metal for added support as they became used to gravities full pull once again. Not all the lights had come back on, and many that were on were still wildly flickering. The mass strobbing effect would at least help mask their cover as they moved.

Gripping on tighter to Shadow's dorsal tubes, Shawn glanced around, trying to avoid looking down. A simple slip or loosened grip, and he might find himself plummeting to his death; a kilometer was a long way to fall. And there was nothing that Shadow, Alese or Ghost could do to save him. If the lifts had only been working, they could have made it up without taking the risk of this insane climb. However, there had been workers and combat androids on the catwalk rings. And if those workers or androids had caught sight of them, things would have escalated very quickly. Maybe it was best that they were doing this climb after all.

Shadow started to move again, his muscles pushing and pulling, straining as he continued to climb, his speed increasing as the distance to the next catwalk grew shorter and shorter with each step. Many long minutes later they finally reached the next catwalk ring. Now only a few meters underneath the metal grating, they could see more human workers, as well as androids, milling around. About a hundred meters away on their left was the long bridge that would lead them into the lower area of the third pod.

That was if everything on the schematics was correct. At the end of the bridge, there should be an access way that would take them into the pod.

Creeping around the column, heading toward the bridge, each one made sure to stay silent. All it would take was for one person to look down, see them, hit a panic button, and that would be it. A firefight would happen, and a bloodbath would ensue, probably not the best way to start a rescue.

However, no one ever bothered to look down, never seeing the three black forms silently gliding across the metal column toward the bridge.

 _'Shawn,'_ Shadow's voice flowed into the human's mind, there was concern followed by a hint of fear even. _'You need to hang on tight; we can't cross over the top of the bridge if we do the human's will see us. We will need to crawl underneath it.'_

"Crap," Shawn meekly whispered back, cold terror gripping his whole body. Gods he hadn't even thought about this, he...no all three of them would be hanging over a kilometer deep abysses. One misstep would be all it would take for one of them to fall. While he wasn't really afraid of heights, this was jabbing frozen knives into his nerves.

The bridge was only a few dozen meters away, as luck would have it, no one was crossing, at least not yet. And right there, Shawn could have sworn that that hunk of metal was now their worst enemy and had come to life. Mocking and laughing at them, daring them to cross, threatening to throw them off and to their deaths.

Bile and nausea threatened to ram into his stomach, a sudden and very unwelcomed vision of one or all of his beloved Xenos suddenly losing their grip and falling to a horrible death ripped into his mind. The terrified screams that would follow as they fell, the impact that would shatter their bones into hundreds of pieces. The devastating loss of such a beautiful and wonderful life that would be gone forever, at that moment all he wanted to do was hold onto each of them and keep them from harm, from death.

 _'It will be alright, calm your mind, none of us are going to die.'_ Shadow told him, sending a blanket of mental warmth and comfort, trying to calm Shawn down. He knew it was fear that was taking hold, and while it was a well-founded fear, the fear needed to be dealt with and removed. _'Relive a memory that gives you comfort while we cross. It will help keep you calm.'_

And just like that, in that short span of time, they were at the underbelly of the bridge, ready to cross over.

His grip around Shadow tightened his arm and leg muscles now so tense and tight they started to strain and hurt. Even with that, Shawn buried his face in the small of Shadow's back, his face right up against several of the many protruding vertebrae. He started to run through the many pleasant memories that he had built up with them over the past months. The times they had slept together, curled up together in each other's warmth, the countless times they had made love together, or the simple times of sharing a meal together. His mind rapidly started to run through all of them, anything to take his mind off what they were doing. Even buried in his memories, he felt it, felt the tug of gravity as Shadow was upside down carefully going across the bridge.

The heft of the pulse rifle and stun rifle that he had slung around his torso stated to pull down on him. At first, it was little more than a slight inconvenience, and annoyance, something that he could ignore. But the weapons seemed to get heavier and heavier the further they went out underneath the bridge. Opening his eyes, Shawn made the mistake of turning his head, the abyss they were over, seemingly coming up toward him. All there was was the massive outer and inner wall of gunmetal gray metal, lit up by the flickering lights that seemed to extend down forever. Even lit as well as it was, he couldn't see the bottom of the shaft. He knew it was there as they had started their climb from the very bottom, but all he could see was a sickening black that seemed to want to reach out to him and pull him down.

And just for a split second, he felt it, the raw terror of letting go, slipping and falling, tumbling uncontrollably into the inky blackness below. A living blackness that seemed all too quick to rise and grab him, to take him away from everything and everyone, and was eager to consume him.

Shadow's voice piercing his mind, screaming at him, attempting to breaking through whatever barrier had unexpectedly gone up. The words itself he couldn't make out, at least not for the first few seconds, Shadow's voice was not alone, Ghost and Alese's voices rang out in an intense chorus trying to break through to him.

It took only a second or two as Shawn broke out of his panic induced state, his pulps dilated to little more than pinpricks. With a gasp of air he snapped his head back burying his face into Shadow's back, his grip tighter than before, almost to the point his muscles were starting to cramp.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..." Shawn cursed quietly over and over to himself as tears, more from raw tension than from an emotional outburst trailed down his face. He couldn't believe he had done something as stupid as to look down like that, what had he been thinking? Thankfully Alese's voice flowed into his head, giving him some good news.

 _'We are close to the other side, focus on something else for a little bit longer,'_ Alese told him, trailing close behind Shadow. She, however, was not going to let him know that someone had started to cross the bridge from the now far side. The subtle vibrations traveling through the metal grates with each step were easy enough for the Xenos to pick up. For them, it acted as an early warning system, much in the same way a spider might detect something caught in its web before coming to investigate, attack and ensnare. And while they would be at the other side of the bridge long before the unseen human or android was on them, it wouldn't do to put more stress on Shawn that what was necessary.

Shawn muttered something unintelligible, his face pressed into Shadow's bony backside, but the message was clear. He would find some way to distract and compose himself as best as he could. His mind went back to the plan, the door just ahead, accessing the lock and getting the door open. He was just thankful that the remaining time to cross took only a few more minutes. He knew without a doubt that they could have been over in a fraction of the time it had taken them. With that speed, however, they would blow any change to stay hidden.

Finally getting across to the other side, Shadow righted himself up on some of the support bars. Right away he could feel the tension drain away as Shawn's body relaxed some and the human's iron-clad grip loosened up. _'Shawn, are you alright?'_ The Praetorian asked, worried that this unexpected episode might have rattled Shawn far too much for him to concentrate on the tasks at hand.

After a few long moments, Shawn raised his head, about to answer Shadow when he heard the encroaching sounds of footfalls hitting the metal grate. The figure of a person just above them passed over, moments later the sound of the footfalls grew softer, then faded into nothing as he or she walked away. "I'm fine, I just needed a minute or two to pull myself together," Shawn whispered back, keeping his voice as low as possible. He still wasn't sure what had exactly happened back there, maybe it was the simple fact that he had been dangling off the underside of a bridge that was well over a kilometer high. Maybe with everything they were about to dive into it was a case of stress and overload temporarily taking a toll on him.

Whatever the case was, he was certain about one thing, the sooner they got out of this massively overexposed chamber, the better, as it was no longer a matter of if someone would see them but when. None of them could afford to hang around waiting for him to feel better, they needed to move and now. The four of them just needed to get to the door and make it through without being seen. A task that was now easier said than done. If only the station's gravity and lights had stayed out for a while longer, that would have made things so much easier for them.

Ghost and Alese moved ahead to scout and see if anyone was near their position. According to what Shawn had described to them, the doorway to pod three was just off to the right by a few dozen meters. And from the way, things looked so far no one was in that area. While it was a good start, it wouldn't stay that way for long once someone detected them, be it from the inner ring or outer ring. Once someone activated the alarm, they would have little to no time before armed personal arrived and their element of surprise would be gone.

As Shadow moved forward, Shawn fished through the duffle bag that was still tied onto Shadow's upper dorsal tube, finding the necessary piece of equipment to get them through the doors security system, provided it was locked. Their odd streak of luck had held so far, so perhaps it wouldn't be locked as he assumed it would be.

Shadow bolted up over the safety railing once he had gotten the signal from Ghost and Alese that no one was around. If they felt overexposed before, now crouched on the upper catwalk for anyone to see made Shadow aware of just how vulnerable and naked they were now. Even with the lights still randomly flicking off and on in some areas, shadow and light seemed to dance and intertwine together creating a multitude of random patterns; it wasn't enough to give the Xenomorph and his human companion any real cover from prying eyes.

Pushing himself out between from Shadow's dorsal tubes, Shawn tumbled down landing on his side, now finding that his legs were numb and cramped. Moving his legs back and forth a few times to get the blood flowing, hundreds of thousands of invisible needles all at once poked and jab at his legs and thighs as the feeling slowly came back into his appendages.

"Help me up," Shawn grunted, as he tried to push himself up off the floor, the numbness in his legs still tingling painfully. _No excesses_ he told himself, he needed to get that door open and now. Every second they spent on the open catwalk was one more second they risked discovery.

Whipping around, Shadow had Shawn up, supporting him as he helped the limping human over to the door. Instead of a heavy security door, Shawn found himself looking at a heavily reinforced airlock, something that he would see on the outside of a military ship or station. That part did make sense since the pods were modular and could detach from the main hub of the station. Any doorways or openings would have to be reinforced to withstand the deadly vacuum of space.

He tapped the green open button on the control pad and instead of the airlock door opening up; it greeted him with a loud but short squawk. Hitting it again a few more times, each time the same loud and short squawk came back. "You should hide, less of a chance you'll be seen," Shawn told Shadow tapping the pad a few times trying to find out what was going on.

 _'No, you need me up here with you,'_ Shadow told him crouching down his back to Shawn's own. The Praetorian's head panned back and forth, actively searching out anyone that might see them.

Shawn grunted out loud, some due to the painful needle-like numbness that ran through his legs, the sensation was thankfully starting to ease up some. But also at Shadow's ever persistent stubbornness, he fully understood the alien's reasoning behind it, he was there to protect him, but right now the Xeno was making himself a very large target for anyone to see.

The Xeno continued to scan the walkways, while he could make out personal on the far side, he couldn't tell if they had seen him or not. Maybe from a distance, to them, his black form might be nothing more than a spot of darkness on the wall. His concentration suddenly broke as an intense mix of frustration, aggravation, and fear shot out from Shawn.

"Shit, damn it, sonofabitch," Shawn blurted out, kicking the airlock door, a dull metallic thud sounded out.

Shadow turned his head to bring Shawn's form into his peripheral vision, _"What is it? What happened?'_ The Xeno asked, worried now that Shawn might have set off an alarm and alerted the whole station to their presence.

"The whole bloody station is on lockdown." Shawn paused for a moment, not even bothering to look over at Shadow, "I can't get through the locks, at least not in a few minutes. Maybe if I had a few hours or a day I could, but we don't have that kind of time."

Shadow's mind started to race; he quickly started to remember all the hallways, passageways, vents and air ducts that he and his kin had seen and explored before escaping. Surely that airlock wasn't the only way inside. _'Can you cut through the doors or the lock?'_

"Sure, if we had a portable high-powered plasma or laser cutter, but not with what I have on me," Shawn told him, glancing down at the small handheld plasma cutter that he had holstered on his hip. It might have had the power to cut an inch at best into the heavily reinforced door, but anything beyond that the small cutter wasn't capable of handling.

Shadow's attention was no longer on Shawn as he was now looking up at the smooth metal wall. Vents ran throughout the station, large air vents that he and his kin had traveled through during their escape, maybe those same vents ran into this area. Much further up he spotted something, it looked small, at least from where he was at, he could tell it protruded out ever so slightly. From this distance, he couldn't tell just how large it was or what it was to be exact, but perhaps it might be their way inside. _'What about vents?'_ Shadow asked, his focus still protruding object. _'There is something up just above us and over slightly to your left.'_

Shawn looked up but wasn't able to see anything, how Shadow was able to see something that far away he couldn't even guess. Maybe the Xenos heightened senses gave him the ability to detect things that humans, in general, couldn't see from far away. Whatever it was it didn't matter, if Shadow had found a possible way in they needed to take it and fast. He grabbed his binoculars to get a better look. It was a vent opening of some kind, air, not sure, waste perhaps, that was a pleasant thought. They couldn't get through the door, so that was going to be the way into pod three.

Going through the station's layout, he did find the vent, just above their position a little over seventy-five meters above them and as Shadow had pointed out just to their left. And while it wasn't an air vent, it might work. "Ok, I think..."Something moved in his peripheral vision to his far left, his heart stopped or at least missed a beat as he looked over and froze for a few seconds. His gaze locked right onto something, or as luck would now have it, someone, "Oh shit." He muttered to himself, now realizing the ramifications of what was about to happen.

Standing a couple of dozen meters away from them was one of the tech personnel, his eyes paralyzed with fear. The data pad he had in his hand dropping to the floor with a soft metallic clank as it hit the metal gadding and lay flat. He was young, maybe in his mid to late twenties at best and just under six feet; thin too. He wore gray pants with a few oily splotch stains, and a worn blue shirt overlaid with a dark gray tech and equipment vest, lined with an assortment of tools for various basic jobs.

Even from where he was at, Shawn recognized that look all too well. The absolute raw fear, the terror that took grip and paralyzed him, the ramped up heart rate, a beat so loud that it rung in one's ears drowning out everything else. The clammy, coldness that would course through the body, and the rampant thoughts that would run through the mind wounding if you were going to live or die in the next few seconds and the question of how painful it was going to be. It had been the same look that he had when he first ran into Shadow in CIC. Only that meeting had been inches away, face to face, and he had been left with nowhere to run. In this case, the tech had at least a good few dozen meters head start, not that it would do him any good, as Shadow could cover that distance in mere moments with his massive strides.

The tech never moved once, even as Shadow swung his head around and locked his eyeless gaze on him, slowly standing upright to his full height. The move was neither out of intimidation or malice but more out of a precautionary measure. The large Xeno knew the human tech would bolt just as soon as he got over his initial shock and gathered his wits. And once that happened, he would be forced to chase the human down before he sounded the alarm.

The young tech took a step back, his eyes still fully locked onto the massive Xenomorph several dozen meters away. Perhaps he was coming around and regaining his senses, the initial shock starting to wear off from what he was seeing. But even if he had run it would have done him no good, as he never saw the swift and silent black form glide underneath him and come up over the safety rail and onto the walkway, now standing directly behind him.

A slick, black arm wrapped around the young man's neck holding him firmly in place. He eyes budged out in the horrible realization of what had just happened. In his panicked struggle, he glanced up only to see the glistening bony under jaw of the alien that now had him in its grip, a grip that was getting tighter with each passing second. He gasped for air only to find that he was unable to draw any breath, his arms and legs flailing wildly and he tried to twist his body needing to break free, but the powerful grip the alien had on him would not yield. Opening his mouth he tried to call out, to scream, but nothing would come out. He heard a hiss, the sound was soft, in a way almost gentle, come from the Xenomorph, something he had not expected from such a creature.

The outline of his vision darkened, becoming blurry; he wanted to beg and plead for the creature to let him go. He didn't want to die not like this, whatever he had done wrong up to this point he asked for forgiveness and to be given a second chance to make things right. _Please, I don't want to die, please._ That thought reverberated through his head over and over a thousand times as he tried to fight for one last gasp of air but nothing more than a few pitiful wheezes escaping. Tears streamed down his now red face, and with that, the darkness closed in around him as his body went limp in the Xeno's grip.

Shawn watched the whole ordeal as Alese carefully lay the tech down on the ground, the tips of her fingers touching the young man's neck and then his chest. He was still alive as she had only rendered him unconscious instead of killing him outright. He was never a real threat to them, just a scared young human who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, it had been hard to watch, the sounds of his gasping and wheezing, the look of absolute terror, the pleading look on his face as his tried to grapple for his freedom.

As necessary as it had been, the only other options would have been to either let the tech sound the alarm or to kill him outright. It had left Shawn slightly queasy with an unpleasant ball in the pit of his stomach that now sat uncomfortably there.

 _'He is unharmed and will recover in a short order of time.'_ Alese told them as she quickly made her way over to Shadow and Shawn. _'Our cover will be gone very soon; we need to leave this area and quickly.'_ She said, wondering what the plan was now, as they were unable to get through the main door into the pod.

Shadow looked over to Shawn who was still looking over toward the unconscious tech. He could feel that what had happened, had for some reason had struck a nerve with their human, but at this moment, that was not important, getting out of here was. _'Shawn,'_ Shadow said, seeming to bring him out of whatever fog he was in, _'that vent or whatever it is, can you get us into it?'_

Looking back down at the datapad, Shawn tapped the screen a couple of times to check the signal strength. While the signal was still within acceptable limits, he would need to deploy another amplifier soon. "I don't know, maybe." He said, "It's going to depend on what kind of security features are in place and how quickly I can get through them. It doesn't look like an air vent, so I'm not sure what it is." Shawn told him closing the protective cover over the pad.

 _'Alese, Ghost continue to stay hidden and keep a lookout, we will be completely vulnerable while we are up there.'_ Shadow said, not particularly liking the idea of swinging his tail out in the open for all to see like this, but it was a chance they were now going to have to take. Being on the walkway was bad enough, but now they were going up on the outer wall and would be completely exposed for all to see.

Shawn didn't need coaxing as Shadow lowered himself back down, grabbing onto the upper dorsal tube, he hoisted himself back into what was a less than comfortable position on the Praetorian's back. A second later as he grabbed on to a tube to secure himself, Shadow launched himself and was scaling up the wall. Alese had gone back over the safety rail and was hiding next to Ghost underneath the walkway, the two of them scanning the area.

The climb was more of a mad and rushed scamper, jarring and rough, not like it had been before when it felt more like a smooth glide. In under a minute, Shadow climbed up the seventy-five-meter sheer metal wall, a new record by Shawn's estimate.

The opening was far larger than what Shawn had thought it would be. The frame surrounding the aperture jutted out six inches from the wall and was a perfect eight by eight-foot square. But where the opening should have been, was blocked by a retractable metal shutter that tightly sealed the opening. The color of the shutter was not the normal gunmetal grey that made up the rest of area, but more of a shiny crystal white that almost sparkled in the flickering light.

Touching the metal shutter with the tips of his fingers, Shawn quickly pulled them back right away as what looked like a while power fell where he had touched the metal. "Frost," he said, rubbing the tips of his fingers together trying to get rid of the intense coldness from just that brief touch, "possibly a cooling system, maybe this is an outtake of some kind."

Reaching out with a hand, Shadow gripped the bottom of the shutter as tight as he was able to and tried to lift up. The metal creaked and groaned as the shutter strained, small flakes of the hard frost broke away and fell. Despite his strength, however, the shutter never budged an inch.

"Let me try this," Shawn said, reaching down and retrieving the handheld plasma cutter. "Get me lowered down so I can start cutting through," Shawn told him. Shadow moved down several feet until he had Shawn level with the bottom of the shutter. "You realize that this is going to be like sending up a flare in a dark room," he said, lifting the safety visor into place on the torch and with the twist of a small knob on top and the pull of a trigger, a small but intense white flame with a bright blue center erupted to life. Shawn just hoped that Shadow's bulk and black form would help shield most of the light coming from the cutter.

Shawn leaned over and started to slowly run the plasma torch across the bottom of the shutter. A shower of sparks erupted as red and then white-hot molten metal started to pool as the torch cut through the metal shutter. The smell of steam mixed in with metallic smoke assaulted his nose, it was a smell he had never gotten used to and still did not like it. He couldn't guess how thick the shutter was, an inch maybe five for all he knew. What he had noticed when Shadow tried to lift it up was that it did have some slight give, not much but just enough to indicate that it wasn't pressurized. Which meant that it had a locking mechanism of some sort, and from personal experience, most shutters like that had the locks located at the bottom. Here was to hoping the design was roughly the same and that the engineers who designed this station hadn't changed that small feature.

After cutting a couple of feet through the bottom of the shutter, a deafening, metallic snap reverberated from inside the shaft. The distinct sound of a metal cable twanging, and hitting against the metal walls, echoed out as it thrashed inside the shaft. A deafening stillness followed shortly after as the cable came to rest.

Neither one of them moved for a few seconds, their bodies momentarily frozen from the loud metallic racket. If no one in the vicinity had heard that commotion, they were either deaf or dead. Shadow snapped out of his momentary shock urging Shawn to continue cutting and quickly. The human now in a frantic hurry speed along as fast as he could, the plasma torch effortlessly melting the metal shutter. Halfway through another snap of cables could be heard followed by metal hitting against metal, the shutter slightly jerking up on the right side by a few inches. A chilled, vapor blast of icy air hit both human and Xeno in the face unexpectedly.

Despite that, all any of them could think about was getting this damn shutter opened up and crawl inside as quickly as they could. Shawn could swear that crosshairs had lined up on the back of his head; all he was waiting for was a shot that he would never hear. All that planning, and preparation, the training, figuring out the best way in and the ways through the station that would keep them hidden and now it all felt like it was falling apart. And all because they weren't able to get through a goddamn door, all this did was reaffirm his belief that the universe was truly one big sick joke. And at the moment they were the punch line.

And to reinforce that belief even more the intense blue flame of the plasma cutter fizzed and went out. Shawn cursed under his breath a string of colorful phrases, as he ejected the spent fuel canister, slapped in a fresh one and continued cutting.

 _'Hurry, we hear many humans approaching.'_ Alese's said her voice tight and worried.

Shadow swung his head to look down. From his height, the approaching group of humans looked like a small blob with a bluish hue with white specks mixed in. No doubt some androids that were mixed in with the group of humans. From his vantage, he couldn't tell if they were the harmless maintenance androids or if they were combat models.

 _'Just a few more seconds and I'll be through, get up here now!'_ Shawn told them, fear starting to take its hold on him. It wasn't the fear of a firefight, but more of the fear of losing either Alese or Ghost. He was afraid that if they waited any longer, they could be overrun and gunned down. He had no doubt they could take a large number of the group out, but he wasn't going to play the odds and risk losing anyone.

Shawn continued to move the plasma cutter through the metal to where the last lock should be. As the metal melted, the shutter creaked as its right side lifting up slightly more. _Just a few more seconds, that's all we need, please don't let us die, not where we are so damn close_ , he thought to himself _._ Off in the distance, down below, he finally heard it, the sounds of surprised and panicked shouts, and then weapons fire. It was a sound he had become very familiar with recently, that distinctive roar, no other weapon had it, the sounds of pulse rifles firing on full auto.

Lethal rounds flew up, barely missing the two black drones and they shot up the side of the metal facing jinxing left and right avoiding the deadly spray of fire. Round after round hit and ricocheted off the gunmetal gray wall, some coming within inches of hitting Ghost and Alese.

All Shawn could hear was his heart beating in his chest, so loud now, that it drowned out everything else. Thoughts started to rise in the back of his mind, and those thoughts were telling him that he was not going to get the shutter open in time and that both Alese and Ghost would die any second now. Deadly explosive tipped rounds would rip into their bodies, blowing their limbs and large chunks of flesh clean off in a messy spray of yellow, acidic blood and meat. Their remains would fall into the metal abyss, and he would feel them die as their thoughts slipped away from his, their link would be ripped apart from his mind, and he would be left alone.

No sooner had he started to push those thoughts to the back of his mind, when a deafening metallic roar, the shutter lurched open nearly knocking the cutter out of Shawn's hand as it flew back into a lightless tunnel. A blast of bitter cold enveloped both Shawn and Shadow, coating them with a light layer of frost as the cold and warm air mixed.

 _'It is open, hurry!'_ Shadow's metal voice boomed in their heads, as he swung aside giving the two drones a clear path to enter. More rounds flew by, a few hitting Shadow in the side of his crest but did little more than irritate the Praetorian. However, both Ghost and Alese screeched in pain as several rounds did find their mark. Even with their assent slowing from the injuries but both of them desperately pushed on to get into the protective cover. Yellow acidic blood flowed from their wounds, the deadly drops falling and splattering on the metal grate and people below. This time cries of agonizing pain mixed with more panicked shouting came from below.

 _'Serves you right, filth,'_ Shadow sneered at the attackers below in a controlled rage as Ghost, and Alese quickly scampered into the dark and cold vent. All four of them had gone out of their way to avoid killing anyone unnecessarily, and now they were being attacked. Hopefully, that acid fell onto whoever opened fire on them, it would be a painful reminder as to why their race was not to be trifled with. More rounds whizzed by, a few hitting the large Xeno, bouncing harmlessly of his thick chitin armor. A loud _crack_ echoed thought out the chamber, followed by something heavy and fast hitting the metal wall next to them by less than a foot and loudly ricocheted away.

"That's a goddamn sniper," Shawn cried out, seeing a newly formed inch deep angled indention in the side of the wall. He did not doubt that Shadow could withstand punishment from almost any handheld weapon, even a pulse rifle on full auto. However, the business end of a sniper rifle was something he was having serious doubts about. And that was something neither one of them wanted to test out, a second later Shadow whipped into the vent taking cover in the blackness just as another round hit the wall where his head had been.

The large alien disappeared leaving those below both injured and uninjured questioning what had just happened. How had Xenomorphs escaped from pod thee and gotten onto the main hub, the whole station had been put on lockdown to prevent something like that from happening. No one had a clear answer to what was going on, and speculations started to run like wildfire. A few calming they had seen something on the aliens back, some even saying that it looked like a person was riding it. That, of course, was impossible as any Xenomorph would just a much kill a person, then look at them, and riding one, preposterous. It was a trick of stressed minds and the flickering lights, nothing more.

A single unremarkably plain looking guard stood back apart from the crowd, holding a hefty rifle with a scope attached to it, the long barrel still smoking slightly. _A trick of the mind and light indeed_ , he thought to himself, no, it had been much more than that. For him, those few fleeting seconds that he had looked through his sniper rifle had been a confirmation to a small part of an answer to an age-old question and mystery that had been within his family for generations. A family secret and perhaps now in this day and age, shame.

He tiled his head slightly to the left, still looking up at where the Xenos had disappeared into the vent opening for one of the main cooling exchanges. His thumb flicked down on a small metal switch engaging the sniper rifles safety. Whoever it was that was on the back of that large Xenomorph wouldn't last very long in that vent without proper protection. And from what he had seen, that poor bastard wasn't equipped for it. Hyperthermia would set in quickly the further they went in.

"How in the hell could you have missed!?" Someone bellowed out to him, the voice was angry and agitated, but beneath all that bluster, there was a healthy dose of fear mixed in.

Turning around to look, one of the guard supervisors was storming right at him. The man's hands balled into fists and his face pale with cold sweat dripping down.

"Apologies sir," the guard said in a flat tone, one that displayed very little emotion to the supervisor, "the target moved quicker than I had anticipated, plus the sights are off by a degree maybe two. It interfered with my first line up shot."

"Bullshit." The supervisors spat, "you had a perfect shot and fucked it all to hell, I could have made that shot with my eyes closed."

A few tense seconds of silence fell between the two men their eyes locked in a display of hushed dominance, the guard yielding, slowly offering his rifle to the guard supervisor. "Then please, by all means, examine the weapon yourself if you believe that I deliberately missed. The aliens are in the cooling exchange vents; if you wish, please feel free to go in there and take the shot yourself." He said, knowing full well that no one would ever be that foolish to chase after them in that death trap. And with three Xenos, one being an elite guard for the queen or a queen, if one were around, that would be suicide.

The supervisor stepped up to where he was now only a few inches from the guard's face. "Don't push me, boy, you've been on my shit list for a while now, but please continue and give me an excuse to have the Commander kick you off this station." He said coldly, his eyes narrowing.

"No sir, I wouldn't dream of it," the guard replied, the tone of his voice still flat and almost emotionless. Something he knew infuriated this particular supervisor to no end.

After another few moments, the supervisor turned around and walked off, barking orders to those around him. The guard's gaze went back up to the opened vent where the Xenos and their wayward passenger entered.

"I'll tell you one thing, that guy's got a serious stick up his ass, been like this since he first came onboard." One of the maintenance workers said quietly as not to be overheard. "So just out of curiosity, did you see anything through that scope, a few said they could have sworn someone was on that alien's back."

The guard said nothing for a few seconds, his focus on the now open vent hatch. "No," he finally answered, "nothing at all, just an odd trick of the light."

 **Please feel free to comment, review or critique.**


	36. Host-Mothers and Allies

**AN:** _A_ _pologies for the long delay on this chapter, between life, work, and having a slight bout of writers block and burn out it put a delay on getting anything written up. Plus this also has been a massive chapter to work on and finish up, so please enjoy._

CHAPTER 35: Host-Mothers and Allies.

' _Alese, Ghost, how badly are you two injured?'_ Shadow asked coming up to the two drones who had disappeared several dozen meters into the tunnel and were now on the floor tending to each other's wounds.

Ghost looked up at Shadow as he rubbed a glob of his life jelly into the shallow wound on Alese's flank. _'Superficial at the worst,'_ Ghost told him, _'the rounds only grazed us, nothing more.'_

 _'It's nothing that will slow us down. Were you two hurt?'_ Alese asked turning her attention to Shadow for a few moments.

 _'I took a few hits, but nothing that did any damage.'_ Shadow answered kneeling so Shawn could dismount from his back.

Both relief and guilt tugged at Shawn as he hopped down to the floor, his body shuttering from the frigid and sudden temperature change. Relief that Ghost and Alese were alive and safe, but guilt that they had been injured when he had told them to come up. Besides, he had been unable to do anything to help them, and because of that, they both had been shot. He knew that it was an irrational feeling, as there was nothing he could have done to help them, short of stop cutting and drop a few grenades towards the attackers. Even at the height he was at there was no guarantee that it would have worked.

Even in the darkness of the icy cold shaft, he felt Shadow shift his bulk, a moment later the smooth domed head rubbed up against the side of his face. _'You are not to blame for their injuries; you did everything you could to get us this far. Do not feel guilty for something that was beyond your power to stop; we knew that injuries would happen and that even death may take us before this is over.'_

"I know, I just hate seeing those that I care for getting hurt," Shawn replied wrapping his arms around himself trying to keep whatever warmth in. They had only been in the shaft for a minute maybe two, but in that short amount of time, the cold was quickly seeping into his bones. Also, the constant wind did not help either. The high gusts howled through the tunnel, his face and the back of his hands bombarded by icy pinpricks all over. He couldn't even guess how cold it was in here, but it felt as if it was far below freezing.

 _'We need to move,'_ Alese said, standing up, favoring her uninjured leg, _'This cold will be deadly for Shawn if he's exposed to it for too long, I can see changes already happening within his body, the heat is starting to bleed out.'_

"Yeah, guess I should have dressed for cold weather," Shawn sardonically joked, a chill running through his body as he rubbed his shoulders and arms. "Fucking hell it's freezing in here."

 _'What would be the purpose for keeping this tunnel so cold?'_ Ghost inquired standing up; thanks to the life jelly, the bullet wound in his hip had stopped bleeding. While it would hurt for a while, the injury would quickly heal. He and Alese limped forward, as Shadow moved slowly holding onto Shawn's back helping to guide him forward as the human could not see an inch in front of his face in the darkness.

"Any number of things, but right now I'm guessing it might be something that is either medical or scientifically related that needs preservation," Shawn answered, rubbing his face trying to keep his skin from going numb. "Are you all not bothered by this cold at all?"

 _'The cold does not affect our race like it does humans.'_ Ghost answered, _'While we feel the temperature difference, it does not have the same impact on us.'_

Shawn let out a choked laugh for a second. "I think I'm starting to feel more than a little bit jealous about your natural abilities," he shuttered as the intense cold strangled the heat away from his body. "You can survive in a vacuum, aren't affected by the cold, can scale up a metal wall with no problem, plus the healing properties of that life jelly of yours." At this point, he would have loved to have the body of a Xenomorph, or at the very least either a thick coat or blanket, neither one he brought.

 _'You would have made a wonderful Xenomorph,'_ Shadow purred, as they kept pressing onward through the frigid tunnel. As much as he enjoyed Shawn's human form and he truly did, under normal conditions, the mere thought of Shawn as a fellow Xeno would have shot his already massively increased libido into overdrive. What would Shawn have been, a sleek and smooth drone, a well-built warrior, or perhaps even a Praetorian like himself? There was much appeal to that last choice, as a Praetorian, there was a great deal they all could do together without fear of accidentally inflicting harm on him when things got rough.

Shadow caught himself before his thoughts became too rampant on that idea, as now they needed to move forward and get to someplace warmer for Shawn's sake. With the element of surprise gone, which was to be expected eventually, they needed to move fast. At some point, the vent would be searched by armed forces that would be ready to shoot at the first thing they came across, namely them. As they moved deeper into the vent, Shadow could detect the temperature was rapidly dropping.

Reaching up, Shawn flicked on a small light hanging from a strap on his worker's vest, illuminating the area in a cold bluish, white light. Thick, hard frost covered the metal surface of the vent brilliantly sparkled from the small light, the micro-ice crystals reflecting the light all around in a cool whitish hue. "Alight...we are...far enough in, I can...turn this on without being seen." Each breath he took now hurt as if icy knives were stabbing ever so slightly into his lungs.

The light's range only extended about thirty feet before the area beyond dissolved into darkness. While it wasn't much, it would at least allow Shawn to see where he was going. A few concerns he now had was that the cold might drain any of the power packs and freeze any of the mechanical parts of the gear and weapons he was carrying. Getting into a firefight with a half-frozen pulse rifle that would not fire was not something he wanted to experience firsthand, now or ever.

"Let's s...see where the hell this takes us and go from t...t...there." Shawn stammered, moving forward trying to keep his body warm, hoping they could find an access hatch or vent cover and soon. While it had been an escape route for the four of them, it was now looking like it might quickly turn into a deathtrap for him. Especially if the temperature within the vent continued to plummet the further they journeyed in. While he had flares that would provide a temporary source of heat, those would not last long, but it would be better than nothing. Moving on the four disappeared into the inky darkness of the icy vent tunnels, the cool glow from the small lamp lighting their way forward.

As the four continued to move deeper into the dark, frost covered vent shaft, there only guide being the small vest mounted lamp lighting their way forward. With each step they took, the frigid temperature grew more intense and unbearable for Shawn. Shadow took the lead, letting Shawn use his body as a windshield; while it did not stop the constant flow of wind from hitting the human, it did help some. Alese pressed herself right up against Shawn's back, hoping that whatever body heat she generated might help keep him warm until they found a vent opening.

 _Just keep pressing on, do not let the cold get to you, just a little longer._ Shawn repeated to himself, fighting the urge to lay down instead of going on. He continually moved his arms up and down the side of his torso; moving meant warmth, and warmth was life. Stop, and you die, it was as simple as that. It didn't matter if he could barely feel his hands and face, it didn't matter if his legs were starting to go numb. Move on, press on, that was all that mattered, all he had to do was endure.

He had endured debridement after the plasma fire, suffered the pain of having clothing that had melted into his skin pulled out. Endured months of recovery time, pushed past all those times he wanted to die. The cold was temporary, fleeting; and like all discomfort or pain it would pass, he just had to endure a little longer, and that would be it. They would free the Xenos trapped here and flee this station, find somewhere far away and from there they would make a new life for themselves. All he had to do was press on a little more.

That was why they were here, not for themselves but for the others. Those that were relying on them, even if they did not know it. Shawn caught himself stumbling forward, his legs nearly buckling out from underneath him. Gods, he was so tired now, all he wanted to do was sleep, even if it was for a little while, _close your eyes, just for a little bit,_ that idea sounded so good now, yes, sleep, curl up and rest for a bit, just for a few minutes.

' _NO!'_ Alese's voice boomed in Shawn's mind, jolting him out of his half-sleep induced trance, _'Do not go to sleep,'_ she said to him wrapping her arms around him to keep him from falling over. _'You need to stay awake; you need to keep moving.'_ Alese rose her head, her gaze locked firmly on Shadow's back. _'Shadow, Shawn won't last much longer in here; he's freezing to death, we need to find someplace warm for him,_ ' she pleaded, knowing that every minute he stayed in this tunnel was a step closer to death for him.

 _'I know.' Shadow_ replied, his voice tight with worry and his mind racing trying to come up with a plan. There had to be a vent opening or access hatch somewhere ahead; the humans never built anything mechanical without a specific reason and design for it, that much he had learned in the labs and on the Saratoga. This tunnel had to lead to someplace; it was just a matter of finding it before it was too late.

He needed to scout ahead, go as fast as he could, and either find a way out and if nothing was there, rip, or melt a hole in the metal and damn the consequences on what happened next. If he dropped straight into the middle of a hoard of guards, he would tear them all apart. He was not going to lose Shawn or anyone from his hive. He had spotted this opening; it was his idea to go through it, and if Shawn didn't make it, if he died while in here. That last thought almost tore his heart out, as guilt squeezed his soul. If Shawn died, it would be his fault.

 _'Go, find us a way out of here,'_ Alese hissed at her brother, her voice now hard with a deadly edge to it, one that he had never heard come from her before. Now was not the time to be hindered by indecision or thoughts of guilt for something that had not yet happened. And damn the queen mother if she was going to stand idly by and do nothing. _'We will keep moving, but you need to find us a way out and quickly.'_

Sparing only a moment to glance over at Shawn, Shadow didn't need a reminder of what was at stake. Shawn continued to walk, rubbing his shoulder and upper arms trying to retain and keep whatever body heat in that he could. Their human was starting to look frail as his body heat drained, the cold increasing and becoming bitterer by the minute. A moment later Shadow bolted down into the dark and frigid vent, pushing himself as fast as he was able to. Loud metallic thumps echoed down the shaft. He didn't care who heard him, not that it mattered anymore now that their presence had been discovered, regardless, however, he was not going to let Shawn die in some ice laced vent.

He had become distracted once again, even if it was only for a few moments. S _o stupid, so foolish,_ Shadow chastised himself for not thinking ahead. He should have started scouting the second they had entered the tunnel, not become preoccupied with thoughts of revenge or even pleasure. He should have had Shawn and the others stay around the opening where it was warmer while he scouted ahead. Not have them all blindly wondering through some frozen tunnel looking for a hatch or opening that might not even exist.

Leaning forward and raising his tail to help maintain his balance, Shadow's strides gained in length and speed as he pushed himself to move faster. Each step he took reverberated throughout the dark, frost-covered tunnel as his feet slammed into the metal housing. All he had to do was find an opening; that was it, find it and let the others know and get inside and get Shawn warmed up.

 _Damn this place,_ Shadow seethed to himself, wondering if this station would be their grave after all. They had all hoped to make it to the lab unnoticed, and as the humans would put it, that plan had gone out the window, the whole station would now be alerted to their presence. _No, it doesn't matter, let them know we are coming; it will not help them at all._ If anyone got in their way, they would be swatted aside, or torn apart. It did not matter how many androids and human warriors the station's commander threw at them; they would cut through them all like a blade cutting through the water.

A second later Shadow snapped out of his train of thought; the large Xeno slid to a halt. There it was, an ever slight increase in temperature, but there was something else, a subtle scent of rot and decay. Not fresh, but old, months, possibly years, there was something familiar about it too that caused his heart to race. Picking up his pace, less than fifty strides later, he found it, a vent opening that would get them out of this frigid tunnel and into someplace warmer. While the shutters were closed, it did not matter; he would either rip it apart or melt it away, either way, they would gain access.

 _'I found an opening,'_ Shadow communicated to Ghost and Alese, _'hurry and bring him.'_ Shadow's gaze went back down to the vent cover, his heart thumping heavily in his chest. His inner jaw extended out, sampling the air, something in the back of his mind was fighting to come to the surface. His head tilted slightly as his inner jaw retracted back. Was it a feeling or maybe a memory that had been pushed back and long forgotten about, and now wanted to resurface?

 _'We are coming.'_ Alese's replied to him, a mix of both worry and relief in her voice.

Squatting down, Shadow leaned over the vent cover, forcing his clawed fingers in between the shutter plates, the metal bending and giving way much easier than he would have thought. Pulling on the grate's frame, the metal creaked and groaned, flexing and bending at the spot the bolts were set into. A second later, the frame popped out leaving a square hole large enough for Shadow to enter. Dim, cold white light gently bathed the area out to a few meters before the oppressive darkness pushed it back.

The area below sat in still silence, no panicked or concerned shouts wondering what had just happened, no screams to alert the guards or even to evacuate the area and seal it off. Shadow could not detect that anyone was moving below. Only the raw smell of decay and rot along with a familiar scent that continued to worm its way into his mind.

Slipping through the vent hole and down into the area below, Shadow half expected to hear screams and shouts as he entered. Twisting and contorting his body, he snaked through the opening, landed down hands first, and then slowly lifted his head to observe the area around him. Seeing that the room was both empty and isolated with the only door a few meters from him closed, he pulled the rest of himself in and rose up.

Bulky machinery sat on the wall furthest away from him. A low-pitched hum came from the gray colored machines as frost covered pipes extended out of the machinery, then slipped into the wall and the ceiling. While the room itself was quite cold, it was not anywhere as cold as the tunnel he had just emerged from, but cold enough that it would not do Shawn any good to stay here. As soon as they were all in, they would need to move on to a warmer area.

Shadow's memories drifted to images of both the lab and the personnel within. Personal like Mason, Steffen and all those that had surrounded him when he was still their test subject, that however, was not the main focus, not what his mind seemed to be going towards. A vague muffled cry echoed in the back of his mind, something or someone was pleading and crying out to him in pained panic. None of it was coherent or focused, just a jumble of images, sounds, and frantic emotions woven into one. It was all so distorted and chaotic that it was almost impossible to filter through to make sense of it.

Why now of all times was this memory, if that was what it was, coming to him?

The memories quickly vanished as he heard Alese and Ghost calling out to him, snapping him back to the here and now. Looking up toward the vent hole, he could hear Alese, Ghost, and Shawn fast approaching. Their footsteps sounded more like muffled, metallic thunder as they drew closer.

A few moments later Alese's black form was standing on the edge of the vent hole. _'Help him down.'_ Alese said, lowering Shawn through the vent opening and into Shadow's arms. Shawn's whole body shook and shivered; his breathing was little more than a series of short rapid gasps. Seconds later both Alese and Ghost crawled through the hole, crouched on the ground both of the drones panned their heads around observing what was in the room.

 _'What is this place?'_ Ghost asked, tilting his head seeing the clunky looking machinery set in against the far wall.

 _'I do not know, and right now I do not care. We need to find somewhere warm and isolated. I do not believe there are any humans close by.'_ Shadow said, protectively holding Shawn, almost coiling around him trying to help warm him up.

Alese panned her head around looking at what was in the room as she slowly rose up. Both her and Ghost had caught the same scent of rot and decay as Shadow had when they neared the vent opening. And just like Shadow, a jumble of memories, emotions, and pained voices all balled into a chaotic mess had suddenly pushed into, and now writhed around in their minds.

Something was unsettling about the incoherent voice that echoed in her head, calling out to her. It didn't call out to her by name, but was, or rather had been directed right at her. For a few moments, she tried to push through a thick, hazy vale of long-forgotten memories, trying to remember where she had heard that voice from so long ago, a voice that had called out to her, a voice that was familiar, but very distant and had been forgotten about, until now. _'That scent, it smells like…'_ Shadow cut her off, as he looked right at her.

 _'Yes, rot and decay, something has died in this place or close by, but not recently. There is also something else a familiar scent that brought back old memories,'_ Shadow told her, knowing that both her and Ghost were experiencing the same thing that he did. The scent while old and vague was far too intermingled with other scents that made it difficult for him to remember where or even when he had smelled it.

 _'Not just one, but many,'_ Ghost said, noticing the dozens of different scents of decay. While he had picked up on a vague scent that he recognized while he was in the tunnel, it was mixed in with so many other scents; he could not completely separate it. Memories going back to their earliest days in the lab surfaced, along with a single voice calling out to him in desperation. _'Regardless of what is causing us to remember all this, we need to find a warmer place,'_ Ghost said, pushing the memories and feelings back as he headed to the door. Gripping the handle and turning it, he effortlessly forced the heavy metal door open and slipped through into the next room.

A blast of warm air invaded the room, giving them all an invitation to enter. Making their way into the adjacent area, Alese slammed the door closed after they entered. The strong smell of rot and decay immediately bombarded all three Xenos. While it was not completely overpowering, it was far more prevalent then it had been in the former room they had just come from.

The room was little more than a large seventy by seventy-foot square with maybe a dozen overhead lights illuminating the area in a cold, uninviting white light. Far on the opposite end of the room was another heavy metal door with a smaller light fixture that was set in just above it that cast an equally cold light downward, more than likely the entrance and exit point. The room itself was filled from top to bottom with sizeable heavy-duty chrome colored cabinets. These cabinets ran along the length of all four walls with three rows running down the stretch of the room, leaving a marginal walkway in-between each row. Each cabinet section looked to be just around three and a half feet wide, seven feet deep and just over eight feet tall. Three doors ran top to bottom on each section with a pull handle to the center-left on each door. Pipes set in at six-foot increments came down from the ceiling and into each row.

 _'Where are we at now?'_ Shadow wondered, looking around, unsure what to make of the area, his embrace tightening on Shawn slightly more.

Still shivering, flexing his fingers trying to work out the now persistent ache in them, Shawn blinked a few times as he looked up and let out a stifled, choked laugh. The irony of where they were at now was not lost on him in the least. "We're in a goddamn morgue," he told Shadow and the others. He was now starting to question if this was where they were all going to end up and soon.

 _'What is…a morgue?'_ Shadow asked, getting a sick-knotted feeling in the pit of his stomach that he was not going to like the answer.

"It's where we store our dead until we can either bury or dispose of them," Shawn stammered flatly, leaning into Shadow's torso, rubbing his hands together; then his arms, trying to shake the numbing cold that had seeped into his muscles and bones. Gods, he would have killed for a thick blanket, a hot bath, even a shower would have been a wonderful thing right about now. While the warm air did feel nice, at least what little he could feel of it, it wasn't driving the cold away fast enough. He could almost swear that his face was covered with frost and ice, even if it wasn't.

Shadow tensed up for a second, that explained the stench of rot and decay if this was the area where the humans kept their dead. His mind froze at the sudden and stark realization of what he had just discovered. Why his memories from early on were suddenly coming back, and that vague but familiar scent that he recognized. The memories of that muffled voice that cried out to him, pleading for them to bring him back to her; an ache that ripped through not only his core but through the center of every one of his brothers and sisters since their birth. And that uncontrollable rage that had coursed through his body, he remembered lashing out, biting and thrashing trying to get away from that cold and hard grip that kept him away, but to no avail.

Alese and Ghost turned to look at Shadow; each one knew what their brother had just discovered and what it now meant for the three of them. They had all gone through it, being taken away from that all-encompassing warmth, that delicate tether fading away until an empty nothingness overtook the warmth that had once been there.

"Shadow, what is it, what's wrong?" Shawn asked nervously, feeing a flood of grief, dread, and cold rage mingled with white-hot hate beginning to swell up in the Praetorian's being. The raw emotions coming not only from Shadow but also from Alese and Ghost were overwhelming, almost crushing, so much so that he was unable to block or filter any of it out. Whatever the three had just discovered in this place was close to pushing them over the edge, and that now meant that their mission was in danger.

 _'Our host-mothers are here,'_ Shadow whispered to Shawn, his voice oddly void of any warmth or emotion, only an icy coldness remained.

Shawn found that he couldn't speak a single word, not that it would have mattered, what could he have said to ease the pain for any of them. He had seen bits and pieces of their births, seen and felt the cold, white hands pulling them away from their host-mothers only seconds after their birth. The fear, terror, anger and rage, white-hot and icy cold hate at the forced separation. Even drugged induced, the women were still coherent and awake enough to beg for the small aliens to be returned to them. The bond between the two was so strong and yet in time destined to wither away as the hosts died.

While Shawn had felt and seen Shadow annoyed, angry, even enraged, he had never once felt that his life was in any real danger from the Xeno. However, this cold hate that now swelled up within Shadow's being was something he had never felt from his mate and lover. For the first time, a twinge of fear crept into his stomach as he wondered if his life might be in danger from the alien. The coldness he felt coming from Shadow was utterly alien to Shawn as if somehow everything about the Xeno he had happened to know had just been wiped away and the truly primal part of the Praetorian was surfacing and was now ready to lash out and claim vengeance for the wrongs committed against them.

Releasing Shawn from his embrace, almost in a trance-like state, Shadow started to walk along the outer wall, his inner jaw extending out and withdrawing back in several times. Stopping around the middle area of the morgue cabinets, his gaze focused in on one of the central doors. For a minute, he stood completely still, not moving a single muscle in his whole body; then slowly, he reached up, the fused middle and index finger gripped around the handle latch, and he pulled it ever so slightly. With a slight hiss and a puff of cold air that escaped from the opening, the door swung open, slowly a large metal tray slid out, upon it lay an opaque plastic covered figure. Only the vague darkened shape of the figure shone through the covering.

"Shadow…," Shawn whispered taking a few steps then stopping, not even sure what he could say at this moment. He watched as the Xeno stood there merely looking down at the covered figure underneath, not even moving an inch. Shawn couldn't feel anything from Shadow now, all that intense anger and rage, the coldness that was there a few moments ago was now gone, all of it replaced by an emotional numbness.

Slowly reaching up with a single hand, Shadow gently glided his fingers across the plastic blanket, his claws barely touching the surface of the opaque material.

Behind him, Shawn could hear the faint metallic clicking sounds of handles being pulled and unlocked, followed by a low tone hiss of pressurized air being released. He did not need to look to know that Ghost and Alese had opened the morgue cabinet doors and were now looking at the remains of their long-dead hosts. Despite that, he did turn around to look anyway, even if it was just for a few brief seconds. Ghost was at the far end of the cabinet range with Alese a few meters away from him. The large chrome metal trays had extended out with the covered remains. Both drones stood silently staring down at their former hosts, each one just as emotionally numb as Shadow now was.

A part of him felt that he shouldn't be here at all, as if he was now an outsider that had no place or business standing around gawking while the Xenomorphs tried to come to terms at finally seeing their long-dead hosts. These women, whether they had come as willing subjects or were brought here by force, had been impregnated and then forced to give birth to the aliens. Neither host nor Xeno was ever afforded the chance to bond and grow together as they should have. And now all any of them could do was try to come to terms and bid those that had brought them into this world, farewell.

Leaning back against the cabinets, Shawn looked down at his wrist-mounted computer. Even with his fingers still numb and tingling from the penetrating cold, he managed to flip open the cover and bring up the readings for the signal strength.

Fifteen percent, just a meager signal strength of fifteen percent was all that was left. The computer should have given Shawn a warning when it had reached down to twenty, and perhaps it had, but as bad as he was shivering, he might have never felt or heard it. Not that it would have mattered, if he had dropped a signal amplifier in the tunnel the power pack on it would have died in a day maybe two. And while he didn't' have any intentions of staying that long, he knew that plans rarely worked out the way they were supposed to.

It was nothing short of a miracle that he was receiving a signal at all. With as much structure, and the distance between where they were now, and where the last amplifier he dropped was at, he had expected the signal to be cut off entirely by now. He would need to place one of the signal amplifiers in this room before they continued. Unfortunately, Shadow had the pack with all the boosters hanging off one of his dorsal tubes, and right now, he did not intend to interrupt the grieving Xeno. He would retrieve one when Shadow had finished saying his farewells, however long that took.

 _You are losing him, and not just him but all of them._ The tiny voice in the back of Shawn's mind piped up, _he will be the first one to snap, and after that, you will lose him. Coming face to face with his host will drive him over the edge, possibly all three of them, but Shadow most of all. So what are you going to do about it?_

"Not fucking now," Shawn muttered under his breath, of all the times for this to come up. Though he had to admit, the way Shadow had all but blanked everything else out, the furious range of raw emotions that had blindsided him. Moreover, it was not just Shadow, but also Ghost and Alese as well, all their focus was now on their hosts and nothing else. Not even helping their brothers and sisters escape.

 _If not now then when, when it's convenient for them, huh?_ The tiny voice said, becoming louder. _Nothing about being here in this room with all this death is convenient for any of us. We are wasting time, no doubt the station's commander knows what happened by now, and will be sending troops to either pacify or terminate, and we both know what will happen should you be captured._ Shawn had to agree that the idea of being caught was one of the worst scenarios, and he had no doubt that if that did happen, he would be interrogated, tortured, possibly worse.

"I'll deal with it and do what is necessary, just let them say goodbye, alright." He muttered flexing his fingers and glanced back over at Shadow. Being in this room, with their dead hosts was nothing more than a pin on an emotional frag grenade that had just been pulled and haphazardly tossed right into the middle of their group. All Shawn could do now was wait and see if it exploded or not and if it did, how bad the fallout would be, and if he could do anything to minimize the damage.

 _Very well, don't say I didn't' warn you when it blows up in your face._ The tiny voice said disappearing back into the depth of Shawn's mind.

Gripping the corner of the opaque sheet, Shadow slowly slid the plastic cover off the body. He never could remember what she looked like, even with their excellent memories, he was never able to recall a single detail about what she looked like. But her scent, that he did remember, though just barely

She was average height for a human female, at least by his guess, just less than six feet tall by human measurements. Her hair was straight black that came down to the base of her neck, and her eyes seemed to have a slightly angular look to them. Her skin, however, was a sick pasty white; except a few wrinkles that lined her body, decomposition did not look like it had sent in as of yet. The only blemish to her body was a large, ugly Y shaped scar that ran across and down the full length of her torso.

The tips of his fingers ever so slowly glided across her face, the skin still somewhat soft, but cold, so very cold. If only fate had allowed them to be together, he wondered what things would have been like. A bonded pair, a mated pair, would his brothers and sisters with their hosts been allowed to live as they should have, building a hive for them to all inhabit.

Leaning down he pressed his forehead to hers; instinctively his mind tried to flow into hers, only to find that there was nothing there, just the cold and unwelcoming silence of one who had already passed. A low, pitiful hiss escaped his maw; he had felt his host die soon after he had been born, but that now seemed to have been a lifetime ago. This was the first time he had ever seen his host-mother, a stabbing pain tore into his heart seeing the empty husk, cold and lifeless, no warmth, no life, everything that she had been was now gone.

Those monsters had done this to her, her own race, not that it surprised him, and not just her, but all the hosts. Impregnated them, allowed them to give birth to his kind and then to separate the two at birth never allowing any of them to fully bond. Even after all that, they had desecrated her body by cutting into her and possibly the others as if they were nothing more than a slab of meat to discard.

Hot rage filled his mind and soul as the memories of his host's last few days came back to him. While he was not there with her, as none of them were, he remembered feeling her mind calling out to his, instinctive and rudimentary communications as far as the hive link went, but it was still there. Even as drug-laced as her mind and body had been, he could feel her slip away, alone, afraid, and always wondering where he was. Mason had denied any of them the right to be together, even as she passed away.

Slowly standing up, Shadow's lips peeled back as his claws flexed inward. There would be no mercy for any of them, not the scientist, not the lab techs, and most certainly not Mason or Steffen. He would end them all; he would rip them apart limb from limb, coat the walls of the lab red with their blood and pull their organs out an inch at a time while they still drew breath. No amount of begging, screaming or pleading would bring any of them mercy.

Shadow's mind slipped into a hazy red, barely contained rage that mixed with sorrow and flooded his whole being. His vision narrowed and within his mind's eye, all he could see was himself ripping the accursed lab apart and all the humans within. An ear-piercing scream mixed with boiling anger and grief ripped from his maw, tearing throughout the entire room and reverberated out.

Shawn staggered back, collapsing to the ground as he grabbed his head, the white-hot rage, and hate assaulting and overpowering his mind; the deafening scream causing his ears to ring. Both Ghost and Alese whipped around, only now realizing that their brother had just slipped over the edge and was falling into a crazed frenzy.

Blindly lashing out, Shadow repeatedly raked his claws across the metal cabinets leaving inch deep gashes in the hard metal. The large tail-blade whipping around in wide arcs, a deadly scythe that left massive gouges in the floor and nearby cabinets as it wildly thrashed around uncontrollably striking anything nearby. The blood frenzy was nearly taking its full hold on him, his only thought was this: _he would kill every single one of them._

' _SHADOW, CEASE THIS_ IMMEDIATELY _!'_ Ghost roared, the drones normally calm demeanor quickly deteriorating as he watched his brother slipping away into what would soon become a blood-crazed madness. After all this time aboard the Saratoga, after everything they had gone through and built, it was now falling apart because their Praetorian couldn't keep himself together. He was not going to let this happen, as much as both he and Alese wanted the humans in the lab to pay for what they had done, he was not going to jeopardize rescuing their family and kin for petty revenge.

As much as it tore at his heart to see his host lying lifeless on a cold metal slab, as much as he wanted her to come back, to have that chance to hold and bond with her. He accepted that it was never going to happen, she was dead, and that was final.

Shadow tore past Shawn never once stopping to check to see if he was all right or even to look down at him. Making a quick turn, he bolted right for the metal door on the opposite end of the room, never even giving Ghost or Alese a chance to try to stop him. Both drones had been too far away, and Shadow had far greater strides to cover the distance.

"Goddamnit," Shawn muttered, picking himself up off the ground, his whole head feeling like it was in a clamped vice and that vice was getting tighter and tighter by the moment. Trying to ignore the stabbing pain, he took off after Shadow with Ghost and Alese close behind, the two drones quickly gaining distance with each step.

Shadow was at the door in a few heartbeats, not even caring what was behind it as he ripped the door off its hinges, effortlessly flinging it to the side. A broad and long hallway lit with cool white lights that slightly flickered was before him as he stepped through the doorway. A second later, he was bounding down the hall; his mind completely lost in the red haze. He barely registered his three hive-mates calling out to him, screaming at him to stop.

Shawn pushed himself as fast as he could, the cold numbness now all but forgotten about as a massive dose of adrenaline mixed with fear surged through his body. If Shadow reached the other side of the hallway, they would lose him, and a bloodbath with the station personnel would happen. If that occurred, whatever plans they had made would quickly be shot straight to hell.

He had seen Shadow angry before, as he briefly recalled the merc who had accidentally shot him in the back, and the female drone who was seconds away from putting a hole right in his head. While Shadow had been enraged about what happened and was ready to kill on both occurrences, Shawn had never once seen or even felt this level of what he could only call hyper-aggression coming from Shadow. The seething hate and grief, the overwhelming desire and need to kill, it had boiled over and damned near cold-cocked him right out. What was more surprising was just how sudden it had happened, one second everything seemed fine, or at least as fine considering what the four of them had just found. The next second he was taking an emotional four by four right to the head full force without any warning.

"SHADOW STOP!" Shawn screamed at the top of his lungs, "STOP RIGHT NOW, PLEASE!" It was no use as the hazy red blood rage had all but made him deaf from their cries. He did not doubt that Shadow would make a direct run for the labs and kill everyone in his path. That would be if station security and whatever defense systems didn't cut the enraged Praetorian down before then. And that would be it; if Shadow went down, not only would he lose his lover and mate, they would all lose their best chance to rescue the other Xenos and get off the station. And neither one of those options was acceptable.

"Goddamn it Shadow," Shawn swore to himself, reaching underneath his utility vest, his fingers gripped around the cool, plastic pistol handle, and with a hard jerk, he yanked the weapon out from its holster. Coming to a halt, he flipped the safety off, pointed and fired. The loud 'crack' from the gun echoed throughout the hall, not just one or two shots as he had first intended, he repeatedly pulled down on the trigger, five, six, seven and then finally eight shots fired total.

The sounds of the gunshots must have reached through the hazy-red rage as Shadow's massive black form slowed down and then finally came to a halt. It wasn't just Shadow that stopped, but also Alese and Ghost, both of them now turned their gaze toward Shawn. The two drones unsure if he had suddenly gone mad, or was a genius for his actions, as it had stopped Shadow's rampage, at least for the moment.

The human continued to advance, his weapon still pointing up, as his gaze firmly fixed right on Shadow, the giant alien now his solo target. He had hopefully managed to break through the rage-induced wall, how well he didn't know, but at least Shadow wasn't charging towards the exit, and right now that was all he cared about.

Slowly, Shadow turned around, his vision narrowing in on the human, his human. The hazy red hate filled cloud in his mind slightly gave way, letting a sliver of rational thought flow into his mind. _'You would use a weapon on me?'_ He coldly asked, taking a single step, then another, his voice cold and primal, almost beastieail as he now advanced on Shawn. His lips still peeled back in aggression as thick slime and drool flowed down his chin and onto the floor.

Lowering his weapon toward the ground, Shawn continued to walk toward Shadow. As much as he wanted to congratulate himself on stopping the Xeno from going on a rampage, he knew that this wasn't even close to being finished. He needed to break through, and that was going to require something drastic.

 _'Would you use a weapon on me?'_ Shadow asked again, the tone in his voice icy and harsh. Even as his mind and everything within his soul screamed at him that Shawn would never use a weapon on him, the red haze blocked almost any rational thought out.

Stopping, Shawn looked down at the gun in his hand, a few light wisps of smoke still flowing out of the end of the barrel. "No," Shawn answered back, looking up toward the approaching Xeno. "I would never, could never use a weapon on you, any of you." He looked over to Ghost and Alese, his resolve cementing as to what he had to do. He had told himself that he would deal with whatever fallout happened. It was now time to man up and do what was necessary, no matter how ugly it became.

His thumb drew back on the hammer of the pistol, the double-clicking ringing in his ears as if his decision was now so final. His index finger resting on the trigger, and with a quick motion, he brought the gun up and turned it inward jamming the end of the barrel into his chest. "But I will use it on myself if that's what it takes, "Shawn bellowed, both his gaze and voice now equally hard, "so make no mistake if this is what it takes to bring you back around, then I will fucking pull the trigger!"

Shadow stopped dead in his tracks, only now six or seven meters away from Shawn. The sudden realization of what was going on dawned on him, the red haze starting to fade away, but only slightly.

 _'NO, Shawn, do not do this!'_ Alese hissed, cold fear gripping her, how in the name of the queen could he even think about injuring himself. It was insane. She took a step toward Shawn, her hands spread out openly, hoping that he would lower the weapon. Had madness started to grip them all?

The act took Ghost by surprise as well, crouching down, his first instinct was to tackle Shawn to the ground and knock or grapple the weapon away, but quickly he realized what Shawn was attempting to do. It was a bold plan, risky, but bold. None of them were able to get past the anger and rage that had taken hold of Shadow, but if Shawn were to threaten himself with harm, that might be enough to get Shadow to snap out of his rage and come around. He just hoped that it wouldn't come to Shawn pulling the trigger and injuring himself.

 _'Sister, Shawn knows what he is doing, trust him.'_ Ghost told Alese privately.

Alese whipped her elongated head toward Ghost; her lips peeled back slightly in a mix of fear and aggravation. _'He is pointing a weapon at HIMSELF,_ ' Alese snarled at Ghost, swearing that if they got out of this situation unscathed and off the station alive, she was going to tear into both Shadow and Shawn about this.

 _'I do not believe that Shawn will do anything so drastic, or is foolish enough to inflict harm to himself, but he needs to break through to Shadow, our brother is not heeding our calls. However, this action may work as their bond is incredibly strong; I doubt that Shadow will allow Shawn to hurt himself.'_ Ghost told her, looking at what was going on; if necessary, he would tackle Shawn and knock the weapon out of his hand or pounce on Shadow and try to force him to the ground. That last part, however, would be difficult to do, even if Alese helped him.

 _'And if he pulls the trigger?'_ She asked, her voice laced with desperation as images of Shawn lying on the ground, blood flowing out of his chest and back from a self-inflicted injury ran through her mind. A sudden flashback to when Shawn had been shot in CIC by the mercs whipped through her mind for a second.

Ghost glanced back at Alese for a second, then back toward Shawn and Shadow waiting to see what happened next, not wanting to answer the dreaded 'what if' question. While he did not believe that Shawn would deliberately pull the trigger, accidents did happen, and he was more afraid of that then an intentional action on the human's part. Of all the times for their brother to lose his calm and go mad with rage and grief. If Shadow didn't quickly regain control of himself, everything they had worked and trained for would be in danger of being ruined.

"Well, what's it going to be?" Shawn asked, taking a step toward Shadow. "You told me, hell you promised me, and not just me but all of us, that given a choice between vengeance or freeing your hive, that you would choose to free your hive. So I'm going to ask you again, what is it going to be?" His stare locked onto Shadow, narrow and hard, but also very desperate, he was taking one hell of a gamble, and he knew it. If this didn't snap Shadow back to reality than the only other option would be a physical confrontation of some kind, something none of them wanted or were prepared for. He just hoped that it wouldn't come down to that, the thought of attacking Shadow or any of them, made his heart sink into his stomach.

Shadow stood frozen in place; his eyeless gaze tightly focused in on Shawn and the weapon that was held firmly in the human's hand, the words barely making it through his rage-induced haze. A promise, yes he had made a promise, he vaguely remembered that much now as bits and pieces started to come to mind and fall into place. He had once before made a decision to place personal vengeance aside to save his mate's life, after that he vowed that to free his hive mates he would set such feelings aside again.

But those humans, those damn scientists had taken so much away from him and his kind, denying them the right to be with their host-mothers. Not even letting one of them bond to those that had given birth to them. As far as he was concerned, they all needed to be torn apart limb from limb, their skin peeled off, and their heads caved in. Yet, he had made a promise to put his personal need for revenge aside for the greater good of his race. The need to free them and get them off this station and someplace far away and safe, at that moment of clarity his need for vengeance seemed petty and hollow.

"So, what's it going to be?" Shawn asked Shadow again, his voice now soft almost pleading, hoping that the Praetorian would come to his senses and snap out of this rage induced state. Pressing the end of the pistol harder into his chest, his finger slowly squeezed down on the cool metal trigger. All it would take was a bit more pressure, and that would be it. The hammer would fall; the round would discharge ripping a hole through his chest and out of his back.

At that moment, the rage simmered down leaving a dull and painful ache in Shadow's heart. The anger while still there, was now overpowered by disgust and revulsion at his own actions, everything that had been blocked out for the last few minutes quickly flooded back into his mind. His total and complete disregard for his hive mates, even for Shawn, not realizing the pain that he unintentionally inflicted on their human from his mental outburst. As well as the glaring fact that he was about to waste all the planning and training they had gone through in a fit of blind rage and hate.

 _'Don't…please.'_ Shadow whispered, struggling to regain his mental composure, the red haze of anger still clouding his vision. By the queen mother, what had he just done? Turning away, unable to face any of his companions, his whole body almost went limp from the realization of what had just happened. If he could have, he would have slinked into the deepest and darkest hole, curled up and pulled the ground over him. He let out a low, pained hiss, it felt as if an invisible hand had pushed its way past his chest plate, gripped his heart and started to squeeze. How could he have done such a thing, he had made a vow, a promise to protect and look after his hive mates. He was supposed to be the strong one, the one to help lead and keep them from harm. Yet he found that he was unable to control his anger and rage, and all it had taken to get himself under control was Shawn threatening to blow a hole in his chest. Some Praetorian he was turning out to be, he couldn't even keep his own emotions in check or keep from getting distracted, what a pathetic joke.

"Thank you," Shawn muttered as the tension in his voice began to drain away, lowering the pistol with a shaky hand, he engaged the safety before returning it to the holster. While he wasn't sure if he would have pulled the trigger or not, but just for those few brief moments if it got Shadow back under control, it was important that the Praetorian believed it. Thankfully the bluff had worked, now all he needed to do was make sure that everyone's head was on straight and focused on the job at hand.

True to form things seemed to be getting more and more messed up. At this rate, Shawn was starting to doubt that they would make it to the science labs where the Xenos were held if any more outbursts like this happen. Still, they would try. Sauntering up to Shadow, Shawn reached out to touch the Xeno's head. Shadow immediately flinched away in shame as he now refused to look at any of his hive mates.

"I'm sorry," Shawn told Shadow, pressing his hand against the thick chitinous head crest. Shadow flinched again at the warm touch of skin, his breathing rapid and shallow as he focused himself to remain calm, all the while silently berating himself for such a stupid and foolish act. "I can't even begin to understand how painful this is for you, for any of you," Shawn said, looking over at Alese and Ghost who was a few meters away. An awkward and heavy silence hung in the air between the four of them, none of them sure what to say at this point. As much as he wanted to be angry at Shadow for this outburst, for coming so close to destroying their plans in a fit of rage, he found that he simply could not. Not after what all of them had discovered, if the situation was reversed, he knew he would have wanted everyone responsible to pay in blood.

"I know," Shawn started after a few moments of trying to collect his thoughts. Between the multi-kilometer climb up the main shaft, the freezing tunnel, and now Shadow's rage-induced fit that had mentally blindsided him giving him a brain-seizing headache, it was a wonder he could think clearly at all. Although pointing a gun at himself and threatening to pull the trigger was a good indication that clearly he wasn't. "That by all rights you and the others should be with your hosts, who you truly belong with. I know that I can never replace them, or even come close to being what they would have been to you. And perhaps the fact is merely this, at best I'm an inadequate substitute that happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Slowly, Shadow raised his head, leveling it to where he was looking directly at Shawn. _'Not inadequate, not a substitute,_ ' Shadow told him, the Xeno's mental voice slightly slurred but now with a sharp edge to it. ' _How could you even think that?'_ Is that what Shawn now believed because of his outburst, or had that thought always been there in the back of their human's mind somewhere hidden since the start, and had only now come to the surface because of his outburst?

"Look, let's face facts here, if your hosts had been on board the Saratoga with you, alive, when I was picked up, what would have happened to me? I don't believe that we would have formed a bond, at least nothing like what we have now," Shawn said, his voice low, almost hushed at this point. "At least nothing that would ever go beyond simple friendship, and I think that we all know that. Maybe in another time, your hosts are alive, and you're with them fully bonded like you should have been. Maybe in another time, this place, Mason, and the others aren't such horrible people. Perhaps they aren't trying to use you and the others, and instead are trying to establish communications and understand your race.

 _'And in that time you would still be onboard your ship, adrift in space, maybe still alive and reunited with your family now, or perhaps in cryo sleep drifting forever in the cold void, maybe even dead or worse.'_ Ghost told Shawn, walking up to him and placing his hand on the human's shoulder. _'While it is true that you are not our host, you are bonded with us, you are hive, and you are one of us. You are not some inadequate substitute that happened to come along, never think otherwise.'_ Ghost said, giving Shawn a gentle, reassuring squeeze on his shoulder.

Turning his head, Shawn nodded at Ghost giving him a slight understanding smile before returning his attention to Shadow.

 _'Not substitute, not inadequate,'_ Shadow told him once again trying to reassure Shawn that what he said was true. That in fact, he was not just some convenient replacement that had happened to wander aboard at the right time. _'You belong with us. Yes, perhaps if our hosts were still alive, you would be correct. But they are not, and nothing will bring them back, no matter how much we wish it so.'_ While Shadow's demeanor had calmed down, he was still on edge, the rage inside him simmering right below the surface, even threatening to erupt and overtake him. Glancing over to Ghost and then to Alese, he now realized that it was not just Shawn that he had unintentionally hurt, but also Ghost and Alese as well. In his anger, he had not allowed either one of them to finish saying farewell or in any way come to terms about seeing their deceased host-mothers. All either of them wanted was a few minutes to say goodbye, and he had taken that away from them.

Everything happened so quickly, the shock of seeing their dead hosts, then the rage and hate that flooded, consuming him in mere seconds without warning. While he now remembered it all with vivid clarity, raking his claws across the cabinet doors, storming past Shawn as he lay on the floor, barely noticing and even caring less. Ripping the door of the hinges, then rushing down the hallway as a fever consumed him, wanting nothing less than to kill all those that came across his path. Then the gunshots, turning to see Shawn standing there, weapon in hand, ready to use it. To him, it was as if for those few long minutes, he was no longer in control of his own body. As if all that rage and hate had manifested into a living entity within his body; kicking him out of the driver's seat and taking over. In that time, all he could do was watch and nothing more.

Only seeing Shawn standing there, ready to face him down and threatening to turn the weapon on himself had snapped Shadow back to reality. It was a brave, foolish, but very human thing to do. Right now, he wasn't sure if there was any way he could ever make this up to any of them. Silently he swore to himself that he would try.

 _'Alese…Ghost, I am sorry…'_ Shadow started only to have Alese cut him off.

 _'We will have words about this later on after we have gotten everyone back to the ship and left this place behind.'_ Alese strained with tension and anger in her voice as she took a few steps her head snapping right at Shawn. ' _I have words for YOU as well,'_ she said sharply.

Shawn meekly nodded in response; it didn't take a genius to know what she wanted to have words with him over. It was her way of informing him she was going to chew his ass up one side and down the other for pointing a gun and threatening to shoot himself. A part of him would instead have faced off with the station's entire defense force by himself than face Alese's verbal wrath.

"I can't blame you for losing your shit," Shawn said, looking back at Shadow, cupping the Praetorian's face with his hands and pressing his forehead to the aliens. "Just promise me that you'll hold it together until we get back to the Saratoga. After that if you need to find someplace isolated and vent your anger then go for it, tear some walls apart, trash some pipes, whatever, I'm good with that. Or if you want we can fuck like rabbits for a week or two straight, I'm good with that as well."

 _"Option one, then two,'_ Shadow said with a slight slyness, the tension draining from his body, as the anger started to evaporate. Just the idea of mating with Shawn always seemed to make him feel better. It did give all of them something to look forward to later on.

Letting go of Shadow's face, Shawn stepped to the Xeno's side to retrieve one of the signal amplifiers from the bag hanging off the dorsal tube. "The signal strength is pretty low; I need to place one of these back in the morgue. Figure that area will make for a good hiding spot."

 _'I will come with you and help."_ Shadow offered, only to be rebuked by Alese right on the spot.

 _'No, you WILL stay here, and you will maintain your calm,_ ' Alese furiously hissed at Shadow, her voice still hard even cold, it wasn't in any way a request, it was, in fact, an order. _'We need you clear and focused, not running around rampant in some blood frenzy wanting revenge. We are here to free our brothers and sisters, very little beyond that matters.'_

Shadow lowered his head giving her this win, she was correct, if he went back in there, he might very well lose what little calm he now maintained. Besides there was nothing left for him to say, there had been no closure on seeing his host-mother's body, seeing what she looked like and the 'what if' scenarios that ran through his mind. Only the dull heartache of an age-old wound now reopened. He would bid her farewell from here and hope that if there were anything beyond this life, she would be somewhere far less cruel and hard.

She turned to Ghost, _'Do you wish to return for a few moments to say your farewells?'_ Alese asked him, as she started to follow Shawn back to the morgue.

 _'No, I have said goodbye, there is nothing left for me to say or dwell on, and no reason to ponder on what might have been.'_ Ghost looked over at Shadow, _'We need to focus on what we are here for and one another. I will stay here with Shadow and make sure he stays calm.'_

Nodding to Ghost, Alese followed Shawn back to the morgue, the whole time she picked up how tense he was, and knew he was expecting her to rip right into him the second they entered the room. While her anger with both Shawn and Shadow was ebbing, she still had every intention to voice her displeasure in private on what he had just pulled. While she understood the reasoning for his actions as it had helped Shadow calm down, it had been a risky gamble, one that had thankfully paid off. However, it wasn't just that, it was what he had also said. Never once had she, Ghost or even Shadow ever considered Shawn a substitute for their host-mothers, not once, and that he could even think that both hurt and angered her. She had never felt hurt like this before, it centered in her heart and radiated out, wanting to consume her.

"Alright, go ahead and say it, I know how pissed you are," Shawn said as the door to the morgue closed behind them. "It's not like any of us can hide our emotions from the other." His eyes panned across the large room, trying to find a good spot to hide the signal amplifier. Maybe behind one of the larger pipes set up against the wall, it would be well hidden and out of the way.

Grabbing his shoulder, Alese whipped Shawn around, clasping his head with her hands then lowering her head until she was only a few inches from his face. _'NEVER…'_ Alese stated, her mental voice quivering with a mix of anger, hurt and frustration, ' _never do what you just did back in that hallway. Never threaten yourself with harm.'_ Her lips peeling back slightly in a reflex action as thin strands of clear drool begin to drip from her mouth. _'Never say what you said either. You are not some… substitute.'_ The last word oozed out as if bile and filth thickly coated it. _'You were, are, '_ She corrected herself quickly, _'one of the few good things to ever happen to us. One of the rare, few humans that ever treated us well, and did not look down on us as things to exploit, or monsters to be feared.'_

Alese loosened her grip as her forehead gently touched his, _'If you had injured or even killed yourself...'_ Her voice trailed off at the thought of what might have happened if Shadow had not yielded, the idea of Shawn pulling the trigger and wounding or even killing himself. She didn't know if their little hive would have ever recovered from that, or if they would have gotten off the station at that point. The emotional backlash and guilt alone would have been devastating to Shadow, as she knew he would blame himself for it, and quite possibly never forgive himself.

Standing with his forehead touching hers, Shawn's heart sank, how could he have said such a thing. All he had been doing was trying to point out the obvious; it hadn't ever crossed his mind about how his words would affect or hurt them so, it was never intentional, everything just came out wrong. Watching Shadow go mad with grief and rage, his rampage, that sudden sinking feeling of isolation that threaded to smother him, knowing that for those few minutes, he didn't seem to be a part of their hive anymore. He knew it was absurd, but deep down for just an instant as Shadow walked past him when he was on the floor, he felt like he was in that damn space suit, tumbling helplessly through the void again, alone, isolated and afraid.

Closing in, he reached around Alese's waist and pulled himself in, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said what I did, I just…I'm sorry." Shawn said, wishing that he could take it all back, wishing that those thoughts had never even come to mind or if they had, he should have just buried them.

Wrapping her arms around him, her chin came to rest on the base of his neck, ' _You truly scared me; I thought I might lose you, that we all might lose you. I did not want my last memory of you to be lying on the floor bleeding out, dying.'_ Her grip tightened up slightly as if holding on to their human would somehow drive those thoughts away and keep her in check.

"Alese, I thought…" Shawn paused for a few moments to try to clear his head and figure out exactly what to tell her, as it was all still a murky and garbled mess of sharp and intense emotions as everything had happened so fast. "That I was losing him. That I was losing him, you, even Ghost. For those few minutes, he was gone from me. I get that it was grief, shock, and anger, and that was what was driving him, but still, for those few minutes, I didn't even exist in his world anymore, and when he walked right past me, it was like I wasn't there. I felt his mind engulfed by all that rage and hate, all he wanted was revenge, all he could think about was her and what they had done to her. Everything we had built and formed, all that trust, the closeness, our own little hive, just for that short amount of time, it all seemed to disappear because of someone that's dead. And maybe I'm selfish for it, maybe I'm a little shit that doesn't want to share what we have, and fuck, maybe I'm jealous of someone who's been dead for years because if she were alive." Shawn stopped speaking, as his stomach bottomed out at the horrible thought that followed, "that he would be with her and not me.'

 _'But the truth is this, she is dead, and he is with you, and nothing will change that. My host is dead, Ghost's host is dead, and we are with you, that is simply the way it is. Be grateful that we have found each other and be happy for all we have shared and discovered.'_

"I am, I do, but I just feel selfish and bad for thinking like that you know, even if a tiny part of me is kind of glad it did happen." There, he had finally said it, while he hated the fact that their host-mothers had died, it meant that if they hadn't passed away, he would never have met Shadow and the others.

 _'We are all selfish, every single one of us,'_ Alese told him, _'we let you do for us what we could not do for ourselves. At first, it was a beneficial arrangement for all of us, however, when we discovered that you were as damaged as we were. The pain, suffering, and loneliness that ate away at you, '_ Alese's grip tightened slightly more, _'we had considered from time to time to forget this place and keep on going, to not get you involved in this fight of ours. But then you were willing to commit yourself to it on our behalf and not ask for anything in return, how could we refuse. No one of your race had ever done anything like that for us. Perhaps it would have been better if we had not gotten you involved in our fight. Perhaps we should have kept running until we lost ourselves in the void and found somewhere to call home, just the four of us, together forever.'_

"You're not that selfish Alese, none of you are, it's not in your nature. You would have come back here sooner or later to rescue them, and we all know it." Shawn told her, thinking back to the years before, it was indeed an odd journey that had befallen him starting only a few months ago. "You guys have thrown me for a complete one-eighty," he said, "I wasn't even looking for anyone to get close to, and now, I don't even know if I can live without the three of you with me. Hell, for that matter I don't even know if I could ever be attracted to my own species ever again, you all ruined me on that."

Alese let out a slight hissing laugh at Shawn's comment _, 'And I do not believe we can live without you either,'_ she told him, releasing Shawn from her embrace and stepping back. _'Activate the device and place it where no one can find it, we should leave this area soon.'_ She said turning around and heading to bid her long-dead host farewell.

"You know, even if we make it to the labs and free them, not all of us are going to make it to the ship. There's going to be a lot of dying on both sides, and to be honest, the thought of pulling the trigger on someone, I'm still not sure if I can do it." Shawn told her flatly trying to change the subject to something relevant, as he activated the signal booster and headed to an out of the way spot that looked like it would work. A large pipe that protruded out of the ceiling and down into one of the wall morgue cabinets far away from the two doors.

 _'It is not in your nature to be violent, you worry, and you care, you would save us all if it were in your power to do so.'_ Alese replied, coming over to her host and looking at the long deceased female human. It was, as the humans would say, bittersweet, a chance to have some closure but no chance to be close to the ones that had given them life. At least she could say farewell, even if it was a short and hurried goodbye. _'But I also know that you would kill to protect us if there was no other alternative. I only hope that it is something that you have prepared for.'_ She said as her long, slick fingers gently glided over her host's pasty, white skin.

Finding a small stepladder to boost himself upon, Shawn placed the amplifier as close to the back of the pipe as he could. Checking the signal strength, he found it to be well within acceptable levels. "It's done, the signal is good." He told her, getting down and placing the ladder back to where he had found it. "Do you ever find it hard, killing someone I mean? For you, Shadow and Ghost is there ever regret or is it something that just needs to be done, and that's it."

Alese pressed her forehead to her hosts for a minute, her thoughts this time, silent, as she kept them to herself on what might have been in a different life. The silence in the room of those now long dead hung uncomfortably heavy. It was an odd question that he had asked her, and one that she was not entirely sure how to answer, _'It is,'_ she started, raising up and carefully sliding her host's body back into the cabinet, _'something that we were created to do, it is not something that we delight in doing. We kill when it is necessary, at that moment before, during and after the death blow, there is a sense of what you would call purpose, and maybe even satisfaction to ending the enemy's life, however, it is nothing more than a task that needs to be done, and that is it. With it, there is what you might call a battle fever, our base, and primal nature comes closer to the surface to press us on when in combat. Regret, however.'_ She turned around and slowly made her way toward Shawn, _'was something we were never designed to feel, something none of our kind was ever met to experience. However, neither was love, compassion or even hope and yet we feel those emotions. We were never designed to care for those we hold close to ourselves, and want for a better life for others and ourselves and yet we do. It is regretful that we have to kill when it is necessary, so yes we do feel regret for doing such things, not always, but sometimes.'_

Stopping in front of Shawn, Alese reached up and gently ran her fingers through his hair, enjoying the tactile feeling of the soft fibers. ' _The merc that accidentally shot you when you were trying to escape CIC, I made sure he did not die quickly or painlessly. What I did to him was an act of rage and blood-lust; I do regret that I made him suffer for what was both an accident and an act of fear on his part.'_ She told him, hoping that the question was answered to his satisfaction.

Shawn nodded tentatively at what she had told him, figuring it was as good of an answer as he was going to get from her, or any of them. While they did share common emotions and even human-like traits at times, none of the Xenos were in fact, human. And it was something he seemed to be forgetting at times as well, more and more now that he thought back to it. Shadow often at times seemed to forget that Shawn was human and not a Xenomorph. Perhaps it was an effect of the bonding, that sense of losing oneself to the group and simply being a part of the hive, nothing more, nothing less.

"Well, guess we should get moving. I wouldn't be surprised if half the station is hunting for us right now." Shawn said, turning to head toward the exit, "Are you going to be alright with all this?"

 _'I will be fine, death is, how would your race say it? A common companion for our kind, I have said my farewells, there is nothing left...'_ Alese's attention suddenly shifted as she quickly turned around, her elongated domed head panning back and forth as if she was sensing something that Shawn could not detect.

"What is it?" Shawn asked, his hand instinctively gripping the pulse rifle's handle as his finger lightly pressed down on the trigger. Alese didn't answer his question as her head continued to pan back and forth. Then he heard it, distant, the sound almost like thunder, but metallic, constant and getting louder and closer. "Oh shit," Shawn said, a cold chill shooting down his spine as he realized what it was they were both hearing. Not thunder as it had first sounded like, but the sound of rapid footfalls on the metal vent flooring. The very same vent the four of them had come from not too long ago. "Time to go," Shawn told Alese, patting her on her flank.

Not wasting a single moment more, Alese was only a few steps behind Shawn as both of them hastily made their way out of the morgue leaving the deceased host-mothers behind. She couldn't determine if the group in the vent were humans or androids, perhaps a mix of both as she had only heard the footfalls approaching. Regardless, however, it did not matter, human or android they were now being hunted by the station's security force.

"Go, go, go," Shawn repeatedly said, motioning for Shadow and Ghost to start moving.

 _'What is wrong, what is it?'_ Ghost asked, wondering what had just happened in the short time the two were gone.

 _'We detected footfalls in the vent tunnel we just came from, we are now being hunted.'_ Alese replied, 'I do not know how many, but it sounded like a large group.'

"You can bet that wasn't the only group either; I wouldn't be surprised if multiple groups were closing in on this area. We need to get the hell out of here, find someplace to hide and quick." Shawn said, looking at his datapad for any access panels, hatchways or vent openings they could use to get into the maintenance tunnels. "Alright, I got something, there's a maintenance hatch less than a hundred meters on the left just past the hallway door. Let's just hope that no one is on the other side." Shawn muttered to himself as the four made their way to the exit door.

Shadow tilted his head at Shawn slightly, _'I fear that our luck may have come to an end. We should be prepared to fight from this point on.'_

"Are you going to be able to, I mean after what just happened back there? You can't afford to lose control like that again." Shawn told him, wondering if an actual fight would push him over the edge and cause his rage to take over.

 _'Yes, I will be fine, I am committed to freeing our hive mates, not exacting revenge,'_ Shadow told him. While the heated rage sat just below the surface ready to boil over, he swore to himself he would do everything he was able to keep his anger in check, the hive was what was truly important, not vengeance. And while he may not have been actively seeking revenge, it wouldn't stop him from ripping apart someone if he or she was unlucky enough to get in his way to try to stop them.

Coming to the end of the hallway, a large pair of sliding double doors stood in their way, "Ok, once we get past here there's no telling what we'll be going up against. Ghost, Alese, remember those bags you're carrying have the thermite charges, if we get into a firefight, ditch them. If they get hit they'll go up like a massive flare and cook you; I don't want to see anyone die like that ever again." Shawn told the two as a sharp pain pierced his heart for a second at memories that he would have instead left buried.

 _'We understand,_ ' Ghost said, both him and Alese adjusting the bags so they could drop them in a moment's notice.

Readying his pulse rifle, Shawn pressed a green button on the control pad; the doors slid opened with a slight mechanical hiss. Alese was right, he needed to be ready to pull the trigger and if necessary end someone's life. It was a hard and nasty truth, and there was nothing clean about it at all, deep down he knew that it would come down to it, a life for a life, he just hoped that somehow it wouldn't happen. That they could have found some way to get through this whole ordeal without killing anyone, that however was a fantasy. He knew once they got to the labs and let the Xenos free, it would be a blood bath, and he would be neck deep in it. Shawn only hoped that he could find a way to live with that decision once it happened.

Another long dimly lit hallway that curved slightly to the right lay before them, doors and intersecting corridors lined the area as far down as he could see. It was nothing less than the perfect place for an ambush. A short hundred meters was all they needed to cover to get to the access door, and from there they would make their way up to the labs.

Shouldering and aiming the pulse rifle down the hall, Shawn started to walk as quietly as he could, Shadow next to him with Ghost and Alese following right behind. Each of them scanning the area for any movement and listening for the approaching sounds of footfalls.

Ten meters and nothing, then twenty and still all was silent, a sliver of hope started to creep into Shawn's heart that they might make it to the access hatch unnoticed. Every step he took meant that they were getting closer and closer. Nevertheless, there was this oppressive weight of heavy dread that was pressing down on him, telling him that the four of them were walking right into a trap and they would be cut down any second.

Thirty meters hit, no movement and no sound, all he wanted to do now was make a run for it, to sprint as fast as he could, and get inside the inner workings of the station. It would be dark, and isolated, which meant there were areas to hide in, to ambush, and most of all it meant safety for them. A slightly dim light, red and blinking along the ceiling caught his attention, while it wasn't the light itself that caused a cold and deadly realization to creep into his mind, it was what the light was coming from. A security camera that was moving as they did, tracking their progress.

He cursed himself an idiot, as well as a fool for not thinking about the cameras that would line the hallways. He hadn't seen any in the morgue or the hall that they had come from, but that didn't mean they weren't there, possibly hidden out of sight. One of many of the all-seeing eyes that monitored everything in its path, the comings and goings of all the station personal onboard. And now the four of them were in the view of its unblinking glass eye. He could only imagine the reaction that the person or person's that were at the monitoring station at seeing the three Xenos with a human right along with them.

A slight metallic tingeing sound echoed down the hallway, at first one, then two, three and then four. The sound of metal rolling over metal grew louder and closer. Quickly glancing down, Shawn saw four round black balls, twice the size of his fist coming toward their small group. He didn't have time to react as large, slick, black hands grabbed him and yanked him around.

 _'Ambush!'_ Shadow screamed using himself as a shield to protect Shawn as the metal balls detonated with blinding flashes of intense light and deafening explosions that erupted throughout the group. Stun grenades, Shadow remember being on the receiving end of these miserable devices more times than he wanted to remember when he was still in the lab. Far too often, some wretched scientist or guard would slip a few of them into his pod and wait for the devices to go off, leaving him more annoyed and pissed off than injured. Through those had been cylindrical and slightly larger than what had just gone off.

"Open fire!" the words echoed down the hallway, as the roar of weapons fire came to life. White bolts zipped down the hall, impacting into the metal walls, ceiling, floor, and hardened black chitin flesh.

Shawn found himself being half shoved half thrown into the nearest hallway, Shadow right on top of him. Ringing echoed in his hears and spots filled his vision, he managed to look behind him and barely saw two large black figures bolting into the adjacent hallways seeking cover. The main hallway that now divided the four of them filled with deadly hot tracer rounds that whizzed by. 'Is anyone hit?' Shawn mentally called out, quickly receiving two negatives from Alese and Ghost.

 _'A few rounds hit, but nothing penetrated.'_ Shadow answered, still protectively covering Shawn as the metal hailstorm screeched by.

Metal hitting and rolling against metal echoed toward the four, and second's later bright flashes of light, and deafening explosions followed. Dozens of red beams filled the main hallway, moving up and down, left and right, each one searching for a target. Occasionally a burst of weapon fire would roar with hot rounds streaking by.

"Fucking-hell, I can barely hear anything, and all I see are spots," Shawn cursed, closing and rubbing his eyes, trying to get his vision back. Unfortunately, it did little to help get rid of the large blotchy spots that now filled his sight. Even the ringing in his ears drowned out the persistent weapons fire. The effects of the stun grenades would not last long, a few more minutes at most, but that was all the time the attacking group would need to close in on them.

"If we stay here, we'll be overrun, or they'll outflank us!" Shawn yelled, barely able to hear himself speak as he pushed himself up against the metal wall. Adrenaline coursed through his whole body, fear, no not fear, terror, it had taken a firm chokehold on him as hundreds more of the deadly rounds zipped by. In the back of his mind, he had, in some small part tried to convince himself that he was ready to face off against whatever the station had to offer, to tackle it head-on, and win. All that training, looking back on it now, it had been nothing more than games and play, him pretending to be something he wasn't, he wasn't a warrior or a soldier, not even close, though he never openly claimed to be one. But just for this once, since they entered this metal behemoth, he sincerely hoped that he could be. Doubt now flooded his mind as he saw for the first time what the four of them were going up against; now all he wanted to do was go home to where it was safe and quiet.

 _You got yourself into this shit storm; now get yourself out of it!'_ The tiny voice in the back of his mind barked, not intending to die like this. _'Pull yourself together, focus, find all of us a way out, you kept telling yourself that you were ready, that you were training for this, or was that just a load of crap, do you just plan to roll over and watch Shadow, Alese and Ghost die like cattle to the slaughter? There will be no going home unless you fight for it unless you fight for them._ The tiny voice snarled, then went quiet.

Blinking several more times, Shawn could swear the spots were starting to ease up slightly. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the constant ringing in his ears as more bright flashes mixed with deafening, explosive claps lit up the main hallway only meters away. Balling his hand into a tight fist, he forced himself to push the fear, the terror that was trying to strangle him into submission as far down as he could. Running wasn't an option, hiding wasn't an option, they needed to fight back.

 _'Shadow,'_ Shawn focused on mentally communicating with the Praetorian, between the ringing in his ears and deadly rounds zipping by, he was finding it far harder than usual to use the hive speech. _'Does the hallway lead anywhere that you can see?'_

 _'No, there is a door at the end of the hallway, but it appears to be locked judging by the position of the light on the door panel, and no other hallways look to intersect into this one._ It is the same for the hallway that Ghost and Alese are in if you were wondering,' Shadow replied, _'there are no air vents that are large enough for us to climb into either.'_ He pondered making a straight charge into the group that now pinned them down. Alese had said that another group was in the frozen tunnel vent area that they had come out of earlier when entering the morgue. That second group would no doubt attack them from behind to either capture or kill them.

Standing up, Shawn reached out, latching onto Shadow, his hand moving over one of the bags the Xeno carried. _'If we stay here, we'll be slaughtered.'_ Shawn said, finding the bag he was looking for, reaching in, he fumbled around until he pulled out several canisters. Blinking, his eyes started to finally focus, throwing the canisters back in he pulled out several more until he found the exact ones he was looking for.

 _'You have a plan I assume?'_ Shadow asked, fully aware of how limited their options were at the moment. He might be able to do a frontal charge and take the damage unless heavy weapons were in the mix and the human warriors had not used them yet. But if he could get in the middle of the group, he could finish them off with ease; it wouldn't matter how many there were.

The layout of the hallway finally coming back to him as his mind cleared and the fear partly suppressed, he had a risky idea, but if they were fast enough, it might work. The only other option was to wait, and that was not an option. Shaking the canisters, Shawn yanked the pin out of one of them; his grip firmly cemented around a flimsy looking handle that ran half the length of the tube. _'There's a hallway that intersects about twenty meters away; I'll toss a couple of smoke grenades, that should obstruct their vision for a few minutes, when they go off I'll lay down suppressive fire, and pump a few grenades at them, when that happens we make a break for it. So unless you or the others can come up with a better idea, this is all I've got.'_

Reaching around, Shadow grabbed Shawn and drew him in close, his head resting on the human's shoulder as his jaw pressed up against warm skin. _'When this happens, you run as fast and as hard as you can. You run as if the queen mother herself was coming after you.'_ He sternly told Shawn, his heart pumping so fast and hard now, the sound almost drowned out everything else around him. More than anything else, he wanted to keep Shawn from harm, to protect him from this place, to tell him to stay here, to stay safe, but such safety was nothing more than an illusion. When they broke cover to make the twenty-meter run, it would be in fates hands as to whether they lived or died. Twenty meters, it was an obnoxiously short distance as any one of his species could cover it in a matter of seconds, but it would only take a second for a heavy round or several to find their mark and bring any one of them down. He was more than half tempted to have Shawn get on his back again so he could carry him, but they would need the cover fire to help keep the enemy pinned down.

 _'When I open fire, stay to the left side of the hallway as much as you can,'_ Shawn told Shadow. While the Xenos embrace help to quell his fear, at the same time it added to the raw terror that was building up, that at any point he might watch one of them die in a barrage of gunfire. That he would feel their mind violently slip away in agony, the link would tear away, and all that would remain would be an empty void. _You're going to lose them, all of them._ It was the one constant thought that repeated in the back of his mind since boarding this station. No, not since the station, that thought had reared its ugly head shortly after he decided to help them rescue their kin, since he took the Saratoga, did a one-eighty, and put the ship into full throttle making a beeline right for this place.

Pressing the fear down deep into the back of his mind, he needed to focus on what was next, not think about something that had not happened yet or might never happen. They were alive right now; the Xenos were tougher than anything he had ever come across or heard about. He had faith they would weather this storm, succeeded in their mission, and live to tell about it. He would merely have to deal with the consequences of what happened in the next minute.

Relaying the plan to Ghost and Alese, both of the drones crouched down, each one ready to break cover and make the run. He didn't know how much longer it would be until they were boxed in by the second group, but at most, it couldn't be more than a few minutes.

Reluctantly, Shadow let go of Shawn, almost having to force himself to release the human, there would be time, later on, to comfort each other after this was over and they were back on the ship. That was what he was going to tell himself, that there would be a later, for all of them.

 _'Ready?'_ Shawn asked, receiving a quick affirmative from all three immediately. Taking several quick breaths, he steadied himself, toss, wait, fire and run. Four simple steps, that's all it would take. With a metallic ping, the handle he held down flew up for a few seconds, then fell hitting the floor. Throwing the grenade as hard as he could, the metallic canister flew through the air, landed and rolled, a second canister landing close by moments later. Two loud puffs one right after the other and a pair of loud hissing sounds filled the air. Heavy, thick smoke billowed out coating the area in a dense grayish haze, much thicker than what he had expected. Breaking out of cover, Shawn pointed the rifle down the hallway, his finger slowly squeezing down on the trigger. S _hort controlled burst_ s. James's voice, crept back into his mind, the lessons and advice coming back. Remember _you only want to fire two to four rounds at a time. Never opt for a fully sustained fire rate unless you absolutely have to. You do that, and you'll eat through your ammo quicker than you realize. A two hundred and fifty to three hundred round drum will be empty in a matter of seconds if you stay down on the trigger._

The rifle kicked like an enraged mule, wanting to ride up as it roared to life. Round after round burst out; bright muzzle flashes lit up the dimly lit area. Short bursts, Shawn's finger pulled and released, four, five, or six rounds flying out each time he pulled down. His hand reaching up the length of the barrel, coming to rest on the underslung metal pump, wrenching it back and then forward, a loud metal click resounded, as one of the deadly grenades locked and chambered, ready for release. His hand came back, finger resting on a small protruding button just in front of the magazine housing. A loud, dull pop sounded as the rifle buckled up releasing the deadly explosive.

A second later, a loud explosion and bright red flash lit up the smokescreen for a moment. A string of cries and screams, some in surprise, others in agony followed almost immediately after. Another dull pop, with another loud explosion, more rounds screamed into the smoke and the attackers. Shawn tried to keep his emotions and feelings down; he had no illusion that he had just grievously injured and no doubt killed several of the station personnel. Men and women, those who possibly had families, and those who might have only needed the pay; in the blink of an eye he had just ended some of their lives, and in doing so ripped those families apart.

He told himself and the others that he would do what was necessary, do whatever it took to protect them. Even as his stomach bottomed out, and his body went numb from the emotional shock, all he wanted to do was retch, to now take back what he had just done, but he couldn't, not now and not ever. He could never picture the so-called 'enemy' as just a bunch of faceless and soulless things to take out and forget about. Everything they had been and were had just been snuffed out in a violent instant, and that was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life.

Keeping his finger on the trigger, Shawn signaled for Shadow and the others to move. Three black forms broke their cover and bolted down the hallway, Shawn taking off behind them, trying to maintain any suppressive fire. Twenty meters, that was all they needed to cover to get to the next hallway. Keeping count of each broad step he took, hoping the whole time they would make it.

Nineteen.

Eighteen.

Seventeen.

Sixteen.

Fifteen.

At twelve meters, Shawn entered the wall of thick gray smoke and quickly lost sight of Shadow and the others, only seeing their vague forms for a moment before vanishing into the covering haze. Immediately the dense chemical smoke choked and burned his lungs and stung his eyes as he tried to draw in breath. A wave of panic flooded over him at the lack of air, reactively he pulled down on the trigger by accident letting a burst off that whipped down the center of the hallway. Fighting down the onset panic, Shawn tried to get his bearings, just about half way there by his count, ten meters if that, just around thirty feet, barely the length of a good sized room.

"Spray the fucking hallway down." A voice boomed, sounding like it was just a few meters away, almost directly in front of him.

Blackness engulfed him, up suddenly became down, and the gut-wrenching sensation of soaring through the air overtook his senses. Nausea and dizziness swept over Shawn all at once; bile crept up his throat and into his mouth, his stomach threatening to unleash whatever it still held.

 _'I have you,'_ Shadow's voice whipped into his mind, an instant later the smoke thinned out and then cleared. Shawn found himself lowered into the metal floor as a roar of weapons fire lit up the thick, smoky haze. The gray fog glowed as deadly rounds filled the main hallway, a massive hailstorm of lethal fire so thick and intense that it looked to be a glowing river of reds, and whites that cascaded down the corridor.

Gasping, Shawn took in several large gulps of air, trying to clear out the burning chemical taste that seemed to be everywhere in his mouth and lungs. As if the now small blotches that he saw weren't bad enough, his eyes now stung and watered as well from the smoke.

 _'Easy,'_ Shadow told him, _'stay still, they may not know we made it.'_

Looking around, Shawn found the four of them were about halfway down the small side hallway. How in the hell had Shadow moved so fast, it was no wonder he felt like he had been flying through the air. It was also no small wonder that he hadn't hurled right on the spot. "Any…any idea how far away they are?" Shawn asked, spitting out some of the chemical residue that coated the inside of his mouth.

 _'Ten to fifteen meters,'_ Alese answered, crouching down, her fingers gripped firmly around the handle to a large well-packed duffel bag. It hadn't escape anyone that both her and Ghost had taken quite a chance when they grabbed the bags with the thermite when they took off down the hallway. A chance that Shawn was thankful had paid off, as he had no doubt the bags would now be a blazing pyre, spectacularly melting quite a massive hole into the decks below.

His eyes still watered, though less now from the smoke and more from what he had just done. "I killed them, didn't I?" Shawn whispered more to himself than to the Xenos, the shock of his actions starting to take its course. In his mind, he still heard the screams and cries from the men and women when the grenades hit. It barely registered when Shadow's hand ran across his back, the long fingers gripping his shoulder in a slight squeeze. The Xeno saying nothing, as nothing he could say would make any difference right now.

Closing his eyes tightly, Shawn took in several slow, measured breaths to try to get himself under control. He needed to put the pain aside, and not think about what he had done and what might happen next. Just focus on what the next step was, that was all that mattered. Wiping away several tears, he opened his eyes, the barrage of gunfire still tearing down the main hallway. He was about to say something when a deafening screech tore throughout the corridor. Even over the deluge of weapons fire, the scream almost drowned out the roar of the weapons. All four of them recognized what it was right away, even Shawn as he had heard it several times, and it was a sound that he would never forget.

It was the battle cry of an enraged Xenomorph. Deep and powerful, the force behind it overpowered even Shadow's own fierce and primal battle cry.

Screams of surprise and confusion quickly turned to blood-curdling shrieks of agony and fear. The desperate cries from the guards mingled with the furious battle cry of the Xenomorph. The roar of pulse weapons still firing, though to a much lesser extent, soon came to silence. Soon after, another ear-piercing screech ripped down the hallway, one that was of victory.

 _'Brother,'_ Shadow whispered, more to himself than to anyone else, all four of them still dumbfounded by what had just happened. Had his hive mates somehow managed to break free from the lab, or was it only a few that were now free from there prison? If they were now free, it would make getting off the station far less complicated, and if only a few now roamed the station, well that would make freeing his hive mates that much easier.

Loud and heavy footfalls fast approached them, slamming into the metal flooring. In just a few heartbeats, a massive black figure with a large head-crest entered the smaller hallway. A large Praetorian approached the four, taller than Shadow by at least a foot with a far more massive build. Globs of white nutritional fluid mixed with thick crimson blood coated most of the Xeno. Small spots of yellow dripped away from his body eating tiny holes in the floor plating, followed by wisps of smoke that rose up from the melted metal.

 _'Brothers…sister!'_ A deep voice reverberated through their minds, one of astonishment and partial disbelief. The newcomer's pace quickened until he was only a meter or two away from the four. _'How?'_ He almost stammered, unsure if he could trust what he now saw before him.

Shadow rose up, as did Alese and Ghost. _'We promised we would come back to free you, and we are here to do that.'_ Shadow said, stepping up to his Praetorian brother, their foreheads knocking tougher with a dull, boney thud. _'You have gotten bigger,'_ Shadow said firmly gripping his brother's shoulders.

 _'As have you, how did you…'_ The Praetorian trailed off now noticing the unfamiliar human that slowly and cautiously stood up. _'A friend, I assume?'_ He asked carefully looking over the unknown human that stood only a couple of meters away.

Shadow turned to look behind him; easily picking up that his brother was eyeing Shawn with a mix of wariness and uncertainty. _'He is more than a friend, he is hive, and he is one of us. Because of his actions we now have the means to free our hive mates and leave this place and go where ever we desire.'_ Shadow told him, _'let me show you all that he has done for us and what we have all shared.'_ The memories flowed to the large Praetorian's mind in a matter of seconds, revealing all that had happened since Shawn's rescue in space. The response from the larger Praetorian was a mix of surprise, shock, and even relief.

While his thoughts toward Elizabeth Brooks were heated, even lustful at times, and the interactions between Ryan and his smaller sister warrior were often borderline intimate even if it was only in a mental construct. He had never once thought that such a deep level of closeness, intimacy, even fierce and raw passion between his race and the humans could ever exist. At least not with the wounds of his current hive mates being as fresh and deep as they were. And yet, standing only meters away was proof that somehow the opposite had happened. That through actions, deeds, and more than a measure of compassion that this human had won the hearts of three of his hive mates, and in the process had somehow fully bonded with them as well.

There was also, what they had discovered in the morgue, only a short distance away. Through Shadow's memories, he saw the room, the many cabinets that held their hosts. He wanted so much himself to go to that area, to see his host-mother, to greet her and to say his farewells. A dull ache squeezed his chest; the instinct to run toward her flooded his mind and being. A calling that he had to deny, closure would not help them now, and if what this Shawn, and his sister, now called Alese, had heard, more warriors were on their way. All of them would have to find some place to hide and very soon.

 _'So, Shadow is it now?'_ The Praetorian asked, turning his attention to his brother, slightly bemused at the nickname Shawn had given him, a name that somehow was fitting. _'It does suit you.'_ He said, walking past his brother and over to Shawn, squatting down until he was eye level with the smaller human. The Praetorian leaned in, touching his forehead with Shawn's own. _'You have both my gratitude and thanks for what you have done for my brothers and sister, as well as assisting them in coming to this place to free us; your plan is…bold.'_ He said, mulling over what he had seen from Shadow's mind, a plan that was bold, but also reckless.

But then so had his own actions over the last few days.

"You're welcome," Shawn said rather meekly, not entirely sure how he should be addressing this newcomer, as he looked over the larger Praetorian. While Shadow always seemed built more toward speed, maneuverability, and precision, this Xeno was built for raw power, and strength, no doubt being able to plow right into and through almost anything he wanted. Shadow could shrug off most fire with little effect; he still felt the impact, even if the rounds did no damage. Shawn had to wonder if this newcomer even felt anything hit him at all. "Are there others that have escaped or is it just you?" Shawn asked, trying to distract himself from the guilt that now ravaged him. Even if what he did was in defense, it did not make it any easier to accept.

 _'No, I was the only one that escaped,'_ The Praetorian answered, _'I did have some unexpected, but welcomed help.'_ Standing back up, he stepped over to Alese and Ghost, greeting them, their heads bumping and pressing together. _'It is good to see you two as well.'_

 _'And you as well my brother,'_ Alese said, rubbing her dome against his, Ghost doing much the same.

After a few moments, the large Praetorian stepped back, _'We should move to a safer area, we are being hunted, and more humans are on their way. Come, we have several hiding spots that have not been discovered, at least not yet.'_ He said, heading toward the main hallway.

Leaving the smaller hallway, the four now witnessed the carnage of the battle, a mess of strewn bodies and weapons littered the area. Dozens of armored security personnel, both a mix of humans and androids lay dismembered, ripped in half, impaled, or outright crushed. The armor they wore which was supposed to offer protection had done little to protect any of them from the deadly steel claws, overpowering strength, or lethal inner jaw of the Xenomorph. As he had shredded the armor and those that wore it as if they were made out of nothing more than wet paper. Streams of crimson mixed with milky white flowed out from the gaping wounds from the dead, some spots coming together to form a sickening pinkish pool.

A makeshift barricade consisting of metal four-foot high interlocking plates spanned most of the width of the hallway, leaving only a two to three-foot gap on either side to maneuver around. Some of the heavy metal plates now lay ripped and scattered around. Three large tripods with mounted mini-guns set right behind the barricade making up the bulk of the heavy firepower. Pulse rifles mixed with a few smart-guns, flamethrowers and various small arms lay thrown around in the bloody mess.

"Christ," Shawn muttered, "they look like they went through a meat grinder." As bad as the carnage had been with the mercs, it paled in comparison to what they were now looking at. The fact that a single Xeno could inflict this kind of damage in such a short amount of time, he wondered what kind of damage a whole hive could inflict if incited to act. As much as he hated to admit it, he did feel sorry for the poor bastards that had been on the receiving end, his train of thought interrupted by someone quickly approaching.

"Holy fuck," A panting voice rattled down the side hallway close to the barricade, gasping for breath, "What the hell did you do big guy?"

Shadow along with Ghost and Alese turned to the direction of the exhausted human's voice, ready to pounce if it was a threat. Shawn also taking no chances raised his rifle only to have a giant hand grasp it and push it down.

 _'You will not need that.'_ The Praetorian said, releasing the rifle.

Shadow looked over at his brother, _'This one is a friend of yours I assume,'_ he said with an equally bemused tone this time.

A lone very unkempt human in a dirty lab coat, with a pair of shoulder bags holding a combat shotgun, bolted around the corner and slid to a halt at seeing the multiple Xenomorphs mulling around in the hallway, along with an unfamiliar human in the mix. "Okay, what the fuck did I just miss?" He said, bewildered and confused, his eyes darting back and forth between the five.

 _'Yes, a friend, one that helped me, just as your human helped you.'_ The Praetorian replied to Shadow's question.

Taking several steps toward the other human, Shadow's head tilted slightly, underneath the messy hair and grime, was a face that he now recognized. In fact, it was one of the human's from the lab that he had not harmed, _'This one I remember,'_ Shadow said, surprised that this human had been brave enough to put his life in danger for them.

"What from the lab?" Shawn quietly inquired, wondering how much he could trust this person. However, if the large Praetorian called him a friend and trusted him, then hopefully he could as well.

 _'Yes, his name is Ryan, if I am correct; he was one of the few humans that treated us with any kindness and fairness. I spared his life that day because he never once harmed us.'_ Shadow said, remembering being only feet away from this human the day they escaped.

 _'He freed me at risk to his own life, and has been by my side since then.'_ The Praetorian said, beckoning Ryan over to where they were.

Cautiously, Ryan slowly walked over, his eyes still darting back and forth, in an instant, memories came back to him, memories of the day the five Xenos escaped from their cells and ran havoc throughout the labs leaving a bloody swath. "I remember you three," Ryan blurted out, mostly recognizing the elder drone with all the scars along his dome, scars that were now long faded and healed. The drones, as well as the Praetorian, looked fit and healthy if not somewhat bigger now. "But how, how the hell are you three back, and who are you?" Ryan asked, looking right at Shawn, wanting a few answers.

"Call me paranoid, but I saw cameras in the hallway further back, and I don't want anyone listening in on what I have to say, not to mention your friend here was wanting to get us someplace safe. Besides, I feel a bit exposed right now, and we'll have more guest soon." Shawn said rubbing his eyes; the spots were almost gone, but his eyes still hurt. Damn stun and smoke grenades.

"Right, well, in that case, follow us," Ryan said, turning around, "Damn, did you have to slaughter all of them?" He asked, shaking his head, "Such a fucking waste of life."

"He did it to save us," Shawn said, "I'm kind of surprised they were able to get that kind of firepower together and target our location so quickly."

Ryan shook his head, "This wasn't for you, it was meant for us. We've been hunted since I helped this guy out, among a few other things that went down that didn't exactly help our situation." Ryan said, making his way around the barricade, stopping, he picked up a discarded headset and tossed it toward Shawn. "You're going to need this, it helps to keep track of what's going on; I figure that Snyder has wised up by now, but it still helps if you know what to listen for." Taking a few more moments, Ryan looked around the area, finding what he was looking for, he picked up a few more belts of shotgun shells that were laying next to half an android. "If you need anything grab it quick, I doubt you'll get another chance anytime soon," Ryan told Shawn.

As they started to make their way around the remains of the barricade, a sudden cold chill shot down Shawn's spine as the hairs on the back of his neck rose up slightly. The faint sound of rapid footfalls quickly grew in tempo and volume.

"Targets acquired, terminate immediately." A voice, synthetic, and monotone spoke, coming down from the main hallway, as dozens of pairs of white-yellowish eyes emerged from the darkened hallway.

"Take cover!" Shawn yelled to everyone, as he dropped to the crimson and white liquid coated floor as the roar of pulse rifles and smart guns came to life, rounds zipping by right where his head had been a second ago. Looking over, he saw Ryan dropping down back behind an intact section of the barricade. Alese and Ghost dove over, dropping the bags behind a section of the metal wall as rounds screamed by. However, Shadow and the other Praetorian were not behind the safety of the metal shield. "I was wondering when these assholes would show up." Shawn spat, checking the rifle's ammo counter, one-hundred and ninety-seven rounds in the ammo drum remained. In that brief exchange of fire, he ate through over fifty rounds in what seemed to be a few quick seconds.

"You have any idea how many there are?" Shawn asked, looking right at Ryan, who now had a death grip on his combat shotgun. The tech looking flush as sweat beaded down the side of his face.

"No, not really!" Ryan screamed back, as countless metal rounds slammed and pelted into the barricade. "Fuck!"

 _'Several dozen are approaching; all of them are androids.'_ Alese told Shawn, her voice hard and tense, anger dripping from her words. She had no fond memories of these artificial things, and as far as she was concerned, the universe would be far better off if they did not exist.

A duet of high pitched and enraged battle cries reverberated through the hall, even bonded, every time Shawn heard that scream, a part of him still wanted to crawl underneath something, curl up and hide. It was a shame that it did not affect the androids that were trying to kill all of them.

"Screw this," Shawn snarled, cocking the grenade launcher, ready to fire it into the center of the approaching group. Hopefully, it would provide enough of a window to give Shadow and the other Praetorian time to get into the center and start ripping the whole lot apart.

"FUCK YOU ALL!" Ryan screamed at the top of his lungs, tossing the shotgun and ammo belts aside, jumping up, he lurched forward toward one of the standing tripods with the mounted mini-gun. Gripping the two handles, his thumbs came down on the pair of trigger-buttons. A small center placed light still glowed green indicating the weapon was fully primed and ready to fire. The digital ammo counter displayed right below it read just over seven hundred rounds remaining in the floor mounted ammo pod.

The barrels rotated slowly at first for a split second, then sped up to a dizzying speed. A deafening buzzing sound followed which reverberated throughout the corridor as a stream of glowing rounds spewed down the hallway slicing into the androids. A metal geyser of spent cases cascaded out of the weapons ejection port that rained down onto the floor. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Ryan swept the arc of the mini-gun from right to left and then back, repeating the motion over and over, as the metal red stream of death cut effortlessly through the synthetic bodies.

Bringing his rifle over, resting it on the top the barricade plate, Shawn popped a grenade down range. A second later, a fiery explosion engulfed several of the androids sending the white-coated remains spraying everywhere. Pulling down on the trigger, his weapon came to life, bright muzzle flashes followed by a lesser stream of deadly rounds. Holding the trigger down, Shawn slowly swept his rifle back and forth, round after round cut into the approaching enemy.

The overpowering buzzing from the mini-gun hammered into Shawn's ears as he kept sweeping his weapon back and forth. Heads of the synthetics burst apart as hot rounds tore into the artificial frame, meat, and skin. Some cut through the middle; torsos toppled over leaving the legs standing upright for a few comical seconds before falling over. A pile of trunks and limbs scattered the area as a pool of white fluid oozed out in all directions. A moment later, his weapon clicked and went silent. Ducking back down behind the barricade, Shawn looked at the ammo counter; it blinked zero-zero, empty. "I'm dry!" Shawn screamed, ejecting the drum, reaching to his vest ready to grab and slap a fresh magazine in.

Right then, an unnerving silence crept over the area. The only sound being that of the whirling electric motor of the mini-gun, the red-hot barrels smoking and spinning as Ryan kept sweeping the heavy weapon back and forth.

Daring to look over the barricade, Shawn saw that none of the androids were advancing toward them any longer. All that remained was a heap of white, fleshy parts and pieces strewn about in a large milky colored pool that slowly spread out.

"Ryan," Shawn called out to him, the tech still sweeping the minigun back and forth, wet trails had at some point formed underneath his eyes and dripped down.

"RYAN!" Shawn screamed this time, the tech snapping back to reality, his hands slowly unclasping from the handles of the mini-gun.

"FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU!" Ryan screamed as loud as he could toward the shredded pile of combat androids, frustration and anger seething in his voice. There was also a tiredness to it as well, liken to someone that had been run down for too long and was on the verge of snapping. After a few seconds of staring down the hallway at what the two of them had done, Ryan took a step back, doubling over, his hands gripping his knees for support. "God I fucking hate those things, always have, the blank stare, that monotone voice they have, the glowing eyes, they always crept me out." Wiping the wetness from underneath his eyes, the tech looked back over to Shawn. "Sorry about that, guess I lost it for a minute, we've been hounded almost none stop for the last week," He said, taking several long breaths, trying to sort himself out.

"Shit man, don't be, you did good," Shawn told him slowly standing up, white and red gore coated and dripped off his legs and lower backside. "Is everyone else alright?" He asked looking around, waiting for the next unpleasant surprise.

 _'We're all fine,'_ Shadow replied, walking through a small pile of flattened rounds that had hit both him and his Praetorian brother but did little more than irritate the pair. _'We should leave right now; I have no desire to be attacked again, and I have no doubt there will be more warriors on the way and soon.'_

 _'Agreed,_ ' the large Praetorian said, heading over to where Ryan was.

"Come on, like you said earlier, let's collect what we can, and get to this hiding spot of yours," Shawn said, picking up the empty ammo drum as well as a dozen full magazines that he threw into one of the two bags that Shadow had hanging off his back dorsal tubes.

"Right," Ryan agreed, grabbing his shotgun and the ammo belts that he had thrown to the ground. "By the way," he inquired, coming up next to Shawn, "how the hell did you know my name? I never told it to you."

"Your right, you never did," Shawn said, nodding at Shadow, as he loaded a magazine into the pulse rifle, "he did."

"Huh?" Ryan asked somewhat bewildered at the odd response as they headed toward the maintenance hatch.

xxxxx

Slinging his bags off in the corner along with the shotgun, Ryan waved to a section of grey gunmetal wall. "Make yourselves at home; we'll be good here for a while, a day maybe two now with all the damage that's happened. Which I'm going to assume was your handiwork?" Ryan asked, looking right at Shawn, "So I guess proper introductions are now in order, as well as a few hundred questions and answers to boot."

"Name's Shawn McNeil, and yes, the damage was my handiwork. However, it wasn't supposed to be quite so extensive." Shawn said, laying down his weapon, with the three other Xenos following his example. He hoped that talking to someone would take his mind off the god-awful way he was feeling. The combat high wearing off, left him feeling tired and even shaky, which was nothing compared to the sinking feeling still in his gut of when he opened fire on the security force.

"So what the hell did you hit us with, and how did you get on board, and how in god's name did you wind up with those three Xenos?" Ryan asked, rubbing his forehead, too many questions were flooding his brain.

Removing the bags from Shadow's dorsal tubes, Shawn placed them up against the wall and sat down next to them. Opening up one of the bags, he removed the empty ammo drum along with a few clips. "So you want the short or long answer?" Shawn asked, opening the ammo drum up, and began to transfer the rounds from the magazines to the drum.

"Short answer will work for now." Ryan told him, walking to one of the overhead water pipes, "Hope that you don't mind, but I haven't had a shower for almost a week now, and with all the shit that's been thrown at us, I could use a good soaking." He said, removing his clothing and draping the filthy garments over one of the nearby pipes. Turning a red and white handle located on an intake pipe, a spray of hot water burst from one of the pressure release valves drenching the tech. Layers of grime, dirt, oil and whatever other matter rinsed away under the hot water; the murky liquid mess swirled and drained down a small grate covered drainage hole close by.

"I lost my modesty a long time ago, seeing another guy in the buff doesn't bother me," Shawn told him. "Anyway, the short answer is this, I was pickup and rescued by the Saratoga a few months ago, before that, my ship was damaged by a meteorite that left me adrift for a couple of months. When I came on board, I quickly found out that the only ones that were on the ship were the Xenos. I can tell you that this big fucker," Shawn jokingly said, slapping Shadow on the thigh, "scared the shit out of me when we first met."

"Since then we've been chased, boarded by mercs, been in a ship to ship firefight, and on the run since then, so after all that I decided to help them out and free their hive mates. As to what I hit this place with, well I detonated a small tactical nuke, I was hoping that the shockwave and EMP blast would knock this place into enough chaos that we could get on board, free the other Xenos and make our way off. But the nuke somehow drifted out of its placement and detonated closer than I had planned. Don't know if there was a miss-fire on one of the thrusters or if the engine burn and inertia from the Saratoga had something to do with it." Shawn said, flexing his fingers back and forth. "However, from what the sensors picked up, looks like there was already a lot of damage to this pod, I'm guessing the two of you had something to do with that?" Shawn asked, echoing Ryan's earlier question.

"Yeah, more him," Ryan nodded toward the large Praetorian, "than me if you want to be accurate. He's been ripping apart stuff, power nodes, control panels, sensors, cameras, pretty much anything to cause some confusion and chaos. He also caused more than a few electrical fires along the way, and flooded part of a deck." Ryan said, scouring his hair with his fingers trying to get as much dirt out as he could. "So let me get this straight, you have control of the Saratoga, and of all things, you decided to set off a nuke as a distraction?"

"Yes and yes."

"Well, that explains what the hell hit this station and messed everything up. So how did you get onboard, I'm assuming you just didn't park the ship right out front and use the main entrance?" Ryan asked.

"No," Shawn said, "there's a maintenance hatch for spacewalks on the lowermost section of the main hub. I brought the ship in as close as I could and did a short spacewalk over and got in that way. Can't say I was too thrilled with the two kilometers plus climb up the wall of the center spire. Even if I was riding on Shadow's back for most of it," he said, wishing that he could forget that long climb up.

"Shadow?" Ryan asked, confused as to who Shadow was. "Who's Shadow?"

Shawn jerked a thumb at the Praetorian standing next to him. "Shadow," he stated, "it's a nickname that stuck, because almost every time I would turn around he would be right there, just like my shadow."

"So you named him?" Ryan asked, still trying to scrub the grime out of his hair. A small bit of shampoo would have worked wonders right about now he mused wistfully, but at least for now he had hot water.

"Gave them all names," Shawn answered, pointing at Ghost and then Alese. "Ghost for him, cause he was always there but never really seen, and Alese for her, it's supposed to mean beautiful soul in one of the old European countries back on earth. They didn't seem to mind, better than saying 'hey you' or some crap like that all the time, and makes it easier to talk to them too."

"Unbelievable, you've been with them for just a few months and have made more progress with them than almost anyone here," Ryan said, shutting off the water, and trying to shake the excess off himself, wishing that he had a towel.

"No offense to you personally, but my way of interacting with them didn't involve torture like Mason or those other sadistic fucks," Shawn said, closing his eyes, hoping that he could get a few hours of rest.

Ryan froze at hearing those words, how could Shawn have possibly known about Ford Mason and what had happened. Records of what happened in the labs weren't in the Saratoga's logs. "How do you know about Mason and what he and the others did to them?"

"It's complicated, but Ghost formed a mental link with me by accident, and I got an all too vivid glimpse into what happened at the labs. Later on, after the link was stabilized I saw the whole ugly experience," Shawn said. "It's one of the reasons I wanted to help them; no one should ever be treated like that, I don't care what species they are."

Dressing as best as he could, the water causing his clothing to stick to his skin rather uncomfortably, Ryan stepped over and sat down in front of Shawn, "You can actually communicate with them, how?"

Tapping the side of his head, Shawn smiled slightly, "Mentally; it's called hive speech. I can hear what they say, Shadow and the others have always communicated to me with human language; it's what they are most familiar with since they were raised in the labs. However, in reality, it's not how their species truly communicates with each other. It's a mix of body language, pheromones and the hive link as it lets them share all their memories at once in a short amount of time, like seconds or minutes."

"How do you know all this, the only way I can communicate with any of the Xenos is by either asking questions and hope that I get it right or gestures." Ryan stopped for a moment, remembering the construct that he was in with the small warrior, was that like the link that Shawn was talking about? He couldn't hear her speak, but he did faintly pick up on her emotions. "This link you're talking about, there's a female Xenomorph warrior that is, well, I've come to be rather fond of, and she is fond of me. When we sleep at the same time, we share this mental construct that we can visit in, I can't pick up any thoughts, but I can sort of feel emotions coming from her, it's faint, but it is always there."

 _'It does sound like the beginnings of a link forming; this warrior may be viewing him as a potential mate.'_ Shadow said, hunkering down next to Shawn.

"I would agree," Shawn said, looking over at Shadow for a second then back to Ryan.

"You would agree?" Ryan asked, looking slightly bewildered, "wait, your communicating with him, right now, aren't you?"

"I know it's a weird way of having a conversation, but you get used to it. But to answer your question, yes, it sounds like the start of a link being formed." Shawn said, "At any point with your interactions with the Xenos, did it ever feel like something was being pressed right in the middle of your forehead, just above your eyes, like an invisible finger trying to work its way into your brain."

Ryan's eyes widened with surprise for a moment at the description that Shawn had stated. That was precisely what he had felt when the female warrior had grabbed his hand when he was trying to get Elizabeth out of the pod. "Yes, that did happen, and not just to me, but someone else, Doctor Elizabeth Brooks. He," Ryan motioned back to the large Praetorian, "had taken a liking to Elizabeth, in fact at one point he was doing a display for her, like a courting act of some sort.'

 _'None of us are familiar with this human called Elizabeth Brooks,'_ Shadow said, wondering who could have made such an impression on his Praetorian brother that he would carry out a courtship display for outsiders to see.

"Shadow and the others aren't familiar with this doctor Brooks," Shawn told Ryan.

"I'm not surprised, she and her team came on board shortly after their escape. She was to head up trying to stabilize the hosts and save their lives. There was always an odd chemical imbalance that they couldn't account for and it always killed the hosts within a month after giving birth. Elizabeth had made some progress and was working on some theories when..." Ryan stopped, a hurt and angry look flashed across his face for a moment, even the large Praetorian let out an angry hiss.

Shawn and the others remained silent on the matter, whatever had happened to this Elizabeth Brooks, it apparently brought up some bad feelings and memories for both Ryan and the large Praetorian. While he was curious about what had happened, pressing for any information would have been in rather poor taste.

"Fucking Mason tried to kill her after she went to the station commander and filed a complaint against him. He damn near caved her head in and gutted her, then threw her into one of the Xeno pods. Guess he figured that the Xeno wouldn't hesitate to kill her, must have fucked with his mind when she tried to help Elizabeth instead. I still have no idea how he found out she talked to Snyder. But everything went downhill after that," Ryan spat angrily, wiping a tear away. "He tried to break out of his pod to save her," Ryan nodded at the Praetorian, "and I almost beat Mason to death when I saw what he did to her. Gods I should have taken his head off when I had the chance, would have been so worth it." Ryan shook his head, it felt like endless months ago when all this happened, but in reality, it had only been a few weeks.

"They were going to dispose of him, just vent him into space and forget about everything that had happened. Clammed he was far too dangerous to keep around, so I rescued him and have been trying to figure out what to do next. Elizabeth wanted to free them, help get them someplace far away, we just couldn't figure out how to do it. Guess I took up her mantel on that," Ryan said, his body slumping as if the weight of the whole universe was upon him. He was so tired, his eyelids wanted to close, and even his body started to tingle some as if it was reminding him that he had not slept for a couple of days now. It was then that large slick black hands lightly gripped his shoulders and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

Shawn smiled, it was almost as if he was seeing a reflection of himself and Shadow as the large Praetorian was letting Ryan know that he was not alone or helpless. "He's with you on this; you know that right. No matter what happens, he will be by your side until the end."

Ryan looked up and nodded with a tired but hopeful smile, "Thank you." He said softly, earning a deep nod from the Praetorian. "So," Ryan said, "if I may ask again," trying to change the subject to something a bit more lighthearted, "how do you know about their natural communication abilities?"

Steel colored teeth mixed with hot drool, a vicious snarl, thin but hardened iron vice-like hands clamping down on his head ready to crush bone and brain, fury and hateful rage ripped into his mind. Memories of the female drone on top of him bearing her teeth ready to strike whipped right into Shawn's mind for a second. The large Praetorian's head shot up eyeing Shawn with keen interest at that memory. While Shadow shared his memories with him, it was interesting to see what their race looked like through a human's eyes. He had to admit looking into the gaping maw, lined with steel colored teeth and the inner jaw dripping with hot slime, ready to strike a death bite was a bit terrifying.

"Well," Shawn started, trying to get rid of the unpleasant memory, "we docked at one of the supply depots to take on supplies. It turns out that those supplies weren't the only thing that place had. There was a secure area that held a lot of old looking alien tech and artifacts; I'm guessing it's stuff that this organization either dug up somewhere or stole. But there were several Xenomorphs onboard in cryosleep that we freed and brought back with us. Let's just say that the female that woke up first wasn't as friendly as Shadow and the others when we first met. She tried to kill me when I was sleeping; I'm just glad that Shadow has lighting quick reflexes. Otherwise, I would have a nice fist-sized hold in my head right now."

"Did he kill her?"

"No, but he did throw her off our bed and pin her to the floor screaming at her. Anyway, after everyone calmed down, Shadow, Alese and Ghost tried to communicate with her. The first few hours were clumsy if not educational for everyone." Shawn told him, still trying to figure out how they were going to communicate with the Xenos that they had rescued from the supply depot. It would no doubt come down to a lot of trial and error.

"Wonder where those Xenos came from." Ryan mused, his mind working over the possibilities. There was an endless number of planets and systems out there; it would be impossible to find out on his own; no doubt, that info was safely secure with the higher-ups. "Well, they weren't birthed from these labs, at least as far as I know. Maybe another facility or somewhere far off perhaps, was there anything else there?" Ryan asked, curiosity getting the better of him, he had to admit it was nice to have a conversation with someone, even if that someone was a total stranger.

"Yeah, Lots," Shawn replied, reaching over to grab one of the bags, "remains of a long-dead queen, which was impressive, to say the least, if not a bit sad to see." Reaching in the bag, he pulled out one of the MREs and offered it to Ryan with a bottle of water. "Here, it's not much, but they are hot and don't taste too bad."

Eagerly, Ryan accepted the MRE, it had been a while since he ate a hot meal, and even an MRE sounded like a gourmet meal at this point. "You want to try one?" Shawn asked offering one to the large Praetorian.

 _'Your offer is appreciated, but it would take more than what you carry to satisfy my appetite, thankfully I am not hungry right now.'_ He said, not about to admit to Shawn that in recent fights with the station security forces that he had consumed more than a few bits and pieces of some of the humans he had killed. As cruel and ugly as it might have seemed to Ryan, had he known, and possibly even Shawn, that to him, or any of his kind it was nothing less than survival, plain and simple.

Shrugging, Shawn placed the MRE back into the bag. "They also had a ton of Xenomorph eggs stored there as well, or at one point they did, a lot of them were gone. There were only about thirty left, so we kind of took those as well." Shawn told him somewhat sheepishly almost as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar and was having to own up to it.

"Sonofabitch," Ryan snapped, "so that's where the eggs were coming from. None of us could figure out where Mason was getting the eggs at, or if something was producing them on the station itself."

"It looks like both the eggs and the Xenos that were in cryosleep were picked up off world. If I had to guess, it would be somewhere in the unknown regions. So whatever eggs they brought back is probably all they have." Shawn said, wondering if that had been the only storage area for the Xeno eggs, or if there were more stored in other areas. If that had been the only eggs they had gotten, at least for now, no one else would be in danger of becoming an unwilling host for Mason. That, however, did leave Shawn with a serious question, one that he hoped Ryan could answer.

"Just out of morbid curiosity, if you don't mind me asking, how did Mason modify the face-huggers?" Shawn asked, "I've seen videos from the Saratoga's database about what happens when someone gets impregnated by a face-hugger, and honestly I wish like hell I hadn't. Having something rip through your ribcage is a shit way to go. But from what I gather that didn't happen with the hosts here, did it?"

Opening the MRE, Ryan shook his head regretfully unable to answer that question. That was a bit of info he had always been on the lookout for, anything, a scrap of information, something that could explain that particular question. But nothing ever came from Mason's lips, and none of the support staff or head scientists knew either. It was something that only Mason himself understood, and he wasn't about to share it. "I have no idea, I was trying to discreetly find out anything I could, all I know is that he made it to where the face-hugger would instinctively insert its depositor tube into the host's vagina and deposit the embryo in the uterus area instead of going for the head and down the throat. He also managed to extend the gestation time as well, under normal conditions the gestation time for a Xenomorph is between twelve hours to two days before it…emerges." Ryan said somewhat grimly as he too had been privy to watching several videos of Xenos ripping their way from both humans and animals, it was something he wished he could forget as well. "Now it's two months, and instead of ripping its way out of someone's ribcage, the Xenos are birthed like, well, what we would consider normal."

"But the hosts still die anyway," Shawn stated dryly.

"Yeah," Ryan agreed somberly, "in the end, they still die. Either way, it's a shit deal it seems." Still feeling the slight pressure along his shoulders and back, Ryan noticed that the Praetorian looked to have settled down behind him, and was content to stay where he was at, and offer Ryan some physical comfort, no matter how small the gesture was, it was welcomed. "You never did answer how you got into this pod," Ryan stated, "you said you were able to get into the main hub and climb up the primary shaft, which is a pretty ballsy thing to do, but how did you get into this pod, it's on lockdown, and I doubt the guards just let you in."

With the memories of the frozen vent tunnel still way too fresh in his mind, Shawn let out a slight almost nervous chuckle. "Shadow found some access hatch that had a closed shutter that I cut the locks off, which it took us into a large, frozen vent that led us to a morgue."

"You were in one of the primary cooling shafts?" Ryan blurted out, louder than he intended to, surprised that Shawn had somehow survived being in that area. Only specially made maintenance robots and androids could operate in that environment for any prolonged time. "You're lucky you didn't freeze to death, some of those areas get well below two-hundred degrees," Ryan informed Shawn as he had heard that some of the experiments required a constant deep-frozen state, some even needing to be flash frozen. However, the information for those experiments was well above him and was considered far more deadly than the whole pen of Xenomorphs combined.

"Well, luck does seem to be a constant companion with our little group. Almost as if something is watching out for us, though sometimes that luck runs both good and bad." Shawn stated. It did seem like that for every bout of good luck there was an equally bout of bad luck that came.

Savoring the hot meal, Ryan found his thoughts scattered all over the place. If Shawn were indeed straight on what he had told him, that all the Xenomorphs could get free of this nightmare and find someplace far away to start over. He gave himself a few moments to hope and even dream, it was nice, if only for a moment. He did wonder though, was it even possible if he and that small warrior could have any sort of future together. They were both so vastly different, was it even possible to have a life together. Perhaps friendship, but beyond that, he wasn't sure.

An itch in the back of his brain kept gnawing at him, and he didn't know what to do about it. Elizabeth Brooks, even if they could all get off the station, that would mean that she might very well be left behind, and the big guy had already made it very clear that he was not going to leave without her. He was hoping that Shawn had a plan to get off the station, one that didn't include scaling down a two-kilometer metal column, and out an airlock for a spacewalk. "So," Ryan spoke up after a few minutes of silence, "what's your plan for all this?"

Shawn's look turned serious, a cloud of gloom almost materializing right over him, "You're not going to like it one bit, I can tell you that right now." He told Ryan flatly, as he activated his wrist-mounted computer.

While Shawn started filling in Ryan on what his plan was, the Praetorian turned his attention to his brothers and sister. He had questions and now needed answers. _'Brothers, sister, I ask you this, why did you not communicate with us to let us know that you had arrived back on the station. Why did you keep your return a secret to us?'_ He asked, keeping his communication private between the four of them.

Shadow was about to speak up when Ghost beat him to it. _'We did not want to alert those in the labs, Mason most of all, that something was happening. It was necessary to keep hidden and quiet, or as much as we could. If we had announced both our arrival and plans to our brothers and sisters to free them, it is unlikely they would have been able to restrain themselves and act normally and would have alerted those that run the lab, that something was going on. We felt it was better to keep them ignorant of our presence until we attacked the lab.'_ Ghost told him, coming over and hunkering down next to his brother. _'However, now, I doubt that our secret will continue for very long since we have been discovered.'_

The Praetorian sat silent for a while as he considered Ghost's words. _'I understand the reasoning for your decision, I do not fully agree with it, but I do understand it. It is very likely that our brothers and sisters in the lab heard Shadow's outburst as did I, and now know that something has happened, though they could assume it came from me.'_ Letting go of Ryan's shoulders, the Praetorian turned his attention to Ghost. He wasn't sure how Ghost would react to what he wanted to tell him, but he did wish for him to know regardless. _'I killed him for you my brother,'_ the Praetorian said, the words coming out naked but with a hint of satisfaction to them, ' _Steffen, the one that caused you so much pain, the one that raped, and violated you so many times. I killed him, ended his miserable life. It was not quick or painless; I made sure that he suffered greatly for his actions against you. I can show you if you so desire.'_

 _'No,'_ Ghost replied, after a few seconds of contemplation, as it was now a part of his life that he wanted to be left behind. _'While I am grateful you did this, I have no appetite to see what you did to him. I only wish for both his life and death to be forgotten about, just like this place.'_ Leaning in, Ghost rubbed his domed head under the Praetorian's chin and chest in an affectionate act of gratitude. _'I no longer view this place with fear, only disgust and disdain, let us burn it to nothing and leave it behind forever.'_

 _'Agreed my brother,'_ The Praetorian said, rubbing the underside of his chin across the drone's smooth dome. It was one of the few times that he ever had physical contact with one of his own, and nothing ever so intimate. The hive link and memories were welcoming, but it was a poor substitute for real tactile contact with another. And he craved it so much, always with his race but always separated, never allowed to be with the others that he called hive mates. Hands rubbed across his dorsal tubes and crest, Shadow and Alese now joining in to offer the Praetorian the much-needed physical attention he now craved. Even if it was only for a little while.

"Are you fucking crazy, you're out of your goddamn mind." Ryan's voice, angry but more in shock rang out in the small room, breaking the Xenos out of the mild trance they had been going into. "You want to destroy this station?"

"Ryan, listen…"

"No, fuck you, I'm not going to be part of slaughtering thousands of lives. Look, I hate what Mason is doing, and I hate what this station stands for, and if even a fraction of what I have heard is true about what goes on in the other pods." Ryan stopped, visibly shaken, trying to find the words. "Even if what I heard is true, there are a lot of people on this station that don't deserve to die, even if a hand full of them do, I won't condemn the lot of them to die here."

Shawn shot up from his prone position on the floor faster than he realized, not even realizing that he had done it until he was looking down at Ryan. "I'm not going to blow up the station, at least not like you think. I plan to put it into a controlled meltdown, or as much of one as I can manage. It should give most everyone on board two to three hours to evacuate the station. Believe me, Shadow and I had the same argument, I didn't want to be responsible for slaughtering a few thousand people then, and I don't want to be responsible now, especially for those that don't deserve it. I've been on the receiving end of that shit, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. If everything goes the way it's supposed to, the personnel will have enough time to get off station, with all the transports and freighters, I'm assuming there are enough ships. Right?"

Between the heavy corvettes, dropships, strike craft, transports, freighters, and evacuation ships, there were more than enough ships to ferry everyone over to the supply depots until pickup. If necessary, there were supplies for years if it came down to it. "Yeah, there are more than enough to get everyone to safety." Ryan nodded, "So, a meltdown, you can do that?"

"I think so, in theory anyway. The underlining tech is essentially the same no matter how much you dress it up. The reactor fuel rods need coolant, and if you cut the coolant off from the fuel rods, they overheat and go into meltdown. It's as simple as that, at least in theory. The plans I was going off of were pretty basic, so I don't' know what kind of backups and redundant systems are in place. So I guess I'll find out when I get to that part of the plan." Shawn said, now wishing that the station plans were been more detailed.

"So you're just winging it in other words?" Ryan asked, having reservations about going along with this plan, but if it meant getting off this station, plus if he had a chance to get Elizabeth off as well. Ah fuck it, he decided to himself, it was a far better chance then he had just a short time ago. "And what about the lab personnel, what's going to happen to them once you free the Xenomorphs, I shouldn't have to tell you it'll be a fucking blood bath when they all escape from the holding pods."

Shawn looked at the four black aliens, huddled close together, each of them focused in on him and what he was about to say. "It's not my call on that; it's theirs. I told them I wouldn't help, but I won't get in their way either, it's up to them on what happens to those in the lab. If they spare them, they spare them, if not, well, there's nothing to be done about it."

"Fucking hell, you've got to be kidding me, so you're just going to stand aside and do nothing?" Ryan stated, dumbfounded and even a bit disgusted that he was even thinking that it should just happen. True, a lot of them did deserve it, Mason most of all, but there were also some that had never harmed any of the Xenos, did they deserve to die as well?

"Look, I can't stop any of you from killing anyone," Ryan said, frustration rising in his voice, turning around to look at the four Xenomorphs. He was going to speak his mind on this. Unfortunately, that was all he really could do, but he would at least say it, far better than keeping quiet and saying nothing and being guilty of complacency. "But there are those in the lab that have not hurt any of your kind, are you going to kill them as well, just end their lives indiscriminately in a fit of anger and revenge. Elizabeth started to believe in your kind; she started to see that you were much more than what Mason and the others said you all were. That you were far more than mindless killers and living weapons to be unleashed on some enemy. And so did I, so I'm asking you all, please, don't make me regret this path that I chose to take, don't make me regret trusting you."

The large Praetorian leaned in, touching his forehead to Ryan's own. Rage, hate, anger, the need for vengeance, he understood them all too well, his whole race did, at times it was what fueled them. One of his own in a full blood-rage could easily slaughter countless enemies and never once feel shame, regret or even remorse at their actions. This needed to not be one of those times. Once the pods opened, the Xenos would flood out, a black and seething swarm ready to rip, tear and end the lives of those they considered their enemies. He needed them all to do better than revert to their once mindless, savage and animalistic nature. They had all been, eons ago, slaves for the creators, fodder to throw at countless enemies. That cycle was long gone, now they needed not to be slaves to their primal natures. More than anything, each one of them had to decide what course they would pave for their race. Would they show restraint and possibly wisdom, or would they let vengeance, hate, and anger fuel their needs?

For a moment, Ryan felt the conflict within the Praetorian's mind, but only for a moment, then it was gone. He swore he could almost feel a resolve forming within the Xeno, a calm that subtly flowed out and into him.

"He says he will do what he can," Shawn stopped for a second, correcting himself as Shadow hissed slightly. "Correction, they will do what they can to safeguard those that have not harmed their race, but that is all they can do."

"Thank you, my friend," Ryan said, reaching up, placing his hand on the Praetorian's jaw. "I don't expect miracles, but I am glad you all will do what you can." Lingering for another minute, it was an odd feeling of comfort, safety and even contentment that he sensed or rather felt flowing into him. Leaning back Ryan felt the sensation drift away as if it was nothing more than a fragile wisp of smoke that vanished into the ether and was no more. "We're safe here for the moment; we can rest here for a while if you need to." Unable to stifle a lengthy yawn, between the hot shower and hot meal he found his eyelids wanting to close on their own.

"You look exhausted when was the last time you slept?" Shawn asked, wondering just how long the tech had been awake.

Scratching his head, Ryan looked up at the ceiling and then over to the walls, "Two, no, two and a half days. I think." He said, not sounding entirely sure, his voice starting to slur slightly.

"Shit," Shawn whispered, if Ryan were this exhausted, there would be no way he could carry out the mission. The tech needed to get some sleep and rest, and so did he for that matter. He was feeling both the emotional and physical strain starting to take its toll on him from everything he had been forced to endure since coming onboard. A few hours of rest would do them all good, provided it went uninterrupted.

"Why don't you get some sleep, you're not going to be any good if you collapse from exhaustion or start making mistakes that might be fatal. Besides I'm sure, a couple of us can stand guard and keep an eye out for anything while you rest." Shawn told him, rubbing the back of his neck trying to work out some of the tension.

Ryan nodded in agreement, sleep sounded so good; so did a nice soft, comfortable mattress, thick blankets, clean sheets, and a dark and cool room, but unfortunately none of that was around. He found himself drifting off just thinking about it. "Yeah, probably a good idea, not like we've gotten that much rest the last few days, what with Snyder hounding us almost nonstop." He said, listing back slightly.

 _'You should rest as well,'_ Alese told Shawn, _'you are both physically and mentally drained from everything that has happened. Several hours of sleep will do you good; you cannot commit yourself to this while at best half strength.'_

"You're not going to give me a choice on this are you?" Shawn asked Alese, as he started to unfasten the bucklers to his utility vest.

 _'No, I am not.'_ She replied, making it clear that he had no choice on the matter. _'Either sleep or rest, regardless of which one you do, you will need to be clear-headed, and physically capable for whatever comes next.'_

Ryan's head jerked up, his eyes flashing open, "Huh, what choice?" He stammered, right then it dawned on him that Shawn was talking to one of the other Xenos. "Oh, yeah, right, you're talking to them again." He muttered, rubbing his eyes.

"Alese wants me to get some rest while we still can, so I guess I'll use that makeshift shower of yours to clean up some, and then grab a few hours of sleep," Shawn told Ryan, removing his gear and vest.

"Sound advice," Ryan replied sleepily, lying down on his side, using his arm as a pillow. Even on the hard, cold metal floor, he could feel his body starting to drift off already.

As Shawn began to remove his clothing, the large Praetorian slowly rose up and stepped over to him. At seeing this, Ryan propped himself up on his arm wanting to know what was going on. _'Human…Shawn,'_ The Praetorian said correcting himself quickly, ' _I wish to know something. You saw fit to give my brothers and sister names; I am curious if you were to name me, what would it be?'_

The question caught Shawn off guard. Of all the things to be asked, especially now, why was he curious about a name. Surely it wasn't a way to connect to those around him, the hive link was far more efficient at forming a personal connection, naming was a human aspect, not a Xenos, and yet the Praetorian was curious about it.

Right away, Shawn's mind went back to the attack on the barricade just a short while ago. The way the Praetorian had plowed through and wrecked everything and everyone, and then a sliver of inspiration hit him. "I suppose tank would be a fitting name," Shawn told him as he leaned up against the wall.

The Praetorian tilted his head slightly to the side, a telltale sign that Shawn had come to know all too well from Shadow and the others. One that meant he was curious about something and was thinking it over. _'A cylinder object that holds liquid?'_ He asked somewhat surprised, and even a bit dejected by what Shawn had chosen.

"No, not that," Shawn replied, closing his eyes, he sent out an image from videos he had seen of the colonial ground attack forces rushing into combat zones. One, in particular, was of a massive heavy treaded armored attack vehicle with a large cannon plowing through a building without taking any damage or ever slowing down. "This, it's called a tank, it's a heavy combat vehicle that can give as much damage as it takes, and it can give a lot. Kind of like what you did back in the hallway."

The Praetorian let out a hiss, one that Shawn recognized to be of approval. _'Then Tank it shall be.'_

 _'It is a fitting name, one that shall suit you well.'_ Shadow commented, quietly wondering why his brother had asked for a name. It would be something he would inquire about later on.

"So, should I even ask?" Ryan said, looking over at Shawn and the Praetorian, he had heard the conversation, or at least Shawn's side of it, and had no idea what to make of it.

"Well, he was curious about a name, so, say hello to Tank."

Ryan looked back and forth between the two, "Are you fucking kidding me?" The tech asked, laying his head back down on his arm, his eyelids so heavy now that they felt like lead weights he was fighting against. Under far more normal conditions, he would have found this fascinating, but right now, he couldn't muster the mental strength to care, maybe later he would. "Well, I guess like you said earlier, it'll make talking to them easier."

"Maybe you should get some rest as well; I get the impression that the two of you have been through a lot," Shawn told Tank, as he started to undress ready to try the improvised shower. A good long spray of hot water would do wonders right now as far as he was concerned.

 _'Agreed,'_ Tank said, walking back to where Ryan was at, _'a short period of uninterrupted rest is welcomed.'_ The Praetorian told Shawn, as he lay down, spooning up against Ryan, almost coiling himself around the tech in a protective black chitin cocoon.

Looking at the two, Shawn wondered if that was what it looked like when he and Shadow slept together. Undressing, he dumped his clothing in a pile on the floor and went over to the spot that Ryan had used a short time ago; he would finish filling the ammo drum after cleaning up. Turning the handle, a spray of hot water pelted his body. Instantly he started to relax, the subtle deep chill in his bones and muscles began to ebb, and the soreness eased up.

 _'I will join you,'_ Ghost said, slowly standing up and walking over to Shawn. Wrapping his arms around the human's waist and pulling him in close, enjoying both the heat of the water and the softness of Shawn's skin. Under normal conditions, or at least what they would have considered normal, he would have mounted Shawn on the spot, fully penetrating the human and mating with him for as long as it was possible. An act that he had no doubt was considered unnatural even perverse by human standards. Not that any of them cared anymore, not even Shawn.

 _Let the universe scoff and leer at us,_ Ghost thought silently _, let those who believe themselves our betters look down on us and mock us in disgust and revulsion. In the end, we will turn our backs on all those who call us monsters, who used us, who torment us, in the end, we will walk away, and forever forget about them. In the end, none of them will matter, only the hive._

"Only us," Shawn said quietly to Ghost as he had picked up a tendril of his thoughts, his hand rubbing along the Xenos jawline.

 _'Yes, only us,'_ Ghost agreed as his hands moving along Shawn's inner thighs, and the segmented tail coiling up around the human's leg. _'Only us,'_ he repeated drinking in Shawn's scent. Now was not the time, but by the queen mother he so desperately wanted to. He just wanted one more chance to feel himself slip inside his human hive mate, to make love to him again, to feel their minds link, and swim in ecstasy. To hold his human as he climaxed countless times over and over, to feel that intimate warmth and satisfaction, just one more time. For now, though, a hot shower would have to suffice.

Ryan watched the interaction between both Ghost and Shawn with a mix of disbelief and fascination as it was unlike anything he had ever seen. Only the interaction with the small warrior inside the mental construct even came close to what he now witnessed. Shawn's relaxed posture, the way he leaned into the bony biomechanical frame, there was no hint of fear or hesitation only complete and absolute trust. Even the way his hand almost moved on its own as he slowly rubbed the Xeno's neck and side of the dome, all without ever looking at what he was doing, an act that seemed to have happened many times before, an act that was far beyond mere friendship from what he saw. For a moment, Ryan silently scoffed, but only for a moment, surely that wasn't even possible, was it, and yet, right in front of him…

Even the way Shadow and Alese were looking at what was going on, their body posture was relaxed and at ease as if they too had seen this happen countless times before. Even Tank seemed to be enjoying what was transpiring before them.

"Guess those two are close," Ryan muttered to himself, closing his eyes, on the verge of embracing sleep's sweet hold. He was half-tempted to ask Shawn about this later on if he had both the chance and the nerve to do so, But for now, sleep.

The Praetorian hissed slightly in amusement at Ryan's comment. _If only you knew little one,_ he thought to himself slyly, fully aware of just how close the four were, as everything was revealed to him when Shadow had shared his memories.

xxxxx

In the dark, metallic bowels of pod three, a silent, lone figure unremarkable in appearance made his way through the winding maze of access tunnels and narrow maintenance shafts. A low powered light guided his way as he checked the area readout on a simple datapad. _Dark places, wet and warm, it spells safety for them,_ he told himself, recollecting the information he had read from handwritten notes generations past. He knew of only a few areas that fit that description that was close to the hatch opening that led from the cooling tunnel into the morgue. Thankfully, it was a small bit of information that Commander Snyder was not privy too. A slight advantage in his search, one that he knew would not last for long.

The assault team that had been on the lookout for Ryan Anderson and the Praetorian Xenomorph had been slaughtered only a few hours ago. He didn't know anyone in that party, and for that he was grateful. Adjusting the shoulder bag his hand reached under the collar of his shirt, his fingers gripped around a cool metallic object, a slight prick of pain on the end of his pinky finger gave way to a few small drops of crimson blood. A reminder of why he was here and now was on this path, a path that he had chosen years ago. Even if he was here, in these dark tunnels, alone, he did not fear that the specter of death would come for him in the form of slick ebony chitin armor and glistening metallic teeth. Nothing in his mind or heart screamed at him to run, only a peaceful calm that told him to press forward, that answers to his long search were now closer than they had ever been.

Closing his eyes, he tilted his head, doing what he could to block out the ambient noise from the motors, water pipes, and buzzing of electrical that coursed through conduits. He would never see them until it was too late, that much he knew, they blended into the dark so very well, at home in it, it was a part of them. However, that ever so slight deep raspiness of their breathing, if he could detect that, he might have a chance.

He listened for minutes and heard nothing. Nothing moved, nothing hissed or screamed at him, nothing jumped out or grabbed him from the dark places to rend and tear him into pieces or penetrate his head in a final bloody climax of gore and death. Looking back one last time, then forward, he raised his rifle and slowly proceeded onward.


End file.
